Magazine
Newsline
San Diego Accelerates Pace of Utility Undergrounding San Diego officials have approved a plan to accelerate the relocation and burial of every residential overhead utility line in the city underground. The new deal with San Diego Gas & Electric creates a citizens’ oversight panel for undergroun..
Pipelines Push Back Against New Reliability Regulatory Agency
By Stephen Barlas, Washington D.C. Editor A House Democratic subcommittee chairman is teeing up legislation creating a new regulatory agency that would ostensibly safeguard interstate pipeline reliability. The House subcommittee on energy held a hearing on Jan. 19 on the Energy Product Reliability ..
Editor's Log
By Robert Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief By the time this article is published, who knows what will have happened with the Russian war on Ukraine. Our prayers are for a peaceful and positive resolution for Ukraine and the Western World, and an end to the criminal actions of the despot Vladimir Putin. ..
Business People
Lockwood Andrews & Newnam Mekbib Degaga, P.E., joined planning, engineering and program management firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN), as a senior project manager, serving clients in California. He has more than 2..
Imerys Celebrates 30 Years of Sewpercoat in North America
Calcium aluminate has been used in sewer environments since the 1940s. Initially, the drivers were resistance to sulfates in soil, rapid return to service and superior abrasion resistance. Over time, it became clear that Calcium Aluminate Concrete showed improved corrosion durability, even in the ..
Coating Materials Contribute to Rebuilding Wastewater Collection Systems
By Gerhard P. Muenchmeyer, P.E., Principal, Muenchmeyer Associates As the aging underground, pipeline collection system continues to deteriorate, replacement and/or rehabilitation become major issues for municipalities, industrial/commercial complexes and other utility owners. The deterioration in..
Rehab News
New ASTM Standard for Cleaning Vitrified Clay Sanitary Sewer Pipelines ASTM International has published C1920-21 Standard Practice for Cleaning of Vitrified Clay Sanitary Sewer Pipelines (C1920-21) – the first standard ever for cleaning municipal sanitary sewer lines. Scheduled cleaning increase..
EQUIPMENT SPOTLIGHT: Vacuum Excavators
Discovery Hydrovac discoveryhydrovac.com, (888) 4883-6452 Discovery Hydrovac is a specialized hydro and air vacuum service provider that supports the ever-expanding oil, gas, utility and construction industries. Using st..
McLaughlin Achieves 100 Years of Equipment Innovation, Service
McLaughlin, a Vermeer Brand, was founded in 1921 and has proudly marked a century providing workable solutions for the construction, utility and trenchless industries. Today, the brand continues to innovate and expand the capabilities of auger boring equipment for customers worldwide. ..
Inside Infrastructure: Ambitious Climate Goals Will Require Natural Gas, Pipeline Infrastructure
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..
PCCA Focuses on Building Infrastructure Best
By Michael Ancell, PCCA Another very busy year in power and broadband construction, 2021 found Power & Communication Contractor Association (PCCA) members working diligently to keep Americans reliably connected, while also working in Washington, D.C., and around the country to ensure that this crit..
Irrigation Project Introduces HDPE to Montana’s Glacier Park Lodge
By Sara Kleinecke There is a rich history etched in Montana’s Rocky Mountains and surrounding areas, a bygone era that marked the beginning of The Great Northern Railway and its creation of lodges nestled among one of the most beautiful places on Earth, Glacier National Park. Even today, visitors s..
Washington 2022: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
By Stephen Barlas, Washington D.C. Editor The Biden administration has a schizophrenic attitude towards underground construction. On one hand, it proposed – and Congress agreed to – a $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill. Signed by the president on Nov. 15, 2021, it will pump out huge sums for sewer..
Rare Funding Bonanza Stimulates Much-Needed Muni Projects
By Robert Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief It’s been 25 years since Underground Construction initiated detailed research into the spending plans of America’s cities and government agencies, with the annual Municipal Sewer and Water Infrastructure Forecast & Analysis Survey. As the industry enters 2022, a..
New Products
New Cat Mini Hydraulic Excavators, Cat Grade Technologies Increase Power & Productivity Built to deliver an improved customer experience, the new 4-ton, Cat 304, and 5-ton, Cat 305 CR, Next Generation mini hydraulic excavators deliver more power to the pumps, higher bucket breakout forces and deep..
FERC Ignores Environmentalist Pleas to Penalize Spire STL
By Stephen Barlas, Washington, D.C. Editor In a setback for environmentalists, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) refused to financially penalize the Spire STL pipeline, whose future was thrown into question by a decision from a DC Federal Appeals Court this past summer. The Court said..
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..
- 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