The volume of underground construction activities in the Central America and Caribbean region will significantly accelerate due to an acute need of modernization of local energy infrastructure. Also, the need for solutions to frequent regional blackouts and energy shortages is driving work.

Having originally joined the wastewater industry on the software development side more than 20 years ago, Wagner is now president and CEO of PipeLogix, a pipeline inspection software company based in Palm Desert, Calif.

The issue of pipeline safety, especially with regard to preventing damage to underground facilities during excavation, is a longstanding priority of the excavation construction industry. Although pipeline safety legislation has traditionally been bipartisan, battles over climate change and other peripheral issues have polarized the pipeline safety debate and obstructed efforts to move a bill through the legislative process and enacted into law.

In the forests of Northwest Wisconsin, Mosaic Technologies is laying nearly 400 miles of fiber to connect over 2,500 addresses, overcoming rugged terrain and tight deadlines to bring high-speed internet to remote communities.

Fort Wayne City Utilities is constructing a five-mile-long tunnel deep beneath the city to reduce combined sewer overflows into local rivers. Part of its Tunnel Works program, the project includes nine drop shafts, five of which feature IPEX’s Vortex Flow Inserts designed to minimize odors, prevent corrosion and improve wastewater quality before treatment.