CIPP Corp. Annual Installers’ Contractor of the Year Awarded to Tri-State Utilities

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CIPP Corporation held its annual meeting in February and presented three very distinctive awards. Tri-State Utilities was awarded the CIPP Corp. Annual Installers’ Contractor of the Year award for 2014. This marks the 5^th consecutive year of being honored with this award and 8^th time overall.

Andy McSweeney, Joe McSweeney, and Jonathan Thomas (shown right) were all on hand to accept the award.  Over the past 15 years, Tri-State Utilities has installed more than 1,750,000 lf of Cured-In-Place Pipe.

The CIPP Corp. Project of the Year Award went to Mr. Rehab, Inc. of Pennsylvania for their work on Hershey’s Chocolate Plant Pipe Improvements anHoerr Construction of Illinois took home the CIPP Corp. Growth Award for 2014.  Congratulations to all!

Visit the Tri-State Utilities’ website for more information on the organization.

Vermeer Announces Ultimate Crew Contest Semifinalists

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PELLA, Iowa — Vermeer Corporation is pleased to introduce the Ultimate Crew contest semifinalists. Eight crews from across North America are one step closer to winning a trip to the International Construction & Utility Equipment Exposition(ICUEE) 2015 where they will compete for the grand prize package — which includes the use of a Vermeer D24x40 Series II Navigator^® horizontal directional drill for 12 months and the chance to be featured in future Vermeer marketing efforts.

Vermeer congratulates the eight semifinalists:

 

Crew: Mike Millner, Neal Vatnsdal and Jedd Von Ende

 

 

 

 

Contest participants were asked to submit essays explaining what made their HDD operator, locator, mud technician and supervisor the Ultimate Crew. The essays were reviewed by a panel of five independent judges — each an industry expert in his or her own right — who narrowed the field to eight semifinalists.

Video interviews with each crew will be posted on NavigatorNation.com on June 1. Industry peers are asked to vote for their favorite crew through August 31, 2015. The four crews with the most votes will be invited to participate in the Underground Showdown HDD skill competition held at ICUEE in Louisville, Kentucky, in October. The crew that performs the most accurate bore on the course carefully designed by Vermeer will be named the Ultimate Crew.

After the Ultimate Crew has been selected at ICUEE, they will be highlighted in Vermeer advertising running in key underground publications. In addition, they will participate in a “Behind the Job”Web series. Each episode will focus on the challenges faced on HDD jobsites, how the crew works together to complete a job, as well as how they are using technology to succeed and stay productive. The Web series will be hosted on NavigatorNation.com and YouTube.

Vote for the Ultimate Crew semifinalists through August 31, 2015 at NavigatorNation.com.

Vermeer, the Vermeer logo, Equipped to Do More and Navigator are trademarks of Vermeer Manufacturing Company in the U.S. and/or other countries.​

© 2015 Vermeer Corporation

All Rights Reserved.

Ring-O-Matic Appoints Brian Metcalf CEO

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May 8, 2015 – PELLA, Iowa– Ring-O-Matic Inc., an Iowa based manufacturer of vacuum excavators, is pleased to announce the appointment of Brian Metcalf as CEO.

For the past eight years Metcalf has been president of HammerHead Trenchless Equipment of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, a Charles Machine Works company. A Pella native, Brian has previously held leadership positions at both Vermeer Corporation and Pella Corporation.

“I’m excited to be returning to the Pella area and I am honored to be joining the Ring-O-Matic family,” said Metcalf.  “Ring-O-Matic has nearly a 60-year history full of unique innovations to meet the needs of customers. The company is well positioned as a privately held company for an expanded role in providing unique customer-driven solutions in trailer- and truck-mounted utility construction vacuum excavators, industrial vacuum excavators, and car wash pit cleaners.”

Vacuum excavators are powerful suction machines used to remove material and debris from the surface or below it.

As CEO, Metcalf will direct his attention to developing a sustainable strategic growth plan to position Ring-O-Matic as the preferred supplier of vacuum excavators, as well as its complement of related support products to meet customer requirements at jobsites worldwide. He will also determine how additional resources will focus on creating product offerings to achieve operational excellence and expand the market.

“We are enthusiastic to have Brian on board,” said Bob Zylstra, Ring-O-Matic’s owner and chairman. “Brian’s been in the industry for nearly 25 years. He has significant experience in all aspects of our business and industry. We’re fortunate to have his leadership, vision, and experience at Ring-O-Matic as we begin our next chapter.”

Metcalf said, “I’m excited to join Ring-O-Matic and look forward to leading our team in support of its existing loyal customers and in earning the business of new customers worldwide.”

For more information, contact:

Ring-O-Matic, Inc. of Pella, Iowa, USA, manufactures a full line of vacuum excavation machines and car wash pit cleaners. Ring-O-Matic’s product line has a strong reputation for reliability and ease-of-use. Ring-O-Matic offers worldwide sales, support, service and parts through a network of authorized dealers. For more information about Ring-O-Matic products, please call 800-544-2518or visit www.ring-o-matic.com.

CH2M Announces First Global Rebrand in Two Decades; Aligns Strategy and Focus with Clients’ Needs

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CH2M HILL— a global engineering firm specializing in government, industrial, infrastructure and energy projects —announced today that it has adopted a refreshed brand and logo designed to better reflect its clients’ needs and its own ambitions for growth. The company has also adopted a simpler brand name, CH2M.

CH2M was founded in Oregon nearly 70 years ago by three young engineers and their professor to solve local water challenges. The company’s brand name is a nod to the values and hearts of its founding fathers — Cornell, Howland, Hayes and Merryfield — literally “CH2M.”

“Through the years, CH2M has evolved from a regional engineering and consulting firm associated with first-of-a-kind projects to a global leader associated with some of the largest, best-known infrastructure programs for public and private clients,” says CH2M Chairman and Chief Executive Jacqueline Hinman.

Hinman said that the time was right for CH2M to make this move. “The last time we rebranded the company was in the 1990s,” said Hinman. “Since that time, CH2M has grown from 5,000 to 25,000 employees, working in more than 50 countries, with annual revenues of almost US$6 billion. Our distinctive new look reflects the energy and passion of the firm and its zest for bringing the smartest approaches to the markets and industries we serve.”

CH2M partners with its clients to tackle some of the world’s most complex and intimidating challenges. Whether it’s designing major railways in the US and UK or massive sewerage tunnels in Abu Dhabi; supervising nuclear cleanups in the US and Scotland; optimizing LEAN manufacturing processes in Asia-Pacific; or providing operating and maintenance services for oil & gas clients on Alaska’s North Slope, CH2M thrives on solving tough, global problems.

CH2M’s leadership believes that the rebrand and new logo, coupled with a refreshed business strategy launched in January, will help to deepen the relationships between their clients and CH2M’s sales and project delivery teams. In the past year, the company has focused its strategy on strengthening the culture of collaboration and sharing across its five business groups and around the world, to bring seamless solutions and full depth of the company’s capabilities to individual clients.

“Our refreshed brand goes much deeper than just a new logo and shortened nickname,” said Hinman. “It combines our client-centric mindset with our commitment to technical excellence and innovation. The challenges facing our clients don’t fit neatly into boxes any more. That’s one of the reasons our clients choose to work with us. We’ve been thinking outside-the-box since day one.”

The company’s move to rebrand and reposition itself is designed to meet those numerous and evolving challenges.

“The world needs cleaner drinking water, shorter commute times, more reliable energy sources, resilient infrastructure, and a healthier environment,” Hinman said. “The challenges facing those entities tasked with meeting these needs grow more complex every day. Our new brand is a catalyst for starting a different conversation with our clients about their challenges. By combining capabilities from across the company, we help our clients by not just addressing these problems, but transforming them into exciting new opportunities.”

Source

EPA and U.S. Steel Provide $3.5 Million for Spirit Lake Cleanup Plan

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Release Date: 05/11/2015
Contact Information: Peter Cassell, cassell.peter@epa.gov, 312-886-6234

(CHICAGO) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that an additional $3.5 million has been made available for work in the Spirit Lake portion of the St. Louis River Area of Concern on Lake Superior near Duluth, Minnesota.

EPA will provide $2.275 million through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and U.S. Steel will provide $1.225 million to study options for cleaning up contaminated sediment in Spirit Lake. The funding will also cover design costs for the cleanup option that is ultimately selected. Construction and cleanup work in Spirit Lake could begin in late 2016.

During the past five years, Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding has been used to accelerated work in “Areas of Concern” throughout the Great Lakes Basin – and to complete all required cleanup work in six Areas of Concern. The United States and Canada designated 43 Areas of Concern under the 1987 Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in an effort to target sites contaminated primarily by industrial activity that occurred before modern environmental laws were enacted.

More information on the St. Louis River and Bay Area of Concern: http://www.epa.gov/greatlakes/aoc/stlouis/.

More information on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative: www.glri.us.

McLaughlin – Make This Technology Your ‘Core’ Potholing Method

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When locating utilities under a street, there’s the hard way, and there’s the easy way.

The hard way of potholing for a horizontal directional drilling job is to saw cut and then dig with an excavator.

The easy way is known as core drilling. A crew uses a vacuum excavator equipped with a core drill to open a small hole, usually around 8 inches, to spot a utility. That smaller hole is less disruptive than saw cutting and results in lowers amounts of spoils, backfill and restoration costs.

Laclede Gas Company, the largest natural gas distribution utility in Missouri with about 625,000 customers, takes the easier, more efficient route.

“Using a vacuum excavator and core drill saves quite a bit on cost,” says Laclede’s Ray Hill.

He offers an example. With core drilling, the only pavement being disturbed is what’s drilled, usually 6, 8 or 12 inches in diameter. After removing the core, the crew vacuums down and finds the utility. They then haul away the spoils, backfill the hole and usually patch it with the same piece of concrete they removed.

With the break-and-dig method, a crew must replace at least a 4-by-4-foot slab if it’s a sidewalk and possibly a 15-by-15-foot slab if it’s a street, according to Hill. All of that material has to be trucked out, and then the larger surface area must be repaired.

Laclede has Vermeer vacuum excavators by McLaughlin. The vacs feature a McLaughlin core drill attachment that uses the vac’s hydraulic pump to power the saw, eliminating the need for a separate power source. Furthermore, the crew does not need to anchor the base of the core drill into the pavement because of a patented design in which the vac’s suction pressure keeps the base securely in place.

Jeff Wage, vice president at McLaughlin, says the core drill market is rapidly gaining momentum as awareness of the technology increases and as space becomes more constricted in urban settings both below ground and above.

Contractors also like that it’s a more cost-effective approach than saw cutting.

“Your excavation quantity, your haul-off quantity, your backfill quantity, your compaction quantity and your asphalt quantity is all significantly less with vacuum excavation and core drilling than it would be with a saw cut and open excavate method,” Wage says. “Core drilling with Vacuum excavation also reduces the amount of time of road closures and traffic disruptions and provides a superior and smaller reinstatement of the road surface when compared to excavation and patch methods.”

For more information about McLaughlin products, visit www.mclaughlinunderground.com or call (864) 277-5870. Check out the company on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mclunderground.