Title
Fire Hydrant Maintenance, Repair and Replacement Program
Description
This report requests input from the Transportation, Infrastructure and Planning Subcommittee regarding the Water Services Department's Fire Hydrant Maintenance, Repair and Replacement Program (FHP) to address the backlog of hydrant repair and replacement needs to restore functionality for Citywide fire service.
THIS ITEM IS FOR INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION.
Report
Summary
In 2015, the Water Services Department (Water Services) evaluated water distribution operations and it was apparent that the department was not testing and maintaining its fire hydrants in compliance with fire code, not exercising its valves according to industry best practices and experiencing service line leaks that lingered for months, angering customers and wasting water resources. To address these concerns, Water Services reorganized the distribution crews into separate sections: Leak and Break, and Hydrant and Valve. In addition, Water Services increased its use of supplemental contract crews to address lingering service line leaks. These organizational changes allowed City crews to focus on core functions, such as the repair of mainline leaks and breaks, fire hydrants and valves. As shown in Attachment A, productivity increased significantly.
Water Services now tests and maintains fire hydrants in compliance with the fire code and exercises its valves in line with industry best practices. Whereas, in the past, customers complained that service line leaks were not repaired for several months, customers now compliment the speed of repair as the average repair time has decreased by more than 85 percent, saving roughly one billion gallons of water per year. This reorganization has been extremely successful in terms of increased asset maintenance, public safety, operational resiliency, water conservation and customer service.
This year, Water Services reviewed the Fire Hydrant Maintenance, Repair and Replacement Program (FHP) to ensure regular and consistent execution of the preventive maintenance, inspections, testing, repairs and replacements of fire hydrants throughout the City’s water distribution system. The primary goal is to ensure that over 54,500 fire hydrants work properly and are available for firefighting purposes.
Water Services has been tracking the activities for the FHP in three categories: preventative maintenance (PM), repair, and replacement. As preventative maintenance is performed, City crews identify any deficiencies and note the necessity for repairs or replacements. As of September 2021, there were a total of 1,686 repairs and 1,019 replacements needed. Of these fire hydrants, 709 are out of service. Given the current staffing levels and associated vacancies, City crews would need 38 weeks to complete the repair backlog and 204 weeks to complete the replacement backlog. These timelines assume that City crews can complete 45 repairs and five replacements per week, in line with the current workflow.
Water Services' goal is to catch up on all the backlog work orders within one year, and then maintain the repair and replacement work orders on a month-to-month basis. This includes completing new work orders within 30 days of being generated. In addition, Water Services has a goal to perform preventative maintenance work on each fire hydrant annually.
Repair Backlog
Average Repair Costs (including materials and labor)
Per Hydrant Total (1,686 Hydrants)
City Crews $83-$640 $139,938-$1,079,040
JOC Contractor $1,500 $2,529,000
To eliminate the repair backlog, Water Services plans to use existing City crews to complete all repairs. This would take approximately 38 weeks with current vacancy levels. In the last year, 469 new repairs were identified. If approximately the same number of new repairs are identified throughout the next year, then the City crews could still complete the entire backlog and new repairs within the one-year time frame. Furthermore, overtime could be used on a week-by-week basis depending on the number of new repairs identified. The costs for City crews to perform this work ranges from $83 to $640 per repair depending on the type of repair (including materials and labor costs) while the use of a JOC Contractor would be approximately $1,500 per repair.
Replacement Backlog
Average Replacement Costs (including materials and labor)
Per Hydrant Total (1,019 Hydrants)
City Crews $5,027 $5,122,513
JOC Contractor $3,300 $3,362,700
Water Services' analysis indicates that use of a JOC Contractor will eliminate the replacement backlog significantly faster and at lower cost than City crews. This one-time work is not required to be completed using a contractor under Title 34, but is advantageous to address scheduling concerns. This work would take the City crews approximately 204 weeks to complete the current backlog repairs. In comparison, the goal for the JOC to complete the current backlog would be one year, or approximately three years sooner. The average cost for a JOC to complete a replacement is $3,300 per fire hydrant. Thus, the total cost to use a JOC to replace the backlog of 1,019 hydrants is approximately $3.4 million. The average cost for City crews to perform this work is $5,027 per hydrant for a total of approximately $5.1 million to eliminate the replacement backlog. Water Services has discussed this overall approach with the bargaining unit for the water distribution field crews, AFSCME Local 2384.
Financial Impact
Use of City crews to eliminate the 1,686 Fire Hydrant repair backlog will cost between an estimated $140,000 and $1 million versus $2.5 million for the use of a JOC Contractor, for a savings of $1.5 million.
Use of a JOC Contractor to eliminate the 1,019 Fire Hydrant replacement backlog within one year, and will cost an estimated $3.4 million versus $5.1 million for the use of City crews, for a savings of $1.7 million.
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Assistant City Manager Lori Bays, Deputy City Manager Karen Peters, and the Water Services and Fire departments.