July 2022 Vol. 77 No. 7
Business
Business News
John Deere, Wacker Neuson Enter Global Agreement on Select Excavators
John Deere announced an expanded relationship with Wacker Neuson, a leading manufacturer of compact and construction machines, for 0-9-metric-ton excavators, to include North America.
John Deere and Wacker Neuson will collaborate on the development of excavators less than 5-metric-tons, including battery electric excavators, to be manufactured by Wacker Neuson. Additionally, John Deere will have control of the design, manufacturing, and technology innovation, for 5-to-9-metric-ton models, leveraging a solid foundation from Wacker Neuson.
“Excavators are an integral part of our customers’ job sites, and we anticipate growing demand to continue,” said Domenic Ruccolo, senior vice president, sales, marketing, and product support, global construction equipment, John Deere. “As we look to the future of our excavator line-up, this agreement will allow us greater flexibility as we continue to deliver a robust product portfolio that prioritizes the operator experience.”
Distribution, parts, service, and support will continue through the John Deere world-class dealer network that customers rely on.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
John Deere, (844) 809-1508, johndeere.com
Utility Investigation School Offered in September, November
The Buried Asset Management Institute-International (BAMI-I) and ASCE’S Utility Engineering and Surveying Institute (UESI), are teaming up to conduct two sessions of the Utility Investigation School (UIS) in 2022.
The 13th edition of UIS is Sept. 19-23, in San Diego, and the 14th session is scheduled for Nov. 14-18, in Sacramento, Calif.
This course gives practitioners the knowledge and tools to provide competent utility investigations in accordance with accepted national standards (ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) 38) and to defend against claims. In addition to the classroom lectures, practical sessions will offer hands-on experience with the GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar), PCL, etc.
This five-day school is taught by the foremost experts in the geophysics and subsurface utility engineering field. It is designed for:
- Engineers, surveyors, and project managers providing deliverables that include results and depictions of utility investigations.
- Consulting engineers, employees of utility companies, state DOTs and local highway agencies, regulatory agencies, local governments, etc.
- Design engineers for infrastructure projects with significant utility congestion expected.
At the end of the course, students will receive 4 CEUs (Continuing Education Units) /40 PDHs (professional development hours) and a Certificate of Completion.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Tom Iseley, (404) 386-5667, diseley@purdue.edu
Doosan Infracore North America
doosanequipment.com
Doosan Infracore North America expanded its presence in the Canadian market with C&C Rentals’ addition of a new authorized Doosan dealership, serving customers in southwestern Manitoba.
Located in a prairie-heavy geographic area, C&C provides equipment sales and rentals to the agricultural and traditional construction markets – predominantly focused on using Doosan wheel loaders and crawler excavators.
Partnering with ACT Construction Equipment, Doosan added new locations in Raleigh and Asheville, N.C., providing machine sales, rental, parts and service for the full lineup of Doosan equipment: articulated dump trucks; crawler, wheel and mini excavators; log loaders; material handlers; and wheel loaders.
Further expansion came from Barry Equipment, a long-time Doosan dealer, adding a new location in South Windsor, Connecticut, serving customers throughout the state, Western Massachusetts and New York.
The new 5,000-square-foot facility is the third Barry Equipment-Doosan partnership in the Northeast. It sells Doosan articulated dump trucks, crawler excavators, wheel excavators and mini excavators; wheel loaders; log loaders; and material handlers. The full-service dealership also offers machine rentals and parts and expanded maintenance with in-the-field service vehicles – “anything and everything” customers could need, according to Joe Barry, operations manager.
Coffman Engineers
coffman.com
Multidiscipline engineering consulting firm Coffman Engineers, Inc., finalized a merger agreement with Los Angeles-based N.A. Cohen Group, Inc., an electrical engineering firm.
Coffman and N.A. Cohen have many of the same clients and an established working relationship since 2010. The two companies’ capabilities and portfolios also complement each other.
N.A. Cohen’s Jack Arslanian (group photo, second from left), P.E, president/principal, joined Coffman as principal advisor and Youssef Matta (second from right), P.E., executive vice president, became a principal of Coffman.
Another strategic decision was opening a Houston-area office, in The Woodlands, Texas, to support clients in the industrial, oil & gas, healthcare, federal/military, higher education, hospitality, and energy markets. As Coffman’s second Texas office, it further establishes the company’s physical presence in the state after a 20-year history of supporting clients remotely.
The office is managed by Eric Apolenis, P.E, vice president of the Southeast Region, and led locally by Mike Crowley, P.E., principal advisor.
Coffman Engineers offers deep and scalable multidiscipline engineering services, including civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, fire protection, and other specialties, from
19 offices across the U.S.
CASE/Equipment Share
casece.com
EquipmentShare, a fast-growing, nationwide equipment rental company, acquired the fleets and operations of six Trekker Tractor locations in Florida, and re-named them as CASE Power & Equipment of Florida.
Operating independently of EquipmentShare’s rental operations in the state, the new entity offers the full line of CASE products and services in Miami, West Palm Beach, Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa and Fort Myers.
The acquisition increases Equipment Share’s presence in strategically important markets in Florida, where the construction market is one of the fastest-growing and most-diverse in North America.
“The well-established brand and history that CASE brings to the table, paired with our innovative approach to solving contractor problems, make CASE Power & Equipment of Florida the source for construction equipment,” said Jabbok Schlacks, EquipmentShare CEO and co-founder. UC
PPI Awards Projects of the Year
Each year the membership reviews and votes on Project of the Year for each of the five PPI divisions: Building & Construction, Drainage, Energy Piping Systems, Municipal & Industrial, and Power & Communications. Notable examples are included below.
Drainage Division Project of the Year
A new warehouse facility in Greencastle, Pa., required an underground, watertight drainage system due to the karst geology and 83 impervious acres of the area. The solution, by Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS), was five large retention beds using more than 17 miles of ADS N-12 corrugated HDPE pipe – 24,500 feet (4.64 miles) of 60-inch-diameter pipe for the largest bed – as well as fittings, gaskets, Nyloplast drains/grates and FlexStorm inlet filters.
Energy Piping Systems Division Project of the Year
At the request of Frontier Natural Gas, Performance Pipe and Dow Chemical Company collaborated and expedited the commercialization of a solid yellow, bimodal PE4710 option, DriscoPlex 8400 Series Gas Distribution Pipe. The utility used more than 50,000 feet of the new pipe in its 100-psi gas distribution system.
Municipal & Industrial Division Project of the Year
Nearly 8 miles of HDPE PE4710 pipe restored potable water supply to three Texas rural communities – Carey, Northfield and Aspermont, southeast of Amarillo – after winter storm Uri froze and snapped the lines.
The emergency efforts of several companies, including PPI, made the solution possible.
Dow Chemical donated the resin to make the pipe. Pipeline Plastics, which has several manufacturing plants in western Texas, contributed the manufacturing end. Modern Dispersions provided the carbon black, a key ingredient added to the resin, and McElroy Manufacturing, whose fusion equipment was used, provided the training for the Carey/Northfield project.
Power & Communications Division Project of the Year
For a new data center, WL Plastics, provided 165,000 feet of four-inch diameter DR 11 orange solid wall HDPE conduit that was installed by pulling 24 individual strands at the same time in 400-foot segments using horizontally directional drilling (HDD).
The HDD installation was possible due to the flexibility of the conduit, and necessary because of the many environmental barriers and a very short installation timeframe. UC
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Plastics Pipe Institute, (469) 499-1044, plasticpipe.org
Caterpillar to Relocate Global Headquarters to Texas
Caterpillar Inc. will move its global headquarters from Deerfield, Ill., to the company’s existing office in Irving, Texas.
“We believe it’s in the best strategic interest of the company to make this move, which supports Caterpillar’s strategy for profitable growth as we help our customers build a better, more sustainable world,” said Chairman and CEO Jim Umpleby.
Caterpillar has had a presence in Texas since the 1960s across several areas of the company. Illinois remains the largest concentration of Caterpillar employees anywhere in the world.
The company will begin transitioning its headquarters to Irving in 2022.
With 2021 sales and revenues of $51 billion, Caterpillar Inc. is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. UC
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Caterpillar Inc., (309) 675-1000, cat.com
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