Building a Manhole Asset Management Program from Scratch: A Step-by-Step Guide

Most municipalities know they have aging manholes. Most can tell you roughly how many they have and where the oldest ones are. Far fewer have a true asset management program — one that systematically tracks condition, predicts deterioration, integrates with capital planning, and generates the data trail needed for regulatory compliance and funding applications.

Building that program doesn’t require a six-figure software investment or a dedicated asset management staff. What it requires is a methodical approach and the right framework. Here’s how to build one from scratch.

Step 1: Build Your Inventory

You can’t manage what you can’t find. The foundation of any asset management program is a complete, accurate inventory of every manhole in your system. This sounds obvious, but many municipalities still rely on incomplete paper maps, mismatched GIS layers, or oral knowledge held by long-tenured crew members.

A complete inventory should include for each manhole:

• Unique asset ID
• GPS coordinates (ideally survey-grade)
• Installation year (or estimated era)
• Material type (precast concrete, brick, block)
• Diameter (or cross-section dimensions for non-circular)
• Depth from grade to invert
• Traffic loading (traffic vs. non-traffic installation)
• Upstream/downstream pipe connections (size, material, flow direction)
• Known environment (collection system, combined sewer, industrial service area)

For municipalities without existing GIS data, field inventory can be conducted alongside initial condition assessment. Many communities use contractors or interns with GPS equipment to build the initial inventory — a few weeks of field work can produce years of planning benefit.

Step 2: Conduct Baseline Condition Assessment

Once you have a complete inventory, you need a baseline condition grade for each asset. This is where MACP inspection comes in. As discussed in our MACP Field Guide, the five-grade scale gives you a standardized, defensible condition rating for every manhole.

A practical approach for large systems: start with desktop triage. Use your inventory data to identify the highest-risk manholes — oldest assets, combined sewer areas, industrial collection areas, areas with historical SSO issues. Inspect those first. Lower-risk assets can be inspected on a rolling basis or as part of normal maintenance activities.

Set a target inspection cycle appropriate to your system’s risk profile. For most municipal wastewater systems, a 5-year inspection cycle for all manholes (more frequent for high-risk or previously identified problem assets) is consistent with best practice guidelines from APWA and WEF.

Step 3: Establish Your Data Management System

Inspection data is only valuable if it’s systematically captured and retrievable. Options range from purpose-built collection system management software to well-designed spreadsheet systems:

Purpose-Built Software

For systems with more than a few hundred manholes, dedicated asset management software is worth the investment. Leading platforms include InfoAsset Manager (Innovyze/Autodesk), CityWorks, Cartegraph, and others. These systems offer GIS integration, inspection data import in MACP format, condition deterioration modeling, and capital planning tools.

Spreadsheet Systems

For smaller systems, a well-designed spreadsheet can manage MACP data effectively. Our Resources page has a free MACP tracking template that includes automated scoring, priority ranking, and simple capital projection tools.

Step 4: Develop Your Prioritization Model

With condition data in hand, you need a way to rank your rehabilitation priorities. A sound prioritization model goes beyond pure condition grade — it incorporates consequence of failure, which reflects the impact if a given manhole fails before it can be rehabilitated.

A simple prioritization score combines:

• Condition grade (1–5 scale, weighted heavily)
• Traffic exposure (under major traffic routes vs. non-traffic)
• Depth (deeper manholes create greater hazard and cost on failure)
• Downstream consequence (does this manhole discharge to a sensitive receiving water?)
• Age/material risk (brick, block, or pre-1970 precast get additional risk weighting)
• I/I contribution (manholes with quantified I/I contribution get elevated priority)

Plot your inventory on a simple 2×2 risk matrix: condition (vertical axis) vs. consequence of failure (horizontal axis). Manholes in the upper-right quadrant (poor condition + high consequence) are your top priorities. Manholes in the lower-left (good condition + low consequence) can be monitored and addressed last.

Step 5: Build Your Capital Plan

The rehabilitation priority queue from Step 4 feeds directly into your capital improvement plan (CIP). The key variables to project are:

• Annual rehabilitation target (how many manholes per year based on budget?)
• Unit cost assumptions by rehabilitation method
• Condition deterioration rate (how fast are Grade 2 manholes becoming Grade 3 without intervention?)
• Backlog reduction timeline (at your planned annual investment level, when does the system reach a steady state of acceptable condition?)

Present the capital plan in the context of the “do nothing” cost trajectory — model what the total liability grows to if investment is deferred, and what the system looks like in 10, 20, and 30 years under different investment scenarios. This framing is compelling for elected officials and finance committees who need to understand the cost of inaction, not just the cost of action.

Step 6: Document Everything for Regulatory Compliance

A well-documented asset management program is a powerful tool for regulatory compliance. Under EPA’s CMOM (Capacity, Management, Operations, and Maintenance) guidance, documented asset management programs demonstrate to regulators that a municipality is systematically managing its infrastructure — which matters enormously in the event of an SSO or a regulatory review.

If your system operates under a consent decree, your asset management program documentation may already be a required deliverable. Check your decree requirements carefully and use your program to generate the quarterly or annual reports your consent decree requires.

Start Now, Improve Over Time

The perfect is the enemy of the good in asset management. A simple, consistent system that captures basic inventory data, MACP inspection results, and rehabilitation history is enormously more valuable than a sophisticated system that’s never implemented because it felt too complex to start.

Start with what you have. If you have GPS coordinates and rough age data for most of your manholes, that’s a start. Add inspection data as you go. Refine your prioritization model as you learn more about your system. The key is to begin — and to be consistent.

Join the Manhole Recovery community forum to connect with public works professionals who’ve built programs like this in systems of every size. Our upcoming webinars include a session specifically on asset management program development for small and mid-size municipalities.