Following a collaboration through an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Voucher, the DCU Water Institute and TOBIN Consulting Engineering are delighted to announce the success of the Scoping Stage of the project. The project commenced in January 2019 with an initial aim to scope factors that contribute to early asbestos cement water mains failure in Irish conditions. It is hoped that this will lead to the development of a risk-based assessment tool for predicting early failure of asbestos cement water mains. The scoping stage involved a literature review on international research papers, followed by the gathering of various relevant Irish data sets such as water and soil chemistry, carried out by Dr Ivan Maguire of the Water Institute. Brian Gallagher from TOBIN Consulting Engineers managed the research and provided background data and experience to guide the project. Brian was quoted as saying “This project has enormous potential to develop a tool which can be used to highlight hot spots for the failure of asbestos cement water mains in Ireland and to predict their early failure, and it is hoped to advance the study through the Feasibility Stage “.
