Magazine
Newsline
New Jersey Announces $1 Billion Water Infrastructure Plan New Jersey unveiled initial plans for $1 billion in federal funds for new drinking and wastewater infrastructure over the next five years. The new cash infusion is “exciting,” and amounts to a “once-in-a-generation” investment, said Depar..
Editor's Log: A Little Faith
By Robert Carpenter, Editor-in-chief As is typical of me these days, there never seems to be enough hours in the day. Always one more thing to do, one more mountain to climb. So, it should come as no surprise that I’m actually writing this column in Fort Worth as our staff gears up for the Undergro..
Business News
Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas Welcomes New President Stan Park was appointed as president of Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas, Inc. A 27-year veteran of the company, he previously held various field and executive-level leadership roles, most recently as vice president of marketing..
New Products
New RigFitter Simplifies Selection of Tooling for HDD A new digital HDD tooling configurator from Vermeer offers HDD operators, owners and dealers a powerful and easy way to select HDD tooling and build a drill string for a pilot bore or pullback. ..
Innovative Solutions Address Challenges with Lower Berkeley WWTP Bypass
By Dwight Evans, Sunbelt Rentals To ensure their success, bypass projects require stakeholders to devise detailed solutions, while also planning for the unexpected. Making improvements to the aging infrastructure at the Lower Berkeley Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) was no exception. ..
Sewer Line Root Intrusion: Prevention and Removal
By Sean Comerford, Oatey Co. Root intrusion is one of the most damaging problems to discover in a sewer system. Roots thrive in sewer lines because they are well-ventilated and provide an excellent water source. While that’s great for plants and trees, it can have a devastating impact on a sewer sy..
CIGMAT Report
The University of Houston’s Center for Innovative Grouting Materials and Technology (CIGMAT) is an integrated, inter-disciplinary, university-industry consortium dedicated to research that fosters understanding of grout, and competing and complementary, materials and technologies used in constructin..
Florida Waters, Tennessee Dams Led 2021 MVP Kurz to Unlikely Career
By Jeff Awalt, Executive Editor There are some people who seem to know exactly where their future and their career will take them from the earliest age. And that certainly seemed to be the case with George Kurz, who was named 2021 Most Valuable Professional of the sewer/water industry by the Underg..
PLCA Pushes Through Challenges
By Jeff Griffin, Senior Editor As members of the Pipe Line Contractors Association (PLCA) prepare for their annual convention, they continue to be affected by the Covid epidemic and face major challenges on many fronts, said PLCA President Dwayne Osadchuk. ..
DCA Returns to Convention Form in Recovery Year
By Jeff Awalt, Executive Editor In years past, the Distribution Contractors Association’s (DCA) annual conventions have been predictably grand events, with large crowds and noteworthy speakers in destination resorts. The up..
Factors Driving Bull Fiber Market
By Jeff Griffin, Senior Editor The number of homes in the United States that connect to the internet with fiber optic cable is increasing and 5G is an important development. But many may be surprised what the FTTH (fiber to the home) growth data shows. ..
2022 Energy Pipeline Construction Outlook
By Jeff Awalt, Executive Editor Oil and natural gas prices climbed higher in 2021, prompting increased drilling and production among mostly independent producers in global regions, but a host of political and COVID-related economic concerns kept markets on edge and highly reactive for much of the y..
2022 Utility & Communications Construction Outlook, Update
By Daniel Shumate, Managing Director of FMI Capital Advisors Inc. Uncertainty felt like the only certainty over the past year as the industry performed quite well despite labor, material, COVID delta variant and regulatory challenges that were on the minds of every contractor. With the passage of t..
Infrastructure Bill Lavishes $44 billion in New Money on Water Construction
By Stephen Barlas, Washington, D.C. Editor Congress dropped a load of new funding for drinking water and sewer construction in the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA) which is meant to be over and above what the appropriations committees will provide annually for the Clean Water and Drinkin..
Editor's Log: Hope and Concerns
By Robert Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief As we enter a new year, it brings a mixed bag of hope and concerns for the underground infrastructure markets. This issue of Underground Construction includes two excellent analyses by ..
Solar HDDP: Drilling Contractor Expands into Renewable Energy
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), more than one-fifth of the nation’s domestically produced energy comes from Texas. The state has a long history of producing crude oil and natural gas, but more recently, the state’s energy production is rapidly expanding into renewables..
Tunnel Vision
By Michael Kozak, J.D. A welded PVC waterproofing system was recently applied to an underground rail segment being built in the Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland (DMV) area. The system was supplied by CETCO. Cr..
Demand for Broadband Supports Need for Fiber Optic Systems
EDITOR’S NOTE Eben Wyman is a veteran advocate for key underground utility and pipeline associations. He points out that maintaining an effective advocacy program is fundamental to the success of any organization interested in the happenings of the federal government. Zack Perconti is an associat..
Informative Seminars and Innovative Equipment Await UCT Attendees
Underground Construction Technology (UCT) returns to the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas, Monday, Jan. 24 with the pre-UCT kick-off of CUIRE Schools. The main UCT program runs Tuesday, Jan. 25–Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022. Taking place before the height of construction season, UCT is ..
Rehab News
PPG Unveils Complete Coating Solutions for Wastewater Operations PPG significantly expanded its coatings offering for wastewater infrastructure, thanks to its recent acquisition of VERSAFLEX/Raven Lining Systems, “which are used throughout the water, wastewater and manhole rehabilitation industrie..
FERC Punts on GHG ‘Significance’ Again
By Stephen Barlas, Washington D.C. Editor The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) continues to hesitate in determining whether greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new pipeline projects are a “significant” contribution to climate change. The latest example is an FERC draft environmental im..
Newsline
Michels Completes 15,000+ Foot HDD Crossing Michels completed a 15,426-foot horizontal directional drill (HDD) of a 24-inch pipe crossing of Lake Sakakawea on the Missouri River in North Dakota, extending the limits of trenchless construction. The crossing is part of a new pipeline being constru..
Infrastructure Money and Reality
By Robert Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief The Great Infrastructure Money Grab is on and at long last, underground construction markets are getting a reasonable share of the funding bonanza. Markets are anxious to secure their piece of the $550 billion of which $120 billion is designated for water, sewer..
New Products
Heath Consultants Introduces Industry-LeadingTechnologies Heath Consultants Incorporated’s Remote Methane Leak Detector-Complete System (RMLD-CS) successfully completed the certification process to earn the Intrinsic Safety (IS) rating of Class I, Division II, which allows its use indoors and with..
BUSINESS People
PPI Announces New Chair for Board of Directors Douglas Keller, technical lead-Americas for Equistar Chemical-Pipe Resins, was named chair of the Plastics Pipe Institute (PPI), board of directors, a two-year appointment. PPI is the major North American trade association representing the plastic pip..
BUSINESS
Xylem’s ‘Smart Sewer’ Exceeds Requirements, Saves Money, Improves Resilience Global water technology company, Xylem, delivered the advanced “smart sewer” system that is enabling the City of South Bend, Ind., to exceed the requirements of a wastewater Consent Decree, reduce capital investment, and ..
REHAB NEWS
New Cherne I-Series Test-Ball Plugs Deliver State-of-the-Art Solutions The newly redesigned Cherne I-Series Test-Ball Plugs are the most innovative pneumatic plugs available for the underground/waterworks market. Lightweight, short and flexible, these plugs deliver state-of-the-art solutions for..
REHAB SPOTLIGHT: Laterals Rehab & Cutters
Avanti (800) 877-2570, avantigrout.com Leaking service laterals and lateral connections are a source of significant groundwater infiltration into collection systems. According to the EPA, as much as 60 percent of overflow comes from leaking service connections. Injection grouts such as AV-100® C..
NA, Global Energy Pipeline Construction Plans
By Jeff Awalt, Executive Editor As global markets claw their way back from the 2020 pandemic trough and energy demand continues to rise, oil and gas producers remain largely committed to fiscal restraint, prices have risen to multi-year highs and storage has yet to recover from historic lows. ..
Gary Oradat to be Named 2022 MVP
The Most Valuable Professional of the underground infrastructure industry will be honored at the annual Underground Construction Technology (UCT) International Conference & Exhibition, in Fort Worth, Texas, at a special luncheon on Jan. 25. The 2022 award, co-sponsored by the Underground Constructio..
- OSHA cites Florida contractors for trench safety violations at sewer and excavation sites
- Cadiz to reuse steel from terminated Keystone XL pipeline for California groundwater project
- Lynchburg, Va., breaks ground on largest-ever Blackwater CSO tunnel project
- Biden-Harris administration invests $849 million in aging water infrastructure, drought resilience
- The EPA announces $6.2 billion in funding for Iowa and Kansas water infrastructure