Some people wait for Washington D.C., Springfield, or Chicago to help with handouts during economic hard-times. Others pick themselves up and work together with non-traditional groups to get to work.

That is exactly what UCA’s Construction Materials Committee chaired by Steve Cieslica (Trotter & Associates) did Dec. 10 with the Chicagoland District Council of Laborers and the American Public Works Association (APWA — Fox Valley Branch).

The Chicagoland Laborers District Council’s Carol Stream “Training Center” hosted more than 60 contractors, associate members, sewer and tunnel (local 2) members, municipal and public work managers, and consulting engineers to a Pipe Bursting Seminar and Live Demonstration.

Attendees gathered early for an in-door seminar before bundling up for the live demo. The cold weather did not deter the guests from going outside to see how pipe-bursting actually is done.

Some of the people and companies that donated time, treasure and materials for the seminar/live demonstrations were:

• American Cast Iron Pipe Co.’s Raj Arora

• Concrete Specialties’s Jim Nondorf

• Dearborn Companies’s Mike Walsh

• Engineering Solutions, LLC’s Ray Sullivan

• Jay Dee Contractors Inc.’s Louie Shapiro

• Laborers Roger Dominquez and Rich Schumann

• Mid-American Water of Aurora’s Derrick Dixon

• Neslund Associates’s John Scapin

• Scully Inc.’s Tim Scully

• Tires ’N Tracks’s Aaron Cohen

• T.T. Technologies’s Kevin Nagle

Presenters stressed various aspects of pipe bursting that included: safety concerns, locating existing underground utilities, hydro-excavating, various materials used in pipe bursting, and local pipe bursting projects that provide valuable lessons learned. The panel presentation technique allowed for a free exchange of information, open discussion and a true adult learning environment.

UCA plans to survey all attendees for feedback and ideas that the attendees believe could be topics for future presentations.

A vast number of municipalities attended from all over Chicagoland. Municipal managers from Joliet in the south suburbs gathered with those from Hampshire and Montgomery in the far North and western suburbs. These municipal managers participated, asking questions about applicable use of pipe bursting on its own and in conjunction with the more traditional open cut techniques. Some even added their personal stories about pipe bursting, which was value added to the presentation.

This was UCA’s inaugural seminar inviting municipal managers, architectural engineers, union leaders, union members and apprentices, and UCA contractors, and associates to share their lessons learned on various underground construction techniques.

Additionally, UCA hopes to raise money for APWA’s National Meeting & Convention which will be held in Chicago in 2012.

UCA reached its goal to introduce various elements of the underground industry to the variety and diversity of the underground industry.

Today's top stories

TxDOT's $802M I-30 Project in Dallas Area Makes Strides

Trench-Related Fatalities Decrease: Common Ground Alliance Celebrates Progress, Commitment to Safe Digging

New Horizon at Nashville's Airport Showcases Continuing Expansion

Caterpillar Invites World's Most-Skilled Operators to Forge Their Legacies Through Third Global Operator Challenge

VIDEO: Electric Demolition Excavator Gives Robles1 New Edge

After Years of Planning, Construction, New River Bridge Open to Connect Vermont, New Hampshire

Idaho Transportation Department Maintenance Team Prevails at National Snow Roadeo

Skanska Names Trevor Wyckoff VP, GM for Ore., SW Wash.