Business
New Chief of Staff Named at FERC
Anthony Pugliese has been named Chief of Staff at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Since January 2017, Pugliese has served as Senior White House Advisor at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he helped oversee all aspects of the department, including pipeline safety and regulatory..
Saginaw Trail Pipeline Construction Begins
Consumers Energy has started construction on the Saginaw Trail Pipeline, a five-year, approximately $610 million project in Saginaw, Genesee and Oakland counties to increase natural gas reliability and safety in Michigan. Crews of about 450 union skilled trades workers from Consumers Energy and con..
Sempra Energy Bids $9.45B for Oncor, Topping Buffett Offer
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Sempra Energy is buying Texas power transmitter Oncor for $9.45 billion in cash, wresting it away from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Sempra said Monday that it will also pick up $9.35 billion of the company’s debt. To gain possession of Oncor, Sempra will acquire the reorgan..
CH2M Helps Atlanta Craft Water Management Plan
CH2M has completed an integrated water resource management plan highlighting interconnections between water supply and conservation, wastewater management and stormwater and watershed management across 15 counties and 95 cities in the metropolitan Atlanta area. The final integrated wate..
Paul Stellato Named Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer of Xylem
Xylem Inc. has appointed Paul Stellate to Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer, effective immediately. Reporting to the company’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mark Rajkowski, Stellato will oversee all aspects of Xylem’s financial reporting, accounting policies..
Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn Appointed to Xylem's Board of Directors
Xylem Inc. has announced that Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn has been elected to the Company’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. Beliveau-Dunn currently serves as Vice President and General Manager of Cisco’s Technical Services, a global organization that supports Cisco’s customers. In that role, Be..
Buffett's Firm Maintains $9 Billion Bid for Oncor
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett’s company is maintaining its $9 billion bid for Texas power transmitter Oncor despite competition from a private equity fund. Greg Abel, who leads Iowa-based Berkshire Hathaway Energy, said he doesn’t plan to increase the offer for Oncor, which serves about 10 mill..
United Rentals to Acquire Neff Corporation for $1.3 Billion
United Rentals, Inc. and Neff Corporation, operating as Neff Rental, have entered into a definitive agreement under which United Rentals will acquire Neff for $25 per share in cash, representing a total purchase price of approximately $1.3 billion. The transaction is expected to be immediately accre..
Crews Removing Natural Gas Pipeline in Simon Canyon
SIMON CANYON, N.M. (AP) – For more than five decades, a pipeline has transported natural gas over Simon Canyon near Navajo Dam. In about a week, that pipeline will be gone. The Farmington Daily Times reports (http://bit.ly/2vZ9Kmd ) Harpole Construction Inc. and Williams Companies Inc. are working ..
Tetra Tech Awarded $113 Million Contract to Support EPA Watershed Protection Program
Tetra Tech, Inc. has been awarded a five-year, $113 million contract to provide technical support services for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water. Under this multiple-award contract, Tetra Tech will support the EPA Office of Water’s Assessment and Watershed Protection Div..
Axalta Coating Systems Acquires Plascoat Systems Limited
Axalta Coating Systems has acquired Plascoat Systems Limited from its parent company, International Process Technologies (IPT) Ltd. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Established in 1952, Plascoat has pioneered the science behind the formulation, manufacturing, and application o..
Arcadis Wins Contract to Design Stormwater Flood Protections in Virginia
Arcadis has been awarded an approximate $11.6 million contract by the City of Norfolk, Virginia, to design stormwater infrastructure enhancements to protect Ohio Creek communities against future flooding and continued sea level rise. The City of Norfolk received a $115 million grant to transform th..
ADS Opens New Manufacturing Plant in Missouri
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. hosted a grand opening event for its new Harrisonville, Missouri manufacturing plant on Wednesday, August 9, 2017. Located approximately 40 miles south of Kansas City in Harrisonville, Missouri, the 35-acre facility has approximately 50 employees and produces a wide r..
Envirosight Acquires MyTana Manufacturing
Envirosight, which provides video pipeline inspection solutions to municipalities, contractors, departments of transportation, civil/environmental engineers and industrial customers, has acquired MyTana Manufacturing in an all-cash transaction. MyTana, headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, is a majo..
Flushable Wipes Class Action Lawsuit Dropped
INDA, the Association of Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, today announced the settlement of the class action lawsuit brought by the City of Perry, Iowa, in which the city alleged damages from flushable wipes manufactured by a number of flushable wipes producers. In dropping the lawsuit, Perry admitted tha..
Clearfield's Fiber Optic Technology Now Telcordia Certified
Clearfield, Inc. today announced that its fiber termination process used to manufacture Clearfield LC/UPC 900 μm 1.6 mm and 2.0 mm jumpers and fiber assemblies have been tested by an independent test lab compliant to the Telcordia, GR-326-Core requirements. With the Telcordia GR-326 achievement, the..
CEO: Westar-Great Plains Merger Plan to Be Filed This Month
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The CEO of Westar says the utility and Great Plains Energy will file their new merger plan with Kansas regulators later this month. CEO Mark Ruelle says meetings will be scheduled later this year for a shareholder vote on the proposal. Ruelle updated investors Wednesd..
Pure Technologies Awarded Sewer, Water Inspection Contract in D.C.
The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) has awarded Pure Technologies’ wholly-owned subsidiary, Pure Technologies U.S. Inc., a contract worth up to $10 million over 5 years for condition assessment of their major water and sewer pipelines. Using its proprietary technologies a..
Fired Engineer Sues Utility
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A fired engineer at a now-aborted Mississippi Power Co. plant sued the utility’s parent company Tuesday, saying an order to reinstate him is being ignored. Brett Wingo of Homewood, Alabama, filed the whistleblower retaliation case in federal court in Birmingham, Alabama. Wingo..
Pure Technologies Awarded Sewer Inspection Contract
Pure Technologies Ltd.’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Pure Technologies U.S. Inc, has been awarded a five-year contract extension from the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department, worth up to $30 million. Work under the new contract is expected to begin in Q3, 2017. Under the terms of the contract, Pure ..
Houston Wire & Cable Company Elects Haley to Board of Directors
Houston Wire & Cable Company has elected Roy Haley to its Board of Directors. Haley will also serve as a member of the Audit and Compensation Committees. Haley currently serves as a director of Essendant Inc. (formerly United Stationers, Inc.), where he serves as the chair of the Audit Committee. ..
$2.9 Million Sewer Construction Contract Awarded in Canada
Pedre Contractors Ltd. has received a six-month contract valued at $2.9 million for the Oakridge Trunk sewer separation project in Vancouver, Canada. The scope of work includes upgrades to the Oakridge Trunk sewer line, originally installed in 1957. As part of the project, two pipes will be install..
BlackRock Acquires Gas Natural
A fund managed by BlackRock Real Assets’ Global Energy & Power Infrastructure group has completed the acquisition of Gas Natural Inc. The proposed transaction was initially announced in October 2016 by First Reserve Energy Infrastructure Funds, which BlackRock Real Assets acquired in June 2017. Gas..
Advanced Drainage Systems Acquires DURASLOT, Inc.
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. has acquired DURASLOT, Inc., a manufacturer of storm water collection surface drains used in a variety of construction applications. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. “We are excited to welcome the DURASLOT product into the ADS family of Allied Products,” ..
CommScope Completes Acquisition of Cable Exchange
CommScope, a global leader in infrastructure solutions for communications networks, has completed its acquisition of Cable Exchange, a privately-held, quick-turn supplier of fiber optic and copper assemblies for data, voice and video communications. Cable Exchange, based in Santa Ana, Calif., manuf..
People in Business
Neel-Schaffer Doug Wimberly, P.E., P.S., joined the multi-disciplined engineering and planning firm with offices throughout the South, as a senior project manager in the Hattiesburg, MS, office. Matt Keeney, P.E., structural engineer, has joined the firm’s Tuscaloosa MS, office, overseeing all str..
Amphenol Telect Unveils New Fiber Distribution Chassis
Amphenol Telect has launched the C2LINX 1RU, a high-density fiber distribution chassis with cable management features designed to fit hyper scale networks in a variety of network environments, including enterprise, telecommunications and cable TV. “We’ve developed a panel that hits the high-den..
Jacobs to Acquire CH2M
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. and CH2M HILL Companies Ltd. have entered into a definitive agreement under which Jacobs will acquire all of the outstanding shares of CH2M in a cash and stock transaction with an enterprise value of approximately $3.27 billion, including approximately $416 million of C..
Dangers Of Using Damaged Jetter Hose
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Three Trenchless Technology Leaders Join SippTech
SippTech has finalized the addition of three of trenchless technology experts, Dr. Tom Iseley, Joe Barsoom, and Robert Affholder, to the company’s leadership team. “I was both honored and humbled when these gentlemen demonstrated such a sincere interest in becoming a part of SippTech’s senior manag..
- Intrepid Fiber breaks ground on fiber optic network in Superior, Colo.
- Excavator collides with I-95 overpass in Henrico, Va., causing multi-vehicle crash
- Shrewsbury, Mass., expands sewer inspections and cleaning efforts
- Two workers rescued after hours trapped in Mich. trench collapse
- Trump calls for Keystone XL pipeline revival, but developer has moved on
- Illinois overhauls Peoples Gas pipeline program, mandates focus on high-risk pipes
- Ameren Illinois to invest $140 million in natural gas pipeline replacement program
- Charlottesville, Va., to begin work on 24-inch water line for Rivanna River crossing
- Mass. governor slams Trump for ‘dangerous delay’ of $50 million in lead pipe replacement funds