Section 5. Inspection and Repair: Introduction

All structures and pipelines deteriorate and experience damage during operation, even if they are properly designed for a given design life. Inspection activities are as a result needed to find and characterize these damages and deteriorations and repair activities may be needed if significant damage or deterioration are found to avoid unsafe conditions. Although the design of these structures and pipelines are intended to provide a safe operation life, experience has shown that inspection and repair is needed during the design life. The likelihood of damages and deteriorations often increases with age and inspection and repair, as a result, becomes even more important for such ageing infrastructure.