Special Series

CONTECH Construction Products Inc. announced today a plan to expand its national sales force with the addition of 40 new employees. The expansion is needed to respond to rapidly growing geographic market gains as well as new business opportunities. “Based on our robust sales activity, coupled with evolving markets, we identified the need to expand our sales force to ensure we maintain the same high level of service our customers appreciate and expect,” said Ron Keating, COO and president of CONTECH. “Despite some of our competitors’ tendencies to cut expenses in a soft market, we must continue to invest to keep our customers satisfied and grow our business. For CONTECH, that means providing the most comprehensive coverage and trained sales force in the industry.” Recruiting efforts are underway to ensure the new employees are in place and properly trained in preparation for several new product launches in 2008. “As we continue to identify new business opportunities, we must ensure we have the people in place to properly support our customers in the specification, engineering and installation of our solutions,” said Steve Spanagel, president of CONTECH’s national sales division. “The use and acceptance of our existing products is strong. With the addition of some major product enhancements and new offerings in 2008, we knew the time was right to expand our sales force now.” CONTECH has boasted significant and ongoing growth the past two decades, averaging double-digit gains in sales and employee count since 1986. In addition, CONTECH has expanded its market footprint through the acquisition of more than a dozen companies in the last ten years including 7 major industry leaders.

At October's annual IFAI Expo, Marco Sanchez of ML Ingenieria in Mexico City, Mexico, won an Outstanding Achievement Award in Geosynthetics as part of the International Achievement Awards competition. A case study is forthcoming. Sanchez reports they built the retaining wall with Ace Geosynthetics' ACE GG 60-I and ACE GG 100-I geogrids. See the geogrid data at the link below. Learn more here.;

Syndicated home improvement writer Henri DeMarne explains the difference between French and curtain drains for a reader in his latest column. Learn more here.;

Hank Edwards of Tensar was a finalist in the Corporate category of this year's Georgia CIO of the Year Awards. See a video interview with Hank posted online at Techlinks.net's CIO Awards page. Learn more here.;

The newspaper In Business - Las Vegas has published a short interview with Bob Coyle of major landfill corporation Republic Services. The Q & A discussion leads Coyle to summarize the basics of landfill lining and capping for the business readership. Learn more here.;

Everyone always seems to want the latest gadget or new-fangled approach. Yet, a number of approaches to common design issues are time-tested, easy-to-understand, and just plain smart. Geotextile separators are one of those technologies. As the Clarion Ledger points out, gravel drives can last for decades when properly constructed. This often depends on geotextile subgrade separation. Learn more here.;

The debate over the fire in an Ohio landfill seems endless. The Ohio EPA and the site owner (Republic) have sparred again over whether there is a fire, whether excavation and a firewall is needed, even whether the site has unusual odors. Debate coverage is at the link below and the impact on Republic's financial statement can be found by cutting and pasting the following URL to your browser: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2007/11/05/daily12.html?b=1194238800%5E1546286 Learn more here.;

The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) website includes a discussion forum that non-registered users may contribute to. For example, a hot thread from July dealt with the question of whether soils reports should be included in a project manual. The most recent posting to the thread came on Halloween. Learn more here.;

Last week's survey from the Erosion and Sediment Control Network (ESCN.tv) asked online viewers whether their company's use of the internet is still growing, staying the same, or becoming less. No one selected less; 75% said they were still growing online. We are too. We owe that to you. Thank you! Learn more here.;

Naue's UK office offers a number of PDF case studies. Among them is the reinforcement of a slope in Dorset. The site had previously been a landfill and developers were converting the unusable terrain into a commercial development zone. Naue's Secugrid geogrids were used. Secugrid data is also available on geosindex.com's geogrid data page. Learn more here.;

A new bill stipulates that future hardrock mining site operators in the US must post a bond to cover cleanup costs before new mining will be allowed. The move is an effort to prevent companies from declaring bankruptcy after concluding operations, an all-too-common move that leaves the cleanup costs on the EPA. More than 60 Superfund projects are hardrock mining sites. Learn more here.;

Register online for the TRI-ICORP (T-CLIC) Geosynthetics CQA Week. Activities Monday through Friday include Course: Understanding and Performing Liner Integrity Surveys / Electrical Resistivity Testing Dinner: Tex-Mex Night Course: Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) of Geosynthetic Installations Course: Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) of Compacted Clay Liner and GCL Installations Dinner: World Famous Texas BBQ Bash Exam: Geosynthetic Certification Institute (GCI) CQA Technician Certification Exams Learn more here.;

The International Erosion Control Association will team up with CPESC, Inc. to provide an online version of the Certified Professional in Storm Water Quality (CPSWQ) exam review course through IECA’s online training web site http://ieca.webex.com. The 6-part overview of stormwater quality issues and techniques will begin November 9, 2007, and will continue on Fridays through December 21, 2007. Each live session will be recorded and available for on-demand viewing allowing participants to catch up on missed segments of the series. The CPSWQ webinar series will discuss: pollutant concerns during and after construction; impacts to receiving waters; and site planning considerations during various phases construction and post-construction. Participants will put their knowledge to work as they complete a summary exercise that will unite elements of site planning, rules and regulations, watershed hydrology, pollutant quantification, and erosion and sediment control. “The CPSWQ series is designed to prepare students for the certification exam, but it also serves as an excellent overview for anyone involved in the stormwater quality management,” said Kim M. Kline, technical resources director for IECA. For professionals interested in becoming certified, CPESC, Inc. will offer the exam Friday, February 22 at Environmental Connection 2008 (EC08), IECA's annual conference and expo in Orlando, Florida, February 18-22, 2008. Pre-approval from CPESC, Inc. is required to take the exam. For more information on the exam and approval process, visit www.cpesc.org. The CPSWQ exam review webinars series is the second exam review course CPESC, Inc. and IECA have presented through IECA’s online training site. The first, the Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control (CPESC) exam review, was held this summer with an encore conducted in the fall. The live and recorded sessions have been IECA’s most popular webinars, said Kline. The two organizations hope to continue working together to provide professionals with the education they need to earn and maintain certifications. Once certified, all IECA webinars, can be used as a convenient way to earn the Professional Development Units (PDUs) certified professionals need to keep their certification current or to earn credit towards an “IECA Trained” designation. Through http://ieca.webex.com IECA offers webinars on a variety of training topics including: Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) writing, implementation and maintenance; low impact development (LID); construction site inspection programs; rainwater harvesting; stormwater BMP maintenance and more. Visit the link below to register for the CPSWQ exam review or to see a current listing of live and recorded sessions. Learn more here.;

Business Co-ordination House (BCH) has made its newsletter, TechTex India (October/December 2007 issue), available on-line. Read the new issue now. Learn more here.;

The facility to order hard copy standards and publications on the BSI website will be switched off in November. However...BSI British Standards now has a new online shop at www.bsi-global.com/Shop. From here you’re able to search for any British Standard and buy it directly either as an instant PDF download (if available) or in hard copy format. In addition you can search for books, CDs and other publications. All you need to do is register your details and then you’ll be able to purchase directly from the BSI Shop using a credit/debit card. For BSI Members - If you are a BSI Member you will be entitled to your usual 50% discount on British Standards. All you need to do is register your details , including your BSI Membership number, allowing 24 hours for validation, and then you’ll be able to purchase directly from the BSI Shop. Learn more here.;

The Countrywide-operated landfill near Canton, Ohio has been the source of considerable tension since a fire was discovered in it. Now, the state EPA's in-fighting about the landfill's health has spilled into the media via leaked documents. There may be a need to evaluate the liner health again. But the person who released the documents refused to put a name behind it, thus bringing the info into question. Confused? Learn more here.;

Vandals in Dorset, England, have destroyed a lined pond used by a grade school to teach its children about science. Rubbish was poured into the pond, but there's a chance the liner is still intact. If it hasn't been torn, there's a much better chance the school will revive the pond project. Learn more here.;

The Glasgow Daily Times from Glasgow, Kentucky has published a winter hay-feeding tips article that includes a section on improving feeding zone soil with geotextile. Installing the fabric with stone and soil helps prevent excessive churning of the soil beneath the feet of feeding cattle--the sort of churning that ultimately makes an area too muddy for proper use. Learn more here.;

Ray Peebles of Cooley has been part of a US Industrial Fabrics Institute (USIFI) trade mission to Kuwait. Four companies are taking part in this technical textiles mission, accompanied by the US Department of Commerce, and meeting with Kuwaiti industry and government representatives. Construction and oil sectors are attracting major interest. Learn more here.;

Geotextile reefs in Australia and New Zealand have been successful in creating surfing zones and promoting sand growth on previously eroding beaches. In the US, the system is gaining interest. A representative from Down Under is currently visiting the Galveston, Texas area to discuss the possibility of installing an offshore geotextile system. Learn more here.;

The Fields Brook Superfund site in Ohio was cleaned between 1999 and 2001, yet the work apparenty wasn't enough. New PCB contamination has been discovered. Yesterday, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced the order for site owners Millennium to clean the new pollution zone. The site's canal flows into Ohio's Ashtabula River, and from there Lake Erie. Learn more here.;

Columnist John Heckathorn's space in the Honolulu Star Bulletin, "What the Heck?", includes a nice photo from above the new geotextile-improved lagoon at the Hilton. It's one of the largest salt-water lagoons in the world...though as Heckathorn notes it pales in comparison to the lagoons that have been created in Chile. Learn more here.;

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) and the American Public Works Association (APWA) are in discussion about co-locating their marquee annual conferences (WasteCon and The Best Show in Public Works) in Boston in 2010. At this moment, it's only an idea be bandied about. Read more at Waste News (subscription required). Learn more here.;

Our friends at ASIA Miner have noted in their e-newsletter that the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies Inc. has joined on with the 2nd ASIA Miner Investing in Mining Conference. The event will take place 15-16 July 2008 in Australia. Learn more here.;

The US Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation a $200,000 grant for Phase I of the state's Construction Storm Water Excellence Initiative. Learn more here.;