In Japan, where the aging of various urban infrastructures has become an issue, more than 3,000 cases of road cave-ins caused by sewerage pipelines have occurred every year since 2004. As the number of aging pipeline facilities that have exceeded their standard service life of 50 years increases, the question of how to shift from after-the-fact measures to preventive maintenance has become a pressing social issue. It can be said that the scale of the problem that needs to be solved is enormous.

The total length of sewerage pipes in Japan as of the end of FY2019 was about 480,000 km, or 12 times the circumference of the earth if we consider that the circumference of the earth is almost 40,000 km. Of this total, the length of sewerage pipes that have exceeded the standard service life of 50 years is around 22,000 km (about 5% of the total length), and this is set to rapidly increase to around 76,000 km (about 16%) in 10 years, and around 170,000 km (about 35%) in 20 years. In addition, there are approximately 1,600 rainwater pumping stations in Japan, with approximately 1,200 facilities (about 75% of the total) having passed the standard service life of 20 years.^*3 In other words, in order to maintain the water supply and sewerage infrastructure extending throughout Japan, it is necessary to implement systematic maintenance, management, and reconstruction projects. However, to do so, we must overcome the ongoing challenges of how to reduce costs and required time.

In response to such issues, Kubota has been contributing to the reduction of life cycle costs for inspection and maintenance, from delivery to removal, by improving various efficient repair and inspection technologies for pipes and pumps. For example, in the case of pipelines, we have developed the EX method^*4 and the Danby method,^*5 which allow aging buried pipelines to be repaired without the need to excavate roads, in consideration of nearby residents during construction. We have also developed site wagons^*6 to streamline and shorten water pipe repair work. The wagon is not only capable of conducting connection work done manually until now, but also performs inspections and records installation information, along with other tasks. In addition, we introduced endoscopes for the inspection of pumps, thereby initiating efforts to achieve proper maintenance without waste. Information observed by endoscopes and various data are accumulated and analyzed to prevent problems and diagnose the remaining life of equipment. We have improved the quality of tendency management technology that enables the preventive maintenance of equipment.

In 2019, Kubota won the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Award at the Infrastructure Maintenance Awards for its survey technology that enables confirmation of the inner surface of sewerage pressure pipelines using camera imaging without the need for excavation work. Kubota will continue to promote the smart renewal of Japan’s pipelines not only through efficient and cost-saving construction methods and technologies, but also through visualization and prediction using ICT and other technologies, making these technologies the standard for pipeline renewal work worldwide.