Replacing aging infrastructure isn’t always complicated, but it requires investigation. You need to know where the existing infrastructure is and how you can connect it with the new project. Institutional knowledge helps with the investigation. Knowing the city processes, systems, details, standards, folklore, cultural values and general information that makes up your community is important. But, sometimes that knowledge can be hard to find. Over time, blueprints and maps disappear, and paperwork can get thrown away. People retire or move on to other opportunities. With smaller communities, it can be even tougher.

Institutional knowledge may only lie with one or two individuals, and even then, only in their head.

When embarking on a road rehabilitation project in the City of Cheyenne, Wyoming, SEH civil engineer Scott Jardine encountered that very challenge. The City had very little background information on the infrastructure beneath the roadway. The original goal of the 19th Street Rebatilitation project was to improve Cheyenne’s drainage conveyance and reduce flooding impacts. Solutions included replacement and new storm sewer lines, but also offered an opportunity to upgrade outdated water and sewer mains along roadway replacement along 16 blocks of a well-traveled corridor. What they didn’t know was the condition or make up of Cheyenne’s buried infrastructure. With investigation, the team learned the existing pipes were old enough to not have reliable plans. The project team conducted a new field survey to determine the type and location of the infrastructure, thus creating a blueprint to guide thier work.