Underground pipelines are an essential part of the transportation infrastructure. The structural deterioration of pipelines crossing railways and their subsequent failures can entail critical consequences for society and industry, resulting in direct and indirect costs for all the stakeholders involved. Therefore, continuous and accurate condition assessment is critical for the effective management and maintenance of pipeline networks within the transportation infrastructure. The aim of this study has been to identify failure modes and consequences related to pipelines crossing railway corridors. Expert opinions have been collected through interviews and two sets of questionnaires have been distributed to the 291 municipalities in Sweden, with 137 responses in total. The failure analysis has revealed that pipe deformation has the highest impact, followed by pipe rupture at locations where pipelines cross railway infrastructure. For underground pipelines under railway infrastructure, ageing and the external load were awarded a higher ranking than other potential causes of pipeline failure.

Authors gratefully acknowledge the funding provided by Sweden’sinnovation agency, Vinnova, through the strategic innovation programmeInfraSweden2030. The funding was granted in a competitiveapplication process that assessed replies to an open call for proposalsconcerning “Condition Assessment and Maintenance of TransportInfrastructure (Grant No. 2016-033113)”.

Authors gratefully acknowledge the technical support and collaboration(In-kind support) of Arrsleff R€orteknik at Sweden, Luleå RailwayResearch Center (JVTC), Stormwater&Sewers and the SwedishTransport Administration (Trafikverket). In addition, the authors arethankful to the anonymous referees for their constructive commentsand Dr Matthias Asplund and Dr Masoud Naseri for their support andsuggestions.