Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Every city and town in Ontario and Alberta, and across Canada and North America, supplies potable water to residences and business through thousands of kilometres of distribution and transmission pipelines. A large percentage (often over 50%) of these critical water distribution pipes have been in service for over 50 years with little to no maintenance, rehabilitation and/or renovation. Pipe aging and deterioration has resulted in a significant increase in poor quality water at the tap and increased annual water utilities costs to fix an exponentially increasing number of leaks and breaks. Digging up old pipelines to install new pipelines, typically under streets and highways, is extremely costly and disruptive to residents and businesses and results in large greenhouse gas emissions. An alternative to open-cut replacement is to use the old deteriorated Insitu pipe to build a new pipe within the pipe known now as Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP). This research will investigate new CIPP pipe lining design and the performance of several new lining products.