ACPA Names California Engineer

Shortly after announcing the appointment of its new Western Region engineer, the American Concrete Pipe Assn. (ACPA) announced that it has named Russell Tripp, P.E., to the position of California engineer. Tripp has served as the ACPA’s Georgia engineer since August 2010.

“Russell has served the ACPA and its Georgia members extremely well for the past three years; so when we decided to beef up our presence in California and he expressed his interest in moving for family reasons, it was an easy decision,” said Matt Childs, president of the ACPA. “California is obviously a very large state; so even though we’ve just broadened Mike Hook’s territory to include the entire Western Region, we felt that Russell’s focus specifically on the Golden State would be beneficial for everyone, especially our members. I think Russell and Mike are going to form an outstanding team for us out west.”

The ACPA previously announced that Mike Hook, P.E., was promoted from Arizona engineer to Western Region engineer, covering the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

Tripp sees his primary role in his new position as bringing together concrete pipe industry professionals from across the state to work toward the common goals of fair specifications and increased market share. He will assist ACPA member companies in their interactions with local and county municipalities as well CALTRANS to ensure that contractors, engineers and transportation officials understand the many advantages of specifying precast concrete pipe for new infrastructure and major replacement projects.

“There’s a major opportunity in California for the ACPA to grow its membership while simultaneously increasing our industry’s market share,” Tripp said. “In particular, I believe we can make tremendous inroads with our precast box culverts in the immediate future. We just need to get on the same page as an industry and work together toward the common good.”

Tripp earned his Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Clemson in 1982. He spent the first 21 years of his professional career working in the natural gas industry. He then served three years in the PVC sheet pile industry and four years in the plastic drainage industry before joining the ACPA.

Tripp and his wife of 27 years are in the final stages of relocating from Georgia to California.

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