The Affect of Open Competition on Project Cost
We’ve written before on the benefits for taxpayers when cities embrace open competition for materials used in water infrastructure projects. Still, far too many municipalities continue to throw away millions of dollars in taxpayer money by denying other proven material options a seat at the decision table. As America’s water infrastructure continues to age and fail, cities and counties can’t afford to continue the status quo. Instead, they should allow open competition between entrenched legacy materials such as iron pipe -- and durable, affordable PVC pipe.
Why? Because allowing for competition between materials can save localities enormous sums of taxpayer money. According to the United States Conference of Mayors, open competition can save local governments 30% in capital costs for pipe; and that translates to roughly $100,000 per mile. Nationally, allowing PVC pipe to compete with incumbent materials could save taxpayers an estimated $42.9 billion over the next 10 years. Allowing for open competition can bring costs down even if an incumbent material is ultimately selected. Even Congress is considering open competition as a means of saving taxpayer money.
“As mayor, it is my responsibility to explore options that will get our rate payers the best bang for the buck,” said Paula Zelenko, the Mayor of Burton, Michigan. “[T]he open procurement process, allowing the bidding of different pipe materials, not only forced suppliers to sharpen their pencils, it ended up saving the city of Burton over $2 million by using PVC pipe instead of ductile iron (DI) pipe on our five-phase $25 million watermain replacement project. Even if we would have chosen to use DI pipe, the open procurement process forced the cost reduction of the DI materials that would have saved about $200,000 in the project.”
Despite these facts, an estimated 78% of municipalities don’t allow open competition. If fair competition between materials can save local governments so much money, why don’t more of them do so? Because the ductile iron pipe industry knows it can’t compete with PVC pipe -- and it has spread misinformation about open competition and about alternative materials like PVC to deny taxpayers an opportunity to get more bang for their buck.
The fact is that PVC pipe is both cost effective and more durable than iron pipe. A comprehensive study of water main breaks in the US and Canada by Utah State University found that PVC pipe had the lowest break rate of any piping material including ductile iron. We see, and catalog, hundreds of iron water main breaks every year (which is to say nothing of the iron water main breaks in which the pipe material goes unmentioned).
In fact, we recently published a case study of Topeka, Kansas’ water main breaks that backs up what we see every day, and what Utah State University found in their study: that PVC is more durable than ductile iron pipe. Here are some of the highlights:
Water Main Breaks IN Topeka, Kansas
Topeka’s water system is comprised of 39% cast iron pipe, 27% ductile iron pipe, and 25% PVC pipe. Despite the fact that PVC pipe makes up 25% of the system, a mere 4.5% of water main breaks occurred in PVC pipes.
All iron pipes have a failure rate that is more than 18x the failure rate of PVC.
The ductile iron pipe industry (and their lobbyists) will tell you their material is an improvement over cast iron. Yet ductile iron pipe still fails at more than 4x the rate of PVC pipe. What’s more, many of the breaks in ductile iron water mains have occurred long before the pipes reached their expected lifespan.
Percentage of Pipe Materials Used
Percentage of Pipe Breaks by Material
Pipe Breaks: Iron V. PVC (%)
Pipe Breaks: Ductile Iron v. PVC (%)
The facts are simple: PVC pipe is more affordable and more durable than alternatives. Responsible local officials should push for open competition to save taxpayer money and make sure their cities use the right pipe material to fit their needs.