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Leister Technologies AG, and PREMSCO Inc. today announced the selection of PREMSCO Inc. as Leister's sales and distribution partner in Puerto Rico. In the agreement, Premsco will serve as Master Distributor of Leister's industrial heaters and blowers. Premsco also has non-exclusive rights to distribute Leister's line of plastic welding equipment used in the industrial fabric, geosynthetics, plastic fabrication and flooring industries in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. With the addition of Premsco, Leister customers located in Puerto Rico will now have a local distributor where they can purchase their Leister tools and have them serviced.

Demtech Services, Inc. has announced an expansion of its innovative, direct-to-the-jobsite service "Demtech On The Move." The service began in January 2011 with Wayne Leger visiting sites directly, where he trained more than 300 liner installers across 20 states and visited more than 50 companies. Now, Demtech has added veteran Marty Schuler too. Leger and Schuler will continue working in the field to bring equipment, demonstration, service, support and expertise right to the site. Learn more.

Prefabricating geomembrane rolls provides a number of cost advantages for containment applications. Fabrication of panels prior to site delivery allows for the seaming work to be performed in the controlled environment of a facility rather than in the open, elements-exposed environment of a job site, where wind and dust challenge seaming integrity. Also, large panels can be deployed quickly for quicker installation (and normally with non-specialized labor). In-Line Plastics has 15 years of experience in custom fabrication and can assemble delivery-ready panels in excess of 200,000 SF. Fabricating 4,000 lb - 12,000 lb rolls is not an issue. If you have a flexible liner project, prefabrication may be the most economical, efficient solution. Learn more here.;

In-Line Plastics' Herculine geomembranes are smooth HDPE and LLDPE polyethylene liners used for hazardous and non-hazardous containment in industrial, municipal, agricultural, and decorative applications. The Herculine products are engineered to exhibit exception UV and chemical resistance and long-term durability and performance. Learn more and download product specifications here. Learn more here.;

Global professional services consultancy Coffey Geotechnics announces the appointment of Ron Morley as Principal Geotechnical Engineer in Western Australia. Ron, has over 35 years’ geotechnical experience for transportation systems, oil and gas projects, ports and harbours and commercial developments with global expertise gained from projects in the UK, Middle East, Far East, US and Australia.

Tensar Corporation's Geopier Foundation Company subsidiary ("Geopier'), a leader in ground improvement solutions, today announced its acquisition of Slope Reinforcement Technology, LLC ("SRT"). The acquisition allows Geopier to offer slope stabilization solutions while boosting SRT's market reach. Geopier has historically focused on providing vertical ground reinforcement in support of foundations and their structures. SRT has concentrated on slopes that have failed or are potentially unstable.

Region One of the International Erosion Control Association (IECA) has announced that "Modeling Sediment BMP's in Sensitive Areas" has been named the winner of the Most Distinguished Technical Paper Award for Environmental Connection 2013. This award honors the presenters who have demonstrated excellence within the content of their Environmental Connection technical presentation. The paper was submitted by Stephen H. Peck, PE, Paul Wisheropp, PE, and Andrea Manha, PE.

Thrace-LINQ, a global supplier of woven and nonwoven polypropylene-based fabrics for a wide variety of textile applications, invited the best players in Geosynthetics and Industrial Fabrics to its key customer event held August 6–12 in conjunction with the 94th PGA Championship at The Ocean Course located in Kiawah Island, South Carolina, which earned its "stripes" for unpredictable challenges since its debut 21 years ago and hosted the strongest and deepest all-professional field of the year. The 156-player roster included the top 108 players on the current Official World Golf Rankings. The field featured 32 major champions, 71 international players representing 21 countries, and all three of the year's major winners competed for the Wanamaker Trophy in the first major golf championship to visit South Carolina.

Layfield Environmental Systems has long engineered some pretty strong geosynthetic projects, but recently the company enjoyed one of its most unusual triumphs: as sponsors of a winning chuckwagon. Read about it in the Calgary Herald (which includes a beautiful photo of the lead wagons battling down the stretch and Layfield's team gaining a head-bob edge). Learn more here.;

American Environmental Group, Ltd. (AEGL) is adding multiple key positions, including a Geosynthetics Estimator, two Project Managers, and a Construction Manager. Learn more about the Geosynthetics Estimator position.

American Environmental Group, Ltd. (AEGL) is adding multiple key positions, including a Geosynthetics Estimator, two Project Managers, and a Construction Manager. Learn more about the Operations and Maintenance Construction Manager - Midwest Region.

American Environmental Group, Ltd. (AEGL) is adding multiple key positions, including a Geosynthetics Estimator, two Project Managers, and a Construction Manager. Learn more about one of the Operations and Maintenance Project Manager - Midwest Region positions.

American Environmental Group, Ltd. (AEGL) is adding multiple key positions, including a Geosynthetics Estimator, two Project Managers, and a Construction Manager. Learn more about one of the Operations and Maintenance Project Manager - Midwest Region positions.

Carlisle Construction Materials (CCM), a division of Carlisle Companies (NYSE: CSL), is pleased to announce plans to establish a PVC roofing membrane manufacturing operation on its Greenville, IL campus. State-of-the-art manufacturing equipment will enable CCM to provide a variety of sizes and types of PVC roofing membranes.

Rowad's technical information page includes PDF documents with extensive information on geomembrane chemical resistance and installation. The company has also published a detailed QC manual on the manufacture and handling of its geomembranes. Learn more here.;

The Geosynthetic Institute (GSI) has announced two June short courses, each of which will offer eight (8) professional development hours (PDHs) as certified by the Geosynthetic Certification Institute (GCI) and an exam that leads to Certified Inspector status: Geosynthetic Reinforced MSE Walls, Berms and Slopes - Inspectors Course (June 6); and Construction QA/QC of Geosynthetics in Waste Containment - Inspectors Course (June 7). Both courses will be held in Folsom, Pennsylvania at GSI. Learn more.

To support continued North American and international growth the Layfield Group of Companies is pleased to announce major new capital expansion plans for its Vancouver, British Columbia and Edmonton, Alberta operations. The Vancouver, BC expansion will include the addition of a new blown film extrusion line adding major new capacity and facility upgrades supporting Layfield’s Environmental Systems, Construction Materials, Flexible Packaging, and Engineered Products businesses. This expansion will provide important new capacity for Layfield’s core product lines of geomembranes, construction and agriculture films, and specialty packaging products.

The lengthy and acrimonious legal dispute between Tampa Bay Water and engineering firm HDR is not necessarily over, but HDR has come away victorious from the first trial. TBW has been convinced HDR's design and quality control led to excessive cracking of 15.5-billion gallon reservoir--cracking so severe a new reservoir (and liner) is being planned. An interesting article over at ENR details the complexity of the dispute, from the difficulty of proving excessive pore pressure to soil compaction questions. Learn more here.;

When needing to reinforce soil, such as for foundation improvement or in very soft soil conditions such as working in tidal mud flats, a warp-knitted industrial polyester base and nonwoven-backed composite geotextile may be the answer. This unique construction provides high-strength, excellent elongation characteristics, drainage, filtration, soil separation, isolation, and more. Learn more. Learn more here.;

The "red dot design award" is one of the largest and most prestigious design competitions in the world. 1800 companies and independent designers from 58 countries took part in the "red dot award: product design 2012". A total of 4515 entries were registered for the 19 different competition categories. The TRIAC AT from Leister was able to convince the jury and won a "red dot – honorable mention" in the category "Industry and Craft". Read more and view the product brochure.

Predicting and mitigating the effects of earthquake is a principal civil engineering concern in the seismically active 'Ring of Fire' along the Asia / Australia tectonic plate border. As the Country Representative for the Institution of Civil Engineers within Indonesia, Tensar International's Jakarta-based Mike Dobie* has views which are respected all around the region. In an article for UpDate, the magazine published by British Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia, Mike Dobie comments on recent Indonesian newspaper speculation on future earthquake incidence and the effects on Jakarta. Read more.

The T-CLIC (TRI/I-CORP Liner Integrity Center) spring geoelectric LISA (liner integrity survey and assessment) course will be held on 16-17 April at the TRI Environmental campus in Austin, Texas. The two-day course consists of one day in the classroom and one day performing hands-on testing in three test cells; water-covered, soil-covered, and exposed liners, the last incorporating conductive geomembrane, conductive geotextile, and geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs). These two days provide a general educational background to geoelectric liner surveys, but are also the first phase of a surveyor certification program. Phase 2 of the certification program includes a field audit of a production survey and a 90 minute written test.

A few years ago, Geosynthetica reported on the growing influence of nations in the manufacture of geosynthetics. These companies have emerged as key partners in projects well beyond their home borders. Rowad International Geosynthetics is an exemplary case. This manufacturer of HDPE and LLDPE geomembranes has quickly developed a large client base around the world, working in Australia, South Africa, Algeria, Italy, Iraq, Iran, India, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, throughout Europe, and elsewhere. The company is also a market leader in Saudi Arabia for all government-approved projects, including for Saudi Aramco, Sabic & Ma’aden, and all mining projects. Learn more at Rowad's website. Learn more here.;

Norway-based Realfokus AS is now targeting the US for the next iteration of its trivia board game targeted to scientists, engineers and techies. The original version, Ingeniørspillet, is being adapted by a Boston-based Realfokus colleague as a game known as Engineerius and marketed by a newly formed US company by the (somewhat over-the-top) name of Heuristic Edutainment. An open online form dovetails on the crowd-source movement and invites questions and answers from engineering and science communities (though a March 4 blog entry indicates the game is very far along in its first American version). Want to contribute a question/answer on geosynthetics? Visit http://aladdin.realfokus.com/engineerius. Learn more here.;

Geomembranes are used in many biogas projects, so if your company or a company in your project network has been involved in biogas development, you may be interested in this opportunity: the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in California is looking for qualified partners to help it develop and acquire biogas resources. This is not a formal request for proposals; rather, it is a request for statements of interest (SOI).