Representing the Concrete Pipe Industry – ACPA
by Claire Suttles
Interview with President Matt Childs and report on the American Concrete Pipe Association.
…Because different jobs call for different pipes, the ACPA wants to make sure that engineers have the freedom to use whichever pipe they feel is best for the circumstance—whether that means concrete or plastic. “Every pipe has its advantage and the engineer needs to be the one to decide what is the appropriate pipe for that project. Whether it is concrete, plastic, metal—whatever it is.”
The ACPA’s advocacy focuses primarily on this issue. “Our main battle is giving engineers the right to choose.” The association believed that the 2005 federal highway reauthorization legislation—known as SAFETEA-LU—took away this right to choose. The bill was intended to promote competition in the procurement of culvert pipe for federally funded highways, but Mr. Childs says that instead, it forced the states to open their standards for culvert pipe—including products that had previously been rejected by the state’s engineers…