AMERICAN ductile iron pipe and valves came together in a big way during a water main upgrade at the historic Omohundro Water Treatment Plant in Nashville, Tenn.

Progressive Rail salutes AMERICAN in its July 1 issue of News From the Tracks.

Maury D. Gaston, manager of Marketing Services for AMERICAN Ductile Iron Pipe, has been selected chair of the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council. The council advises Dean of Engineering Christopher B. Roberts on various matters pertaining to the college. Gaston will serve a three-year term as chair.

With the advent of new construction technologies comes the need for proven field tests to advance their use. Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) using ductile iron pipe, first introduced in 1994, is a method of installing the pipe underground without digging a trench. With HDD, a gentle arcing bore path is drilled horizontally beneath the surface, then the pipe is joined section by section above ground, and then pulled through.

Mike Kallaher was recently named manager of Production Planning and Inventory Management (PPIM) at AMERICAN Cast Iron Pipe Company (AMERICAN).

Roads and bridges, airports, energy systems – all are types of infrastructure that we depend on daily to bring functionality to our lives. Yet one of these infrastructures, concrete roadway, lasts, on average, just half our lifetime before becoming worn, riddled with potholes and in need of resurfacing. Hidden beneath our feet, however, is a durable product that plays a more vital role than all of these combined: Gray cast iron and ductile iron pipe make up roughly two-thirds of the nation’s water infrastructure, and they often last hundreds of years.

AMERICAN SpiralWeld was recently awarded the 2012 Steel Pipeline Project of the Year by the Steel Tank Institute/Steel Plate Fabricators Association (STI/SPFA) for the Salt Lake City Terminal Reservoir Project.

In 1961, Battleship North Carolina was brought home to Wilmington, N.C., and dedicated as a state memorial to WWII veterans. That same year, a Darling B-50-B hydrant was installed in the parking lot of the new memorial. Today, a new American-Darling B-84-B stands guard over the battleship, protecting her employees and visitors to the site.