Statistical Analysis and Insight from the Water Research Foundation PCCP Failure Database 1942−2022

This paper summarizes a statistical analysis of a database collected by the Water Research Foundation (WRF) of prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP) failures in North America from 1942 to 2022. This database, with almost 50,000 data points collected, is part of two separate research efforts for Projects #4034 and #5069 and is sourced from utilities in the United States and Canada. These WRF projects examine PCCP failures for trends which were co-sponsored and funded by the USEPA and Great Lakes Water Authority. Failures are grouped into one of the three categories, each with descriptive factors, including age, location, size, pipe type, installation date, etc. Via simple yet comprehensive analytics, failures can be graphed as a function of their descriptive factors and subsequent inferences can be made such as: are there locations of PCCP at higher risk than others, which installation dates/periods have the most failures, does size matter, etc.