Underground Construction - January 2019 - 44

REHABTECHNOLOGY
pairs using quick-setting mortar
and brick. The problem was, every
time a train rolled by, the ground
shook, and the bricks were jarred
loose. Luckily, I remembered
some literature on repairing
manholes that I had picked up
from the show.
I called APM/Permaform and
spoke with Bill Shook, and in
October 1991 I signed a license
to rehabilitate manholes. That
month I also started my own
company, Performance Pipelining. Bill sent me everywhere
fixing manholes - to the Grand
Cayman Islands, Israel, Canada
and all over the United States. I
quickly became an expert in manhole rehabilitation (and flying!),
which fueled my passion to discover other technologies.
Already proven in Europe, I
knew cured-in-place pipe lining
was going to be the next big thing
in the United States. Working for
Insituform Midwest as a sub-contractor doing their manhole rehab, along with some spot repairs
using Link-Pipe out of Canada,
I was intrigued by how they inverted this liner tube through a
pipe. I was inspired by Insituform's technology, which led me
to develop my very first patent:
a sectional CIPP liner that can be
remotely inverted anywhere in
the pipe.
I was developing solutions for
my trenchless construction company and it was those solutions
that led me to start LMK Technologies. The first conference
where my company had an exhibit booth was in 1993 at what was
then called the Pumper & Cleaner
Show in Nashville, Tenn. I quickly
became a trenchless tradeshow
fan and attended every regional
and national industry conference
that I could. Being young in the
trenchless industry and in operating my own business, I needed
to know the ropes in what I considered a highly skilled industry

JANUARY 2019 | UConOnline.com

The part of my job that I've always enjoyed
most is finding solutions to problems. I
learned this from my dad, who learned
it from working with my grandpa and my
great uncle, who were also plumbers. The
old sewers installed in small-town Ottawa
(the silica sand capital of the world) date
back to the mid-1800s and were made
using dynamite and steam shovels. Years
later, as pipe defects occurred, the silica sand
used as trench backfill poured through the
pipe like an hour glass, and huge cavities were
formed under the pavement.
with engineers and a lot of smart
people.
That is where Bill stepped in;
he knew everybody, while I knew
no one. In those early years of
my Performance Pipelining/LMK
businesses, Bill was, and always
will be, my mentor. Long ago we
used to share exhibit booths and
I remember the day we upgraded
from a 10'x10' to a 10'x20' booth;
it was a big deal and represented
my company's growth. With a lot
of support and a lot of hard work,
I sold my very first patent license
in 1994 to a Toronto-based company called Telescan.
Bill also introduced me to
NASSCO and I immersed myself in committee participation,
because I knew that was a great
way to contribute my knowledge, learn from others and meet
industry peers. One year at a
NASSCO Annual Conference I
took a quick bathroom break and
came back in to a room filled with
laughter. The joke? While I was
out of the meeting, they nominated me to serve as the chair of
the Lateral Committee. I accepted, and that's where it all began.
I remember burying myself in a
room for about a week, writing

and sharing my ideas with other NASSCO Lateral Committee
members, finally delivering a lateral specification guideline that
helps set standards to this day.
There's a lot to smile about
when I think about all that went
on throughout the years in the
making of the trenchless industry
to what it is today. One of those
memories is of Alan Thomas,
NASSCO's executive director
at the time, who would always
introduce me by saying, "Larry
has been working on this thing
for laterals. Whoever gets that
figured out, it will be a big deal."
I never imagined just how much
of a big deal that would be. It was
people like Alan who were a big
inspiration to me.

RehabZone Live
I can't express enough the importance of NASSCO committee participation. In addition to serving
on the NASSCO Board of Directors for multiple terms, which I
considered to be a great privilege,
I was also deeply involved in the
RehabZone, an annual event at
the UCT Show. I wanted to bring
a more interactive opportunity
to NASSCO and UCT, so I co-

chaired and eventually chaired
the RehabZone Committee in
exchange for a couple things: the
ability to serve beer and show live
technology demonstrations. They
obliged, even throwing in a popcorn machine!
The first year, I brought a
semi-trailer down with the NASSCO booth inside and a bunch of
stuff for live demonstrations.
We had set up an entrance into
the RehabZone using an air inverting liner that cycled back and
forth through glass pipes, passing through multiple 90-degree
bends. There was also a manhole
rehab demonstration, a CIPP
lateral lining demonstration, and
laser profiling demonstrations.
Grouting was another popular
demonstration, and the late Dick
Schantz was very instrumental in helping with this event.
When the timer broke and the
air-inverted liner demonstration
through the glass pipe was dead
in the water, it was Dick who was
quick to help me. He rigged up
something to get us through the
show; he was a one of a kind, and
I sure do miss him. All in all, the
show was a great success and the
RehabZone has grown in popularity every year since that time.
No matter what NASSCO committee I participated in, or which
term I served on the board, I have
seen NASSCO take a proactive
role in providing education and
awareness on trenchless technologies and setting standards for
the assessment, maintenance and
rehabilitation of underground
infrastructure, as well as assuring
the continued acceptance and
growth of trenchless technologies.
Standards are critical. I am still
a licensed plumber to this day,
and I can tell you that the work
performed by a plumber is regulated by the state, and plumbers
must completely comply with
certain standards and codes. In

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Underground Construction - January 2019

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