Industry Insights

Moggach: When you think about what “sustainable” means, a key consideration is that it’s important to install pipe that will last a very, very long time. PVC water pipe can last 100 years or more. Because they’re made of inert materials, they are far less prone to corrosion, which can lead to breaks or water contamination.

Product quality matters. If you want PVC pipe that really lasts, make sure you know what you’re buying. Look for products with readily available published information: life cycle assessments and environmental product declarations that conform with internationally recognized standards. Check which products reduce toxicity and greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacturing process. These evaluations should be third-party certified and peer-reviewed by experts.

Fisher: If I worked for a utility, I’d want a product that is easy to maintain. Researchers at Utah State University published some excellent research on water main break rates. They found that PVC pipe had the lowest overall break rate, which reduces the overall cost of ownership. As part of this research, they dug up old PVC water pipes, tested them, and they tested out like new products.

Moggach: Achieving the full design life starts with writing good design specifications and following best practices when installing PVC pipe. When problems do occur, the most common root cause is improper installation practices—especially improper bedding and over-insertion of the joint.

When installing PVC pipe, there should be a layer of soil underneath the length of the pipe. Wherever a pipe rests on large rocks or a bedrock outcrop, that creates a point load. PVC pipe is not designed to handle that stress in a pressurized water application.

Fisher: Proper training of utility staff is really important to avoid installation issues. A foreman who moved up the ladder at a utility might have a lot of experience with PVC pipe installation, but knowledge may not have been passed down to the newer workers. This guide can support training new staff. It covers all the basics, and it’s easy to refer back to as needed.

Also, manufacturers have a lot of great tips for installing PVC pipe. It’s a good idea to reach out to them to confirm the latest best practices before installation begins.

Moggach: The biggest benefit is that there’s less disruption of the surface area. You’re not shutting off access to roads or sidewalks to dig the entire length of the installation. That tends to minimize inconvenience to people who live or work in, or are passing through, the area of the installation project. It can also help control the time and cost of the project. Plus, you don’t have to pay to truck away and replace lots of dirt, asphalt, and concrete.

Fisher: The pipe-bursting method of replacing existing pipe makes use of the existing right-of-way. That can save considerable time and effort for project permitting, with far less risk of accidental damage to adjacent gas, electric, or telecom lines.

Directional drilling can help avoid obstacles that are not possible to dig through, like a river or large trees. Communities want to protect their environmental features, and pipe installation practices can support this goal.

Toffin: Developing a complete, accurate, and current dataset about pipelines helps utilities control costs, increase operational efficiency, reduce truck rolls, and minimize impacts to their reputation.

Digging up pipelines — especially large, critical pipelines — is complex, challenging, and costly work. That’s true for planned digs, but it’s even more true when a utility needs to fix a break that’s already interrupted service and possibly caused adjacent damage. Digs are disruptive to customers and the public, including pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

That makes it crucial to dig in the right location the first time, with the right resources on hand, and to complete the work quickly and smoothly. Good data about the current condition of underground pipelines supports all of these best outcomes.

In our experience, 4% of pipes show signs of damage, and even fewer require repair or replacement. You can save a lot by targeting those bad pipes. When you find and address specific pipes with damage, you can restore the useful life of your entire pipeline to near new.

Toffin: Most utilities know the criticality and failure history of their pipelines, but they know less about the actual condition of their underground infrastructure. Corrosion, surge events, and other factors can take an invisible toll on buried water and wastewater pipes. Not all leaks create detectable signs at the surface.

When age and historical failures are the main factors determining when a pipeline gets repaired or replaced, utilities run a big risk of tearing out pipes that still have a lot of useful life left.

Manufacturing methods and materials have changed a lot over the decades. A cast iron pipe installed in the early 20th century might have a useful life of 100 years or more, because the pipe walls were very thick. The useful life of a ductile iron pipe installed in the 1960s might be half that; the industry transitioned to thinner walls after iron was in short supply during World War II.

Unfortunately, this means that many utilities are facing a pending tsunami of pipelines reaching the end of their design life. They can’t just play whack-a-mole by addressing failures as they happen, and they can’t replace everything. They need a strategy for how and when they update aging infrastructure. Getting good pipeline data is an essential step in that strategy.

Toffin: Good data helps utilities make sure their pipeline and valve records match the reality in the field.

Knowing where to dig isn’t always easy. Often, the precise locations of underground pipelines do not completely match plans or GIS data. Where are those pipes, bends, and valves, exactly? A pipe that originally was off to the side of a small road 80 years ago might be under the middle of a bigger, busier thoroughfare today.

Valves are another important concern. Typically, utilities know where valves are located — but are those valves functioning? When a valve is inoperable, it’s common to replace it, rather than repair it.

The Essential Knowledge Series guide tells how the City of Grand Rapids saved money by repairing, rather than replacing, its large valves. Nearly every utility in the world faces this choice, and hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of dollars are at stake.

Toffin: Good pipeline data supports better budgeting. Utilities not only realize more value from every dollar spent on repairing and replacing pipelines — they also can more accurately estimate how much they’ll need to spend, and when.

Planned repairs are always easier and less expensive than after-hours emergency calls. There’s less pressure and time crunch to get the work done.

Of course, more efficient use of resources yields savings. When underground infrastructure unexpectedly fails, a utility may not have the right equipment and materials to fix the problem in their yard. Good pipeline data means fewer emergencies and better preparation.

Pipeline condition data informs financial planning, too. Analyzing trends lets you plan work in the coming years. You can build targeted projects into future capital plans, get funding approved easily, schedule shutdowns, and coordinate with stakeholders and communities.

Toffin: It’s helpful to develop a good baseline understanding of pipeline condition. Even in relatively young pipelines, we’ve seen hotspots of activity — for example, places with hot soils, where the pipe lining or coating is damaged, and corrosion is increasing.

A pipeline condition assessment program identifies red flags early, so you can keep a close eye on them over time. Once managers know where these hotspots are, that helps steer future inspection and maintenance work.

Starting a condition assessment program may seem daunting, but it becomes easier once you start. The experience your team gains with this process reduces the time and effort needed for the regular reinspection cycle. Plus, inspection and monitoring tools are getting better all the time, and it keeps getting easier to get them into, out of, and through buried pipelines.

It’s never too late to start building valuable institutional knowledge. The savings and value only grows over time.