Team Service Connector Completes Deep Dive Design Project

The project team working on an innovative solution to the challenges of municipal water service connections has completed its 100 day deep dive design project.  The team for the “End to End Service Connector Project” was assembled by Communities of Tomorrow (CT) after its extensive consultations with Saskatchewan municipalities about their most pressing infrastructure needs.

“Virtually every municipality we talked with identified the replacement of water service connections as a major ongoing issue,” said CT President John Lee. “We decided to take this on to see what new solutions might emerge.”

The project team consisted of public works and engineering staff members from seven Saskatchewan cities: North Battleford, Estevan, Regina, Melfort, Saskatoon, Humboldt, and Weyburn. They were joined by researchers and representatives from the National Research Council, University of Regina, SIAST, Saskatchewan Research Council, TRLabs, as well as business representatives and members of the Communities of Tomorrow team.

The entire project was coordinated and facilitated by Greg Fieger and his team from Conroy Ross Partners.

The group split themselves into two teams, one concentrating on the excavation and installation of water service lines, and the other focusing on the so-called “corporation stop”, the valve used to turn water service on and off at the city’s water main pipe.

Each group was led through creative thinking exercises by the facilitator, then designed their own agenda to attack their specific area. They met physically for three two-day sessions, and used conference calls and a specially created internet hub to maintain contact between those meetings.

Over a period of approximately three months, the work teams researched existing solutions, then created preliminary designs for innovative solutions in their area of emphasis. Finally the teams provided conceptual drawings and estimated budgets to build their recommended systems.

“The teams were working to find a way to reduce the cost, time, and disruption associated with replacing municipal water service connections,” says Lee. “Every city has to do a large number of these replacements every year, and any savings can add up very quickly.”

The project team proposed a new excavation cage, and pipe winching system, and a re-design of the standard corporation stop valve.

Now that the team’s reports are in, CT is taking responsibility for moving their work to the next stage.

“I believe many of the municipalities will have immediate results from the project, in terms of adopting best-practices and equipment that they learned about by participating in the sessions,” said Lee. “Next, we will be working on potential design and building of prototypes, in order to put the team’s ideas to work in the real world.”

Senior city officials attended the final working session of the group, and were impressed with what they saw.

“From a management point of view, anytime that there’s a possibility of saving dollars for the taxpayer, and there’s ways to accomplish that, we’re behind it one hundred percent,” said John Wade, City Manager for the City of Melfort.

“All the cities have the same problems, and we need solutions,” said Blaine Frank, Director of Engineering for the City of Weyburn. “I can think of many things I’d like to see them take on in the futre.”

Communities of Tomorrow will be keeping municipalities up to date on new developments in the service connector project, and is now examining what other municipal infrastructure priorities could be attacked using this project team approach.