Bonding Company Takes $800,000 Hit on HDPE Failure
In the spring of 2009, city employees of Tyndall, South Dakota noticed that a stretch of asphalt roadway was developing unusual cracks and settlement. They soon discovered that a significant portion of a 4,000-foot HDPE pipeline installation completed little over two years earlier had severely deflected – as much as 25 percent in some sections – from its original shape. The Tyndall HDPE failure, and resulting replacement with concrete pipe, cost the bonding company roughly $800,000, per the terms of its settlement with the City of Tyndall. But the repercussions have spread far beyond this small community of 1,100 in South Dakota.
