Award Date

December 2017

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction

First Committee Member

Pramen P. Shrestha

Second Committee Member

Jin Ouk Choi

Third Committee Member

Neil Opfer

Fourth Committee Member

Ashok Singh

Number of Pages

87

Abstract

Cement concrete manholes are generally used in sewer networks in the United States. However, these concrete manholes are highly vulnerable to chemical corrosion and require frequent maintenance and replacement. Polymer concrete manholes as a substitute to the cement concrete manholes in water and wastewater pipelines have proved to have longer service life and more resistance to various chemical corrosions than normal concrete manholes. Despite the benefits that polymer concrete manholes offer, the higher initial installation cost has been a barrier to its wide application in public works. This study has been conducted to compare the cost of cement concrete manholes and polymer concrete manholes installed in the city of Las Vegas to determine the cost-effective alternative based on incurred cost throughout service life. The cost information on installation and rehabilitation of manholes were collected from the Clark County Water Reclamation District, the public entity responsible for construction and maintenance of sewer networks in the city of Las Vegas. The scope of this study was limited to the comparison between installation cost and rehabilitation cost of cement concrete manholes, comparison of installation costs between cement concrete and polymer concrete manholes, and comparison of installation and rehabilitation costs between cement concrete and polymer concrete manholes of different diameters. The results showed that the rehabilitation cost was significantly lower than the installation cost of 48-inch diameter cement concrete manholes. However, in case of 60-inch and 72-inch cement concrete manholes, the rehabilitation cost and installation cost were not significantly different. The installation cost of polymer concrete manholes was found significantly higher than that of cement concrete manholes. However, the installation and rehabilitation cost of polymer concrete manholes with a service life of 50 years and cement concrete manholes with a service life of 23 years were not significantly different. Hence, the cost comparisons indicated that the use of polymer concrete manholes is cost-effective in the long term compared to the traditional concrete manholes. The study suggests the use of polymer concrete manholes in sewer network despite the higher initial installation cost.

Keywords

Installation cost; Life-cycle cost; Maintenance cost; Manholes; Polymer concrete; Rehabilitation and replacement duration

Disciplines

Civil Engineering

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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