The sprint aims to develop a value proposition to increase the commercial viability of mains spray lining in the current market and provide a model which influences delivery rates and unit costs to incentivise contractors to enter this market.
This four day sprint taking place at Newcastle Racecourse would be of interest for those involved in Water Networks, Asset Teams / IDS, Supply chain / contractors, Regulators e.g. Ofwat, Water Quality.
The distribution network is aging, and companies are struggling to finance the rate of replacement required to keep pipes healthy. This is impacting on burst and leakage rates, and water quality. Structural relining is an alternative to mains replacement and allows the asset life of viable pipes to be extended by 30+years at much lower unit costs. With the expected pressure on base cost allowances in the current Price Review, the need for cost efficiency has never been more apparent.
The industry Expert In-Situ Lining Group (EILG) has been working for the last few years on a revised Water Industry Specification for water mains relining which is now finalised. Alongside this, an accreditation scheme for contractors to prepare and apply the spray lining is also available. Pilot trials in the Yorkshire Water area are providing some really positive results.
A barrier to entry for this technique in recent years is the common interruptions to supply performance commitment as the timeframe for the spray lining methodology has minimal headroom against the >3 hours measure to get customers back into supply. Ofwat has so far refused to see this type of planned work as an exception to the measure. There are also commercial constraints based on the meterage being released by the industry which is limiting market entry.
The opportunity to improve this situation lies in the feasibility, investigate, and define stages on any relining work rather than the spray lining application itself. Giving contractors access to infrastructure early will allow them to innovate in the preparation stages around ground conditions, pipe materials and pipe depth to help improve the overall relining process and help deliver much increased volumes of work.