Case Study—Major PCCP Failures in the West, Their Causes, and Why They Wouldn’t Happen Today
Publication: Pipelines 2022
ABSTRACT
In 1984, a month after the Reach 3 pipeline of Jordan Aqueduct was put into service, under the auspices of the Bureau of Reclamation, 66″ prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP) experienced a failure. In 1989, the 21-foot diameter concrete pressure pipe used for siphons on the Central Arizona Project began exhibiting evidence of corrosion, only 10 to 15 years after it was installed. Much has been written over the years on pipe failures due to materials and manufacturing processes used by the Interpace Corporation. Since then, the concrete pressure pipe industry has thoroughly revised the AWWA C301 Standard for the Manufacture of PCCP, with major revisions between 1984 and 1992 and the introduction of AWWA C304, the design standard for PCCP. The record shows that pipe manufactured today far outperforms the pipe manufactured in the 1970s and early 1980s. We would like to take this opportunity to discuss some well-known failures in the West, why they happened, and why PCCP made today would not suffer the same fate.
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REFERENCES
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Pipelines 2022
Pages: 102 - 111
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Published online: Jul 28, 2022
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