PCCP Condition Assessment—How Much Data Is Too Much Data?

Various types and levels of distress in prestressed concrete cylinder pipe (PCCP) may be detectable by different inspection technologies. When a pipeline is in a distressed condition, the accuracy of the data is important for evaluating its failure risk and prioritizing repairs. This accuracy can be enhanced by having the distress data from different inspection technologies that complement each other. This paper presents a case study on a low-pressure 8.5-mi pipeline where the inspection results from visual and sounding (V&S) and electromagnetic (EM) inspections (both remote field and near field technologies) correlated with each other. The data also complemented each other to provide clearer information and better resolution on the failure risk of pipes and risk ranking and repair prioritization of similarly distressed groups of pipes. The paper shows how the absence of any one of the data points could have resulted in missed information about the distressed pipes and may have led to different assessments of the failure risk and challenges in repair prioritization. The combined data can be utilized to identify pipes at the most advanced stages of distress by using the failure risk analysis and degradation ranking. The paper concludes that tangible data that can be correlated with each other is never too much and improves the pipe failure risk evaluation and repair prioritization.