{"id":7781,"date":"2022-03-07T18:20:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T18:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isco-pipe.com\/blog\/hdpe-brings-lasting-solution-for-duluths-water-loss-challenges\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T19:25:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:25:36","slug":"hdpe-brings-lasting-solution-for-duluths-water-loss-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isco-pipe.com\/en-ca\/blog\/hdpe-brings-lasting-solution-for-duluths-water-loss-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"HDPE Brings Lasting Solution for Duluth\u2019s Water-Loss Challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Duluth, Minnesota had a major problem: more than 400 miles of ductile iron pipe water mains crisscrossing the city were failing, forcing the city to pay for costly repairs.<\/p>\n\n

In 2002, Duluth experienced nearly 200 water main breaks and just as many leaks. In 2021 alone, the city spent roughly $1.6 million repairing more than 103 water main breaks and 88 leaks, which was merely temporary patchwork, rather than a permanent solution. <\/p>\n\n

The Ductile Iron Pipe Research Association (DIPRA) research claims of a service life of more than 100 years is at best unreliable, as some of Duluth\u2019s failing pipe system was only 20 years old.<\/p>\n\n

The city could either continue costly and disruptive repairs that have immeasurable negative impact on the taxpayers, or find a sustainable solution.<\/p>\n\n

The choice was easy: transitioning to a 100 percent high-density polyethylene (HDPE) conveyance system.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cPeople always ask me, \u2018how do you fix HDPE if there\u2019s a failure?\u2019\u201d said Eric Shaffer, Duluth\u2019s chief engineer. \u201cMy answer is always the same: if the pipe is installed correctly, you won\u2019t experience failures. Duluth laid over 50 miles of HDPE \u2026we couldn\u2019t be happier with the results.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

As many municipalities are forced to replace piping through their regions, often due to bursts and breaks, why aren\u2019t more municipalities choosing HDPE over the two legacy pipe systems?<\/p>\n\n

To answer the question, check out our blog on “The Evolution of Potable Water Pipes”<\/a> for a look at the history of the three dominant municipal water pipe materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learn how Duluth, Minnesota transitioned to a 100% high-density polyethylene (HDPE) conveyance system to address the problem of failing ductile iron pipe water mains, resulting in significant cost savings and fewer disruptions for taxpayers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"application":[159],"topic":[172],"class_list":["post-7781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized-en-ca","application-municipal-en-ca","topic-hdpe-101-en-ca"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHDPE Brings Solution for Duluth\u2019s Water-Loss Challenges | ISCO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how Duluth, Minnesota transitioned to a 100% 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