UCI engineers are working on robotic technology to rehabilitate the nation's aging water infrastructure.

The growing U.S. infrastructure crisis involves more than crumbling roads and bridges. Underground and out of sight looms a worsening problem every bit as critical.

Thousands of miles of aging water pipes are breaking down. Each day, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers — which periodically grades the country’s infrastructure — 6 billion gallons of clean, treated drinking water disappears, mostly due to old, leaky pipes and mains. That’s enough water to supply California for a year, according to Maria Feng, civil & environmental engineering professor at UC Irvine.

“This is a nationwide emergency,” she says. “Some pipelines are nearly 100 years old, and the problem is very serious, especially in urban areas, where it’s difficult to access leaking and burst pipes.”

A UCI engineering research team led by Feng is working with two companies to build a prototype robot that could repair and retrofit aging water pipes by applying a tough reinforcement material around their interiors - eliminating the need for costly excavation or replacement.

The public-private partnership also comprises Fibrwrap Construction Inc., a pioneer in the trenchless application of advanced composites for structural renovation, and Fyfe Company LLC, a global leader in the development of fiber-reinforced polymers for civil infrastructure rehabilitation.

“Currently, construction crews must dig trenches to find damaged pipe segments, which is a passive and expensive way of fixing the water system,” Feng says. “In cities, trenching can be impossible.”

It was announced in December that the $17.6 million robot project will receive $8.5 million over five years from the National Institute of Standards & Technology’s very competitive Technology Innovation Program, which supports high-risk, high-reward research addressing critical national needs, such as infrastructure monitoring and repair. Only 20 projects won TIP awards in 2009.