Selected Information - Live Research

The transfer of private sewers and lateral drains to water utilities in April 2011 will increase their sewerage assets by 70% to 100%. The cost of maintaining these largely unmapped assets, often located close to dwellings and within the property curtilage, will transfer from the owner and insurance company to the sewerage undertaker, leading to increased operational activity and expenditure.

Following a pipe failure many stakeholders may be involved, including the householder, insurance company, local authority and sewerage undertaker and consistent and clear management will be key in effecting fast, high quality repairs, whilst ensuring costs are kept to a minimum and fairly apportioned.

This project will provide a comprehensive update of the current Drain Repair Book; presently used by insurers as the good practice guide in 85% of all drainage claims. The revised edition will help raise standards whilst reducing drainage repair costs across the industry by standardising terminology and promoting best practice within pipe inspection, pipe condition assessment, and pipe repairs. A web based database of drain repair systems (manufacturers; suppliers; components; testing certificates) will also be developed to give participants easy access to a toolbox of key drain

repair information.

Benefits to Clients

Best practice guide will enable utilities to work with key stakeholders to:

• Promote best practice in drain inspection, assessment and repair.
• Reduce operational costs by establishing robust protocols.
• Solve joint responsibility of pipe repair on drains by establishing a national framework for working with the insurance industry.
• Implement an auditable procedure to ensure quality control for contractors.
• Use a website of approved independently verified repair systems with recorded parameters, material test results and installation methods linked to the SRM website.

Work Programme

1. Hold inception meeting to agree and finalise contents of small bore drainage manual and website.
2. Prepare and agree draft versions of manual and website.
3. Publish manual and website.
4. Hold dissemination seminars.

Project Output

• New Drain Repair Book to cover all aspects of small bore drainage.
• Website “Tool Box” of drain repair systems.
• Dissemination workshops.

Related Work

• The Drain Repair Book 2nd Edition, 2005.
• Sewers for Adoption 6th Edition, 2006.
• The Manual of Sewer Condition Classification 4th Edition, 2004.
• Sewerage Risk Management, CP309, 2008.