Valve Maintenance and Assessment is an essential part of good Distribution System Management. As valves age they tend toward becoming inoperable, making specific area isolation for emergency repairs time consuming if not impossible. This can lead to excessive overtime and adverse public relations, and even the potential for excessive property damage.
Annual system-wide valve maintenance will add to the service life of valves and ensure valves can be located, accessed and operated as needed. Knowing valves are fully operable also allows the utility to better plan for and schedule system repairs/improvements. Our Valve Maintenance and Assessment program is designed to comply with AWWA standards and meet the requirements of oversight environmental agencies.
Mueller Service Company works to develop a comprehensive valve maintenance and assessment program that meets the individual needs of each Utility. The core program includes:
- Locating and accessing each valve.
- Raising the valve box to grade.
- Aligning the valve box to vertical position (if located outside of pavement).
- Cleaning debris and standing water from the valve box.
- Operating the valve through two complete cycles.
- Establishing actual physical location of the valve with sub- meter GPS coordinates.
- Painting the valve box lid with Utility directed color.
- Documenting all pertinent data including location, type and size of valve, direction of operation to open position, number of turns to complete a full cycle, degree of operating difficulty, and any noted deficiencies.
- Transferring all of this data from each valve location in “real time” to a central data base, allowing for “broken” or “closed” valves to be immediately reported to the Utility.
- GPS services, and asset data management.
- Additional services can include (but are not limited to): placement of valve I.D. tag, leak sounding at each valve location, establishing sub-foot GPS coordinates.
