One City. One Problem.
Episode 04 | Utility asset management
Repairing the leak is urgent. Deciding what comes next is strategic.
Repairs keep restoring service, but not confidence. What evidence helps a utility decide where to investigate, rehabilitate, or replace next?
The situation
One district has experienced repeated main breaks, emergency repairs, service disruptions, pavement damage, and growing public frustration. The utility has work-order history, pipe attributes, pressure information, field observations, and a finite capital budget.
But age alone does not explain failure — and replacing the wrong segment carries its own cost.
The decision
Should the utility monitor, investigate, rehabilitate, or replace — and what evidence makes that recommendation defensible?
Three expert contributions
What can the utility learn by connecting work orders, pipe characteristics, location, environment, and consequence?
Show how to improve and combine imperfect records, distinguish symptoms from patterns, and identify the questions that the data cannot answer alone.
What targeted field or operational evidence would most improve the decision?
Show how inspection, monitoring, pressure analysis, leak intelligence, soil or site context, and field verification can test likely failure drivers.
How should the utility compare intervention options and prioritize this main against other needs?
Show how likelihood, consequence, lifecycle cost, coordination opportunities, equity, and service impact inform a transparent recommendation.
What the roundtable will test
Roundtable prompt
Another break occurs tomorrow. What immediate response, 90-day investigation, and capital decision should happen in sequence?
You will leave with
Three-step takeaway
Audience takeaway asset
Repair-or-Replace Decision Card
Evidence, consequence, options, coordination opportunities, and recommendation.
The 75-minute format
The moderator introduces the city, the stakes, the constraints, and the decision.
Each expert answers one assigned question and shows one useful visual or example.
The speakers connect the pieces, surface tradeoffs, and agree on sequence.
Attendees bring the problem into their own operating context.
The moderator closes with three practical next steps.
Speaker brief for this episode