Lifecycle vs. Installed Cost – THE DECISION IS YOURS
As a concerned and conscientious decision maker, you must sort through the abundant and often conflicting information to make a pipe material choice that will affect the lives and pocketbooks of the people in your community for the next 100 years or more. The following discussion reviews five essential factors that you should consider before making that all-important decision.
Article posted in NCPI official website:
https://www.ncpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/TN10-Lifecycle-vs.-Installed-Cost-v-2021.pdf
The elected official (council member, commissioner, etc.) is in an enviable position of having the opportunity and responsibility to make decisions that will affect the citizens of his/her community for many years to come. Selecting a particular sewer pipe material is one decision that warrants careful consideration.
As a concerned and conscientious decision maker, you must sort through the abundant and often conflicting information to make a pipe material choice that will affect the lives and pocketbooks of the people in your community for the next 100 years or more. The following discussion reviews five essential factors that you should consider before making that all-important decision.
LIFE CYCLE COST
As a decision maker for your community, you should be concerned with the life cycle cost of the sewer. Only Vitrified Clay Pipe has been given a 100 year service life by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. All others were given a shorter service life. The true cost of a sewer is the installed cost, plus the cost of maintenance, plus the future cost of replacement.
INSTALLED COST
One pipe material may cost more or less than another. However, many factors come into consideration besides the cost of the pipe. For example, the cost of testing and inspection is normally higher for flexible pipe than for rigid pipe because, in addition to leakage tests required for all pipe, the flexible pipe must also be tested for deflection (flattening). The total cost of the finished sewer may be higher for flexible pipe than for rigid pipe when both pipe are properly installed, inspected and tested according to ASTM standards. If the pipe are not properly installed, the future cost of repair or replacement far exceeds the cost of a properly installed pipe. You may hear many untrue statements, such as clay pipe is not available, out-dated, difficult to install or too expensive but the truth is, Vitrified Clay Pipe is selected in many cities that are concerned about the long term life of the sewer line. It is up to you, the decision maker, to protect the financial future of generations to come in your community.
EASE OF INSTALLATION
Many manufacturers claim their pipe are easier to install because it is lighter or longer. These are doubtful benefits that have little to do with performance. Often, these materials are not sufficiently strong within themselves and depend upon the installer to build a structure around them. A Vitrified Clay Pipe is strong and rigid and has considerable inherent strength. What’s more important, having a pipe that is easy to throw in the ground or a pipe that gives the longest useful life?
CHEMICAL RESISTANCE
Sanitary sewers are subject to constant attack by a variety of wastes from homes, businesses and industry. Vitrified Clay Pipe is chemically inert and is not vulnerable to damage from domestic sewage, acids, most industrial wastes and solvents.
HYDRAULIC SMOOTHNESS
The roughness of a pipe is one of the factors that controls the amount of fluid that will flow through it. In other words, if two pipe of equal diameter were laid on the same slope, the pipe with the smoothest surface would carry more fluid. The various pipe materials claim different degrees of roughness based on research done in laboratory conditions with clean water and pipe. Experience shows that a slime layer forms in all sanitary sewers regardless of pipe material. Thus, the smoothness of the surface becomes essentially the same for all pipe materials.
Regrettably, some communities saved some money up front and are now paying the price. Sanitation is essential to a modern society and we cannot do without it. We can drive over poor roads for a time, put weight restrictions on bridges to extend their lives and even buy drinking water at the supermarket. But we cannot do without our sanitary sewers. They are just too basic to do without. Why is it that there never is enough money to do the job right the first time, but there is always enough money to do the job over again?
It makes very good sense to use Vitrified Clay Pipe; a sewer pipe material that, in today’s jargon, has “been there, done that.” And, we might add, it has done that for a very long time and at a very low cost.
from NCPI official website at https://www.ncpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/TN10-Lifecycle-vs.-Installed-Cost-v-2021.pdf
