A New Standard For Measuring Pipe Wall Thickness Of Asbestos Cement Pipe Using Low Voltage Alternating Current Gradient (LVACG) Technology

Studies estimate more than 600,000 miles of asbestos cement pipe (ACP) are installed in the U.S. and Canada, with a typical design life of 50 years. While separate studies show U.S. break rates for cast iron (CI) pipe at 35 per 100 miles a year, ACP shows U.S. break rates of 10 per 100 miles a year. And, while CI pipe failures usually start small (i.e. with just a pinhole leak) and gradually grow to a full break, giving early warning before a catastrophic main break occurs, ACP often fails catastrophically when it first breaks, without prior warning. For years, desktop analysis was used to schedule ACP water main replacement programs, recently aided by artificial intelligence (AI) to select mains for repairs or rehabilitation. But, erratically located pipe failures have disrupted the ease of using office-based methodologies, in favor of more innovative pipeline condition-based surveys that can better extrapolate systemwide replacements.