Vallei en Veluwe is one of the 21 water boards in the Netherlands, working on ensuring safe dikes, purified wastewater, and clean and sufficient water in canals for 1.1 million people across 28 municipalities in Utrecht and Gelderland, which are provinces in the Netherlands.
To gain insights into the condition of several decades-old asbestos cement force mains, enabling prioritized maintenance, informed decision-making, and overall improvement of pipeline management.
The Acquarius inspection tool of Acquaint is used to map the condition of the existing force main in a single run.
Vallei en Veluwe is one of the 21 water boards in the Netherlands, responsible for ensuring safe dikes, purified wastewater, and clean and sufficient water in canals for 1.1 million people spread across 28 municipalities in Utrecht and Gelderland. They manage several vulnerable pipelines without current visibility into their actual quality, some of which have been in place for up to 60 years. Budget has been allocated to inspect these pipelines to determine which sections need replacement, which ones don’t, and why. This is essential for prioritizing investments, making informed decisions, and enhancing their water pipeline management.
For Vallei and Veluwe, effective management of wastewater pressure pipelines is crucial to ensure a reliable disposal of wastewater to the wastewater treatment plant (RWZI) in the regions. Maarten Groenen, Strategist Pipeline Management at Vallei and Veluwe, has been at the forefront of their quest for optimal water pipeline management solutions since around mid-2022. Groenen’s predecessors had already conducted several inspections with Acquaint, and their experience was positive. Groenen states, “Our collaboration with Acquaint has always been satisfactory. Although we explored other options, we found that the competition was not as advanced. Acquaint has always been our preferred choice because the technology is already sufficiently developed”.
Vallei en Veluwe manages several vulnerable pipelines for which there is no visibility on the quality. “Sometimes they have been in place for 60 years”, says Groenen. “We are therefore on the verge of potentially facing a significant number of replacements, but we want to substantiate this”, Groenen continues. “If you were to replace everything based solely on age, you would have to replace the entire pipeline at once, resulting in either large projects or costly years. With the results of the inspections, we can selectively carry out partial replacements of the worst sections. This allows for a more even distribution of costs over the years, keeping water board levies lower, and the projects remain relatively small. For us, it is very useful to inspect the sections of the pipeline we would like to replace, in order to prioritize them. Additionally, it is possible to inspect them because a budget has been allocated for this.”
Firstly, the decision was made to inspect the pipeline located on Zegheweg in Woudenberg. The municipality eventually plans to build homes along the first 175 meters of that pipeline, making it crucial to inspect this pipeline. Maarten Groenen explains, “Naturally, you want to avoid having to replace the pipeline once the homes are already in place”.
The inspection was conducted using Acquaint’s inline inspection tool: the Acquarius. This Pipeline Inspection Gauge (PIG) provides accurate XYZ mapping and detects various failure mechanisms such as wall thickness degradation (corrosion, leaching, and H2S attack), depending on the pipe material. It also checks all connections for angular rotation and the size of the joint gap. Additionally, it measures the ovality and axial deformation of the pipeline, thread fractures in prestressed concrete pipes, and leaks in a wide range of pipe materials and diameters starting from DN200.
The Acquarius tool is unique for its ability to adapt to significant constrictions of up to 40% and can effortlessly navigate 90-degree bends. Specifically, this inspection was carried out on a decades-old asbestos-cement pipeline with a diameter of DN600 and a length of 950 meters.
Although almost the entire project went very smoothly, according to Groenen, the inspection team encountered one challenge in the very last part of the execution. Just before entering the wastewater treatment plant (RWZI), the Acquarius had to pass through a flow meter with a constriction of a whopping 50% (from DN600 to DN300), which was also right after a 90-degree bend. The dummy PIG run, an inspection run that Acquaint always performs first to check if a foam pig can pass through a pipeline without getting stuck, was successful. However, when the PIG, including the measuring instrument, was sent through the pipeline, the tool seemed to pass through this constriction very slowly.
Groenen explains, “Together with my colleagues, Acquaint did everything possible to guide the PIG through carefully, as it should be. Seeing how Acquaint handled this situation gained my trust, and I know that an inspection project in collaboration with them will go well. That means a lot to me. Acquaint was able to quickly adapt and more than met my expectations in terms of preparation, execution, and follow-up”.
In addition to being very positive about the execution of the inspection, Groenen is also pleased with the results it has yielded: “Due in part to Vallei en Veluwe having once merged as two water boards, we realize that we still do not have a complete overview of our pipelines, but we are well on our way to getting a clear understanding of our assets. Through a pipeline inspection, you not only learn about the degradation or quality of your pipe networks but also a lot about their physical characteristics. So, where are they located, where are the connections, what is the depth, etc. Much of this information has been lost over the years, even though it is crucial for making the right decisions”.
According to Groenen, conducting a pipeline inspection, using the Acquarius tool in this case, has two significant advantages:
After the inspection, Vallei en Veluwe concluded that they will replace a section of the pipeline. Groenen explains, “Based on the inspection, we expect the pipeline to last another 15 years, but we plan to replace the first 175 meters due to the construction of the residential area. Knowing the state of that pipeline helps us a lot in preparing for this replacement project.”
Vallei en Veluwe plan to continue collaborating with Acquaint in the future. Groenen states, “We decided to inspect four pipelines this year, and we’ve completed one with two more in preparation. However, we are dropping the fourth for this year because it requires too much of our time. We are currently conducting these inspection projects alongside our regular work, but I hope to have an inspection project team in the future. Such a team can continuously focus on inspections throughout the year and become much more adept at conducting inspections and everything that comes with them. Then, we can inspect even more pipelines.”
