National Research Council Canada

A-7019.1 Final
Water Mains Break Data on Different Pipe
Materials for 1992 and 1993

NRC Disclaimer - Legal Notice

This report was prepared by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) as an account of
work sponsored by the Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association. Neither NRC, the staff of NRC, Uni-Bell
PVC Pipe Association, nor any person acting on behalf of them:
a) Makes any warranty or representation, express or implied, with respect to the accuracy,
completeness, or usefulness of the information contained in this report, or that the use
of any apparatus, method, or process disclosed in this report may not infringe privately
owned rights; or
b) Assumes any liability with respect to the use of, or for damages resulting from the use
of, any information, apparatus, method or process disclosed in this report.
References to trade names or specific commercial products, commodities or services in this
report does not represent or constitute an endorsement, recommendation or favoring by NRC
of such specific commercial products, commodities, or services.

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Executive Summary
This report presents data collected on water main breaks during 1992 and 1993 from 21
Canadian cities. The work was carried out under a project titled "Gathering of data on different
types of pipes used in water distribution systems".
The data were analyzed with regard to the type of pipe material and proportional
representation of the particular material in the total water distribution system in any one city.
Current data indicate that the most prevalent water main pipe material in place is cast iron,
representing 50% of the total water distribution network. The average break rate of cast iron
pipe is 35.9 breaks/100 km/year. Ductile iron pipe constitutes 24% of the network and has an
average break rate of 9.5 breaks/100 km/year. Asbestos-cement pipe constitutes 12% of the
networks with a corresponding average break rate of 5.8 breaks/100 km/year. PVC pipe
represents 10% of the inventory and has an average 0.7 breaks/100 km/year.
Other factors such as age of pipe in each water main break, soil bedding, backfill materials,
ground water conditions, climate or installation and operational factors can influence the
water main break rate, but these were not considered in the survey.

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Table of Contents
NRC DISCLAIMER - LEGAL NOTICE.................................................................................2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................7
PROBLEM STATEMENT .......................................................................................................7
DATA COLLECTION ..............................................................................................................7
Data Analysis and Discussion..........................................................................................8
Water main break rates .....................................................................................................8
Failure modes for water main breaks..............................................................................9
SUMMARY............................................................................................................................. 11
REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 12

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List of Tables
Table 1 - Inventory of water mains for 21 cities across Canada.................................... 13
Table 2 Forms for collection of water main break data ................................................ 14
Table 3 - Data on length of pipe and water main break rate per 100 km ..................... 14
Table 4 - Data on water main failure modes ..................................................................... 15

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List of Figures
Figure 1 - Water main breaks per 100km of pipe for various Canadian cities, 1992 . 16
Figure 2 - Water main breaks per 100km of pipe for various Canadian cities, 1993 . 16

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Introduction
In August 1993, the Infrastructure Laboratory of the Institute for Research in Construction
(IRC) at the National Research Council of Canada initiated collection of data on buried
infrastructure in Canadian and U.S. cities in order to identify specific problems. Only major
urban centers were targeted.
This study was first discussed with Mr. Veso Sobot, P.Eng., Market Development Committee
Chairman for Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association, during a visit to IRC in Ottawa. Mr. Sobot
expressed interest in obtaining more specific data on water main breaks for different material
types. In response to this request a proposal was submitted by IRC on March 21, 1995 and
was accepted by IPEX Inc. on behalf of Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association.

Problem Statement
The pipe materials most commonly used for water main construction in urban areas are
asbestos cement, cast iron, ductile iron, PVC and pressurized concrete. Since statistics on the
performance of these pipes were not readily available from the municipalities, it was
considered beneficial to carry out a survey to characterize problems such as breaks.

Data Collection
Out of 31 municipalities invited to participate, 21 responded with 1992 and 1993 data.
Table 1 shows the inventory of the various pipe materials for each of the 21 cities. Specially
prepared forms, as shown in Table 2, were provided to the 31 municipalities to facilitate
collection of the break data.
The cities that did not respond indicated the information requested was not available or too
difficult to obtain.
Data were collected for five pipe material types: cast iron, ductile iron, PVC, asbestos cement,
and pressurized concrete. The respondents were asked to report the number and type of water
main breaks for each type of pipe material. The data analysis does not differentiate between
variations in a given pipe material category.

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Data Analysis and Discussion

The water main break categories were identified as follows:

longitudinal split

circular or circumferential break

pitting or holes

joint malfunction or break

other

The age of the water main at the time of a break is difficult to establish and not all
municipalities have this information readily available. Cast iron pipe is no longer used for
replacement and its average age is estimated to exceed 50 years. Data on water mains
provided by Jakobs and Hewes (1987) show that the present weighted average age for cast
iron pipe in Calgary is about 41 years.
Winnipeg (Borlase 1993) began us ing ductile iron pipes in the mid-1960s and Calgary
(Jakobs and Hewes 1987) introduced it in 1963. Information from DIPRA (Bonds 1995)
indicates that ductile iron pipe for water main use was first manufactured in Canada in about
1961 though significant use of ductile iron pipes probably began between 1963 and 1968.
PVC pipe was also first manufactured in Canada in 1961 though significant use probably
began between 1970 and 1975 (Sobot 1995). Examples of Canadian cities that first used
PVC pipes are: Calgary (Jakobs and Hewes 1987) in 1970, Sherbrooke (LeBlanc 1995) in
1975, Edmonton (Seargeant 1995) in 1977, and Winnipeg (Borlase 1993) in 1980.

Water main break rates

Since the proportional representation of each pipe material is not the same in each
municipality, the water main break data must be presented in an unbiased manner. One way
to do this is to calculate the number of water main breaks for a particular pipe material per
100 km of water main. The results of these calculations for 1992 and 1993 are shown in
Table 3 and presented graphically in Figures 1 ( 1992 ) and 2 ( 1993 ).
Table 3 shows that for cast iron pipe in 1992 and 1993, the average break rates were 35.1
breaks/100 km/year and 36.7 breaks/100 km/year, respectively. This pipe material represents
50% of the existing water distribution network.

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Ductile iron pipe constitutes 24% of the water distribution network and the break rates for
this material in 1992 and 1993 were 9.3 breaks/100 km/year and 9.8 breaks /100 km/year,
respectively.
The break rates for asbestos cement pipes were 5.4 breaks/100 km/year and 6.1 breaks/100
km/year for 1992 and 1993, respectively. This pipe material is dominant in Burnaby (BC),
Edmonton (AB), Regina (SK), Moose Jaw (SK), Winnipeg (MN), and Sherbrooke (QC).
PVC pipe forms 10% of the existing inventory of the water distribution network. The water
main break rates for PVC pipes in 1992 and 1993 were 0.9 breaks/100 km/year and 0.5
breaks/100 km/year, respectively.
It is difficult to observe any particular relationships that are statistically significant, because
pressurized concrete water pipe forms a very small percentage of the water distribution
systems.
In 1992 and 1993, the total number of water main breaks was 3601 and 3773, respectively.
Assuming an estimated cost for repair/break of $2500, the average annual total cost of repairs
would be $9.2 million. The total number of breaks for 1992 and 1993 occurs in cities (the
21 cities in the survey) representing 11 % (3.14 million) of Canada's population.
Extrapolating on a population basis, the average annual total national cost for water main
repairs is $82 million. If an estimate were done on the basis of the total length of water
distribution pipe across Canada (which is not presently available), the cost of repairs will be
lower since an increase in the population does not necessarily mean a proportioned increase
in the length of the water distribution system. Furthermore, all cities do not have the same
average age, soil conditions and pipe materials.

Failure modes for water main breaks

Table 4 shows that for 1992 and 1993 the predominant (64%) failure mode in cast iron pipe
is circular or circumferential. Holes and pits represent 20% of the breaks, while the remaining
breaks are more or less equally distributed amongst longitudinal, joint or other (unclassified)
failure modes.
In contrast to the circular breaks for cast iron pipes, ductile iron pipe fails mainly as a result
of holes or pits. The data seem to suggest that ductile iron pipe develops pitting without
debilitating its axial tensile strength. It is important to note that a defect such as a pit can

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increase the stress at the defect by more than three times the nominal stress (Ugural and
Fenster 1985).
Circular break is the predominant (63%) failure mode for asbestos-cement pipe but a
significant percentage (13%) of failures are not classified. Asbestos-cement pipe is no longer
installed, but still forms a significant part of the water distribution network in some cities.
The number of breaks in PVC pipes is too small to arrive at any significant statistical trend.
The predominant failure modes recorded are longitudinal split and joint failure.
It is inappropriate to draw any conclusions regarding the pe rformance of pressurized concrete
pipe because it represents only 4% of the total water distribution survey and because the
length of pipe and the number of breaks are small.

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Summary
This report presents data collected on water main breaks during 1992 and 1993 from 21
Canadian cities. The work was carried out under a project titled "Gathering of data on different
types of pipes used in water distribution systems".
The data were analyzed with regard to the type of pipe material and proportional
representation of the particular material in the total water distribution system in any one city.
Current data indicate that the most prevalent water main pipe material in place is cast iron,
representing 50% of the total water distribution network. The average break rate of cast iron
pipe is 35.9 breaks/100 km/year. Ductile iron pipe constitutes 24% of the network and has an
average break rate of 9.5 breaks/100 km/year. Asbestos-cement pipe constitutes 12% of the
networks with a corresponding average break rate of 5.8 breaks/100 km/year. PVC pipe
represents 10% of the inventory and has an average 0.7 breaks/100 km/year.
Other factors such as age of pipe in each water main break, soil bedding, backfill materials,
ground water conditions, climate or installation and operational factors can influence the
water main break rate, but these were not considered in the survey.

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References
Bonds, R. 1995. DIPRA, private communications.
Borlase, W.J. 1993. Water main repair summary for October - December 1992. Internal
Report, City of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Jakobs, J.A. and Hewes, F.W. 1987. Underground corrosion of water pipes in Calgary,
Canada. Materials Performance, Vol. 26, No. 5, pp. 42-49.
LeBlanc, D. 1995. City of Sherbrooke, private communications.
Seargeant, D.J. 1995. City of Edmonton, private communications.
Sobot, V., 1995, IPEX, private communications.
Ugural, A.C. and Fenster, S.K. 1985. Advanced strength of materials and applied elasticity.
Elsevier, New York.

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Table 1 - Inventory of water mains for 21 cities across Canada

AsbestosCement
(length in k ilometers)

Pressurized
Concrete

Cast Iron

Ductile -Iron

PVC

Victoria

230.0

120.0

32.6

8.5

0.0

Vancouver

1057.1

318.6

0.0

1.45

5.8

Burnaby

229.3

150.7

6.6

248.9

0.0

Calgary

1120.0

1138.0

783.0

68.0

213.0

Edmonton

999.3

3.6

444.4

1060.5

120.6

Regina

15.2

15.2

147.9

535.0

0.0

Moose Jaw

155.4

2.6

25.9

72.5

0.0

Peterborough

218.3

93.9

22.7

4.1

18.3

Pembroke

51.5

24.8

10.1

0.0

5.5

Ottawa -Carleton

1062.6

1069.5

46.0

4.6

117.3

North York

828.0

414.0

82.8

13.8

13.8

Windsor

765.0

55.8

43.2

1.8

22.5

London

723.9

406.4

63.5

12.7

50.8

Sherbrooke

182.8

37.3

85.8

63.4

3.7

Fredericton

226.2

58.0

2.9

0.0

0.0

Halifax

290.0

104.0

0.5

1.5

49.0

Sydney

115.8

21.7

0.0

7.2

0.0

Summerside

45.0

11.3

18.8

0.0

0.0

St. John's

350.5

61.9

0.0

0.0

0.0

Corner Brook

84.0

50.4

1.4

1.4

2.8

Mount Pearl

20.0

80.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

Total Length

8769.9

4237.5

1818.0

2105.4

623.2

City/Region

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Table 2 Forms for collection of water main break data

Table 3 - Data on length of pipe and water main break rate per 100 km
Length of Pipe
km
8769.9

%
50

Ductile Iron

4237.5

24

9.3

9.8

Asbestos-Cement

2105.4

12

5.4

6.1

PVC

1818.0

10

0.9

0.5

Pressurized Concrete

623.2

0.5

0.8

Pipe
Material
Cast Iron

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# of breaks / 100 km
1992
1993
35.1
36.7

Table 4 - Data on water main failure modes

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Figure 1 - Water main breaks per 100km of pipe for various

Canadian cities, 1992

1. Average age of cast iron pipe is between 40 and 50 years

2. Oldest ductile iron pipe is 34 years old ( Bonds 1995 )
3. Oldest PVC pipe is 34 years ( Sobot 1995 )
4. Cast iron pipe has not been used since the late 1970's

Figure 2 - Water main breaks per 100km of pipe for various

Canadian cities, 1993

1. Average age of cast iron pipe is between 40 and 50 years

2. Oldest ductile iron pipe is 34 years old ( Bonds )
3. Oldest PVC pipe is 34 years ( Sobot 1995 )
4. Cast iron pipe has not been used since the late 1970's

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