Can it be proven that the majority of failures in buried public infrastructure are caused by either day-one defects or subsequent damage? Can we show that the majority of damages and repair costs are from these two causes which have nothing to do with aging infrastructure?
Unfortunately, the majority of defects have never been categorized using the system of three causes identified in TWI Report #1. The information is simply not being collected and organized this way. Also, very few failures are ever investigated or evaluated by someone who understands both buried infrastructure and material science. Research to support this claim has not been done.
In lieu of research, we can test these claims using the public infrastructure under a given ownership if the management of the infrastructure agrees to share the data. This report asks utility managers to: “take the infrastructure challenge”.