Precast Solutions - March/April 2008 - (Page 18)

TECHNICAL COST-VALUE ANALYSIS OF STORM SEWER PIPE A LEGACY OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE STORM SEWERS DEPENDS UPON RESPONSIBLE ENGINEERING. BY AL HOGAN, P.E. PHOTOS COURTESY ACPA oversimplify future needs of a storm sewer system and result in even greater challenges that affect the health and safety of the end users and the community. Competition is good for business and consumers. American concrete pipe producers harbor a genuine desire to be competitive and ask only that specifiers take the time to fully research and understand the products that will be used by the public. Specifiers must consider all costs of a project throughout its design life, develop technically correct designs, and produce contract documents that contain correct and clear specifications and details. All pipe products have specific applications, design, installation and inspection requirements, and all have different risks associated with them. Understanding the characteristics of various pipe materials and products will build industry and the public’s confidence in pipe selection criteria and, in many circumstances, lead to better storm sewer specifications. Early decisions about storm pipe materials can be based upon the severity of the environment of the sewer or level of importance of a pipe product and/or material to solve a problem. Critical applications that deserve careful attention are: • portions of the pipeline that are subject to high traffic volumes; • portions of the pipeline with large dead and/or live loads; • areas where pipe failure could cause flooding to adjacent property or roads; • critical portions of the storm sewer that regulate or pipe. America’s professional engineering organizations are striving to raise awareness of the extent of the poor condition of the nation’s infrastructure, and this includes buried pipelines. According to the American Society of Civil Engineer’s “Report Card of America’s Infrastructure,” the most recent score for wastewater is a D-, which is a decline from the previous score of D+ in 1998. Because of the declining state of our infrastructure and recent catastrophic failures like the I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis, professional organizations are stressing the need for sustainable designs that utilize long-lasting infrastructure products. Professionals understand the vital importance of their expected duties to use their knowledge and abilities to always, and without fail, place the health, safety and welfare of the public at the forefront of all design and construction decisions. While the duty of care remains an imperative, economic constraints placed on projects and the need to be competitive in the marketplace often present themselves as compelling forces. These forces are causing many professionals and agency specifiers to consider ways to reduce design and project costs as low as possible. To keep project costs low, some specifiers and consultants are allowing more alternative products in the stormwater piping portion of their projects. Although this perceived cost-cutting measure may be appropriate in some situations, many decisions to be competitive solely on capital cost could T here is never a better time than the present to consider how you, your firm, municipality or agency selects and specifies storm sewer 18 PRECAST SOLUTIONS | MARCH/APRIL 2008

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Precast Solutions - March/April 2008 Contents Smooth Move Riding the Waves Comparing RCP With Plastic Pipe Cost-Value Analysis of Storm Sewer Pipe Concrete Testing On a Grand Scale Building Confidence

Precast Solutions - March/April 2008

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