Frequently Asked Questions

Fracta helps water utilities and their engineering partners identify higher-risk mains and prioritize inspection, maintenance and replacement. We also convert legacy infrastructure drawings into GIS-ready data, helping teams use records that are not yet in their digital maps.

Likelihood of Failure (LOF) estimates a pipe’s probability of failure over a defined period. Cost of Failure (COF) estimates the financial impact, including repair and disruption, using specified cost assumptions. Total Risk combines the two to help compare priorities across the network.

No new sensors or inspections are required to run Fracta’s data-based risk assessment. It uses existing assets and breaks records alongside environmental and geographic data. The assessment can help target subsequent field investigations; it does not measure a pipe’s physical condition.

Start with your pipe-network GIS data, including unique pipe IDs, material, diameter and installation year, plus dated break or repair records. Breaks need a pipe ID or a usable location. Fracta reviews the files and identifies gaps before scoping the assessment.

Missing pipe attributes do not automatically rule out an assessment. Some values can be estimated or recovered from supporting records. We also need to review whether the available break history and asset locations are usable. Estimated attributes should not be treated as field-verified facts.

Yes. Our As-Built Digitization service converts scanned drawings and legacy maps into georeferenced features and structured attributes for GIS use. We review the source records and agree on the required layers, attributes and output format. Digitization represents what the records show; it is not a field survey.

For a risk assessment, your team can review pipe-level results on an interactive map, explore contributing factors and use reports and data exports. Available analyses and planning tools depend on the agreed scope. For digitization, the deliverable is GIS data in the agreed structure and format.

Yes. Assessment data can be exported in formats such as CSV, GeoJSON and Shapefile for use in existing GIS and analysis workflows. File export is different from a live integration; specific connections or automated data exchange should be confirmed during scoping.

Fracta evaluates predictive performance using historical break records held out of model training. Ask to review the validation approach and results relevant to your assessment. Outputs express probabilities, not guaranteed failure dates, and should be used alongside engineering judgment and field evidence.

Yes. Risk results help compare replacement priorities. Long-term projections can explore how different renewal rates affect expected breaks. These outputs support planning decisions; they are not construction designs, and projections depend on the data and assumptions used.

We start by understanding your goals and reviewing your available data or drawings. We then agree on the scope, prepare and check the data, carry out the analysis or digitization, and review the deliverables with your team. Your local knowledge helps resolve gaps and interpret the results.

Timing and pricing depend on the work requested and the condition and volume of the source data. For risk assessments, network size helps define scope; for digitization, the record set does. We review those inputs before confirming a quote and delivery schedule.

Your team can use the in-app user guide for operating instructions and contact Fracta for assistance. For risk assessments, new break records, asset changes and model updates can affect results. Confirm the support arrangements, platform access and reassessment schedule included in your agreement.

Fracta scores every pipe segment in your distribution network for how likely it is to fail and what that failure will cost, so your next capital dollar replaces the segment carrying the most risk. It uses machine learning on the records you already have. No new sensors, no field work.

Primarily potable water mains. Reclaimed water, transmission lines and others can be included by agreement.

No. The assessment uses your existing asset and break records alongside environmental and geographic data Fracta maintains. It can help target field investigations, but it does not measure a pipe’s physical condition.

Age, material and break history are three of the many variables that decide whether a pipe fails. On their own they send crews to the oldest pipe, not the weakest one, and they say nothing about what a break costs. Fracta weights 120+ variables learned from 560,000+ recorded breaks, instead of weights assigned by hand.

Topeka, KS (three engineers, $6.5M in annual waterline replacement) saw 54% of pipe failures fall in the highest-risk tier in year one and 65% in year two, with an average $18K direct savings per capital project and $80K to $100K in annual savings. Fracta serves 200+ utilities and has analyzed 200,000+ miles of pipe.

A machine learning score of each pipe segment’s probability of failure at 1, 2, 3 and 5 years, plus its percentile rank across your system and the five variables contributing most to that score.

• Pipe inventory from your GIS: material, diameter, install year, length
• Break and repair history on the segment and its neighbors
• Soil chemistry and corrosivity
• Frost depth, elevation and surface conditions
• Land use, population served and operating context

Both. It is trained on 560,000+ recorded breaks across 200,000+ miles of pipe, then calibrated against your own system’s failure record.

For each segment, the five factors contributing most toward a higher predicted LOF. The order is learned from data, not set by a fixed rule like “age always comes first,” so it differs pipe to pipe.

No. It means soil-related inputs contribute more to that pipe’s predicted LOF than age does, given the other inputs. A driver explains the prediction; it does not prove the physical cause or measure present condition. Drivers are relative influence, not percentages of failure probability.

Fracta evaluates predictive performance on historical break records held out of model training. At Topeka, 54% of failures landed in the top-risk tier in year one and 65% in year two. Outputs are probabilities, not guaranteed failure dates.

Yes. Accuracy improves as your break data accumulates. With a Fracta Monitor subscription, your network is re-scored annually as your data changes.

The dollar cost of a break on each segment, split into direct cost (repair and restoration) and indirect cost (the consequences of the break). It is location aware: a break under a quiet side street and one on an arterial outside a hospital are not the same event.

Direct costs come from AWWA handbooks, Water Research Foundation findings, public bid results from small, medium and large cities, and academic cost studies. Indirect defaults use public bid documents for traffic control, environmental fine records and WRF technical reports. Defaults are refined over time with anonymized values entered by other Fracta customers.

Yes, and we recommend it. Every input can be edited, and a custom COF field lets you add your own rule by diameter, material or install year range. Property damage and critical facility costs have no defaults, because public data is too thin, so your team supplies those.

Three methods, from simplest to most precise:

1. StandardCensus population density within a 50 m buffer of the pipe.
2. Valve modelUses your valve layer to find which adjacent pipes are isolated when a pipe fails.
3. Hydraulic modelYou upload results (customers out of service and below 20 psi per pipe) from your own hydraulic model as a CSV.

A geospatial buffer around each pipe counts hospitals, schools, fire and police stations, streams and water bodies from Fracta’s in-house database. Each counted feature adds its input cost. You can view these features in the COF map view.

Named sets of cost assumptions you create in the platform (Scenarios tab) and switch between, so you can compare, for example, a conservative and an aggressive cost view. COF and Total Risk update with the selected scenario.

Likelihood of Failure multiplied by Cost of Failure: the expected dollars at risk on each segment. It is one objective criticality score, comparable across the whole system and readable by anyone who approves a budget.

Because a likely break can be cheap and an unlikely one can be expensive. In this example, condition alone sends crews to Segment A first; Total Risk moves Segment B 35 places earlier.

Building a CIP ranked in dollars, sizing budgets by how much risk each funding level buys down, and supporting master plans, rate cases and grant applications with an auditable figure per segment.

Total Risk in dollars for every segment, a system-wide ranking, a map layer symbolized by Total Risk, an exportable ranked asset list for the CIP, COF scenario comparison, and Job Planner grouping for project bundling.

Long-term projections can explore how different renewal rates affect expected breaks. They support planning decisions; they are not construction designs.

Most utilities already have 90% of this in their GIS.

Take the six-question Data Readiness Check (about 15 minutes). Most utilities clear five of six from their GIS alone.

Yes. Blank values are workable; missing columns are not. Gaps in install year, material or diameter can be recovered from connecting pipes and supplementary layers. Estimated attributes should not be treated as field-verified facts.

Undated breaks are removed from the model. Breaks without a pipe ID are matched to the nearest pipe. Addresses are geocoded; incomplete or erroneous addresses may be dropped.

Shapefile, GeoPackage, File Geodatabase or GeoJSON; breaks can also come as Excel or CSV with locations. Imperial or metric, any projection or national grid, local-language field names. Tell us the units and CRS; no need to rename, translate or clean anything.

Export the layers, send them via the secure link your Fracta contact provides or your utility’s SFTP, and Fracta returns a written completeness summary flagging missing fields and anomalies before scoping.

Yes, through As-Built Digitization, which converts record drawings into GIS data first. See the As-Built Digitization questions below.

A web map of your network with Assets and Risk Analysis views: LOF, COF, Total Risk, length and population layers (depending on subscription), plus Population and Critical Infrastructure context layers. Filter by any property or a drawn area, click any pipe for details, and manage COF scenarios.

Yes. Filtered assets download from the details table, and results export as CSV, GeoJSON and Shapefile. File export is different from a live integration; automated connections should be confirmed during scoping.

Per mile of main, banded by system size: larger systems pay less per mile. Every quote is built from a verified mile count. The package is a one-time baseline assessment of the whole network with year one of platform access included.

From month 13, a Fracta Monitor subscription keeps platform access and re-scores your network annually as your data changes. A three-year term is recommended; one- and five-year terms are available.

Yes, cooperative purchasing vehicles are supported where a utility buys that way.

1. Readiness checkAbout 15 minutes.
2. Send your GIS export and break history
3. Data review and scopeFrom a verified mile count.
4. Model build and QCCalibrated to your failure record.
5. Live results walkthroughWith your engineers, then the ranked CIP export.

Timing is confirmed after we review your data. Historically, assessments have taken about four to eight weeks; data quality and follow-up requests can affect the schedule.

Data can be transferred through the secure link provided by your Fracta contact or your utility’s SFTP. Before transfer, confirm the hosting and access arrangements, retention and deletion terms, and any utility-specific security requirements with Fracta.

An in-app user manual, your Fracta representative and contact@fracta.ai.

It converts as-designed and as-built drawings (scanned record sets, mylars, vector PDFs and CAD files) into GIS data that is georeferenced to a coordinate system, connected at junctions and attributed to your schema. The service is patent pending.

Most utilities do, but the authoritative record of what is actually in the ground often still lives in drawings, not the GIS. Digitization closes that gap so your GIS reflects your records, not just what someone had time to draw in.

Water distribution, wastewater collection, stormwater, gas distribution and transmission, liquids pipelines, electric distribution, and telecom and fiber outside plant.

GIS managers and analysts, records and asset managers, distribution or collection system managers, engineering PMs at capital project closeout, city engineers and county surveyors, gas integrity leads, outside plant engineering teams, and GIS leads at engineering firms.

Dates reflect federal rules as published; confirm state-level variation with your regulator.

No. As-Built Digitization is sold and priced entirely on its own. It is also the natural first step if you later want Likelihood and Cost of Failure scoring, which requires the network in GIS.

• Scanned raster drawings (TIFF, PDF, JPEG)
• Vector PDF and GeoPDF
• CAD files (DWG, DGN)
• Mylar and paper sheet scans
• As-designed and as-built record sets
• Mixed-vintage sets, including unindexed archives

Mixed-vintage and unindexed archives are an accepted input.

Yes. Our workflow starts with digital files, so paper and mylar need to be scanned first. Contact Fracta before arranging scanning to confirm file requirements for your drawings.

We use file-based exchange through a sharing method agreed with your team, including your organization’s existing file-sharing service. Contact Fracta to arrange the transfer. No connection to your live GIS is required.

Drawings are enough for an initial review. If you have a preferred GIS schema, coordinate system, legends, reference layers or control points, share those too. We confirm the required inputs and output format when agreeing on scope.

1. Centerline vectorizationRaster and vector drawings become continuous centerline networks, connected at junctions and ready for GIS analysis, hydraulic modeling and asset management.
2. Automated georeferencingOCR and language models read street labels, grid ticks and sheet annotation. Affine and thin plate spline transforms align each sheet to State Plane or UTM.
3. Attribute extractionOn-sheet text and callouts are parsed into structured attributes (diameter, material, install year, status) and standardized to your existing schema.

There is one deliverable quality level: human-verified and GIS-ready.

Every delivery includes a QA report with residual error at control points, so positional accuracy is measured, not asserted.

No. Digitization represents what the records show. If the original drawing is wrong, the GIS will faithfully reflect that error. It is a strong basis for records research, not a substitute for field verification.

Timing depends on the volume and condition of the record set.

We review sample drawings and your GIS requirements, verify the sheet count and agree on scope. We then digitize, georeference and check the data, and deliver the agreed GIS layers, source references and QA report for your team’s review.

Yes. A small sample can be digitized at no charge so you can review the output before a larger engagement. Agree on the sample size and scope with Fracta first.

• Esri File Geodatabase
• Utility Network ready feature classes
• Esri asset package
• GeoJSON and Shapefile
• Attribute tables standardized to your schema
• QA report with residual error at control points
• Optional SVG overlay for visual review

Yes. Attributes are standardized to your existing data schema and delivered in the GIS format you specify.

We deliver Utility Network ready feature classes and an Esri asset package.

From one municipal storm drainage set (vector PDF), the delivered layers included:

Yes. Once your network is in GIS with material, diameter and install year attributes, it can be scored for Likelihood of Failure, Cost of Failure and Total Risk.

Per sheet, banded by volume: more sheets, lower cost per sheet. Every quote is built from a verified sheet count, never a number guessed on a call.

We verify the sheet count from the supplied files before quoting production. Any separate archive inventory or organization work, including its cost, should be agreed in advance.

Yes, cooperative purchasing vehicles are supported where a utility buys that way.

As-Built Digitization is a one-time service, with no required Fracta subscription for the delivered GIS files. Additional drawing batches are quoted separately.

The service uses file-based exchange and does not require access to your live GIS. Before sending sensitive records, confirm the transfer method, processing and access arrangements, and retention and deletion terms with Fracta for your project.

You retain rights to your source drawings and the GIS datasets derived from them.