Underground Construction - May 2021 - 13

of lines, mostly small-scale gas projects, and there was no longer
any mention of Alaskan projects.
Adopted from Japan, microtunneling was used for the first
time in the U.S., in 1984, to install a new 600-foot-long, 72-inch
diameter sewer line under I-95 in Florida.
In 1985, The Williams Companies began work on a 1,200mile fiber optic telecommunications network in the Midwest.
Referred to as " an unusual marriage between a pipeline and a
communication system, " the project involved pulling the cables
through abandoned petroleum product pipelines.

Growing Pains
Distribution contractors were studying innovative heating/
cooling systems using buried piping, as a new market. Research,
spearheaded by Oklahoma State University and Charles
Machine Works Inc. (Perry, OK) claimed earth-coupled water
source heat pump systems could use the heat of the sun stored
in the ground to warm and cool buildings more efficiently and
cheaper than traditional systems.

The Williams Companies began
work on a 1,200-mile fiber optic
telecommunications network in the
Midwest in which the cables were
pulled through abandoned petroleum
product pipelines.

1986
For a tunneling job in Montreal,
American Augers configured a
19-foot-diameter machine that
helped contractors build collector
interceptor lines through hard bedrock
some 150 feet below the city.

Construction began that summer on Plains All American
Pipeline Co.'s 1,768-mile, 30- inch system, the nation's first
oil pipeline running from the West Coast to the Gulf-Coast.
Overseas activity in 1985 included Bechtel's 313-mile,
24-inch LPG pipeline in Algeria and Statpipe's 545-mile gas
line in the Norwegian North Sea, part of a $3 billion project.
A small news story in the January 1985 issue would be
of monumental historic value to the gas industry: as part
of new Houston Natural Gas Chairman/CEO Ken Lay's
restructuring, HNG, along with partners, was buying Florida
Gas Transmission Co. and several other companies, while
completing the purchase of Transwestern Pipeline Co. from
Texas Eastern Transmission. Several months later, Houston
Natural Gas and InterNorth, Inc. would announce a $2.3 billion
merger. The company would soon be renamed Enron Corp.
By 1988, the construction industry was soft and, to succeed,
some companies had to concentrate on developing innovative
equipment and techniques, enabling them to secure a particular
niche by going into areas previously thought inaccessible.

1987

1989

Magazine started a bent toward
underground technology, with its
first special report on " Trenchless
Excavation Boring, " in March and a
focus on the latest rock trenching
techniques in May.

The Williams Companies and Tenneco
announced plans for the 902-mile,
36-inch Kern River gas pipeline from
Wyoming to California.

In July, the magazine had its first
Infrastructure Report, featuring
the latest in " Repair, Rehabilitation
and Replacement of Gas, Sewer
and Water Systems. "

Trenchless Technology Center
at Louisiana Tech University was
established by Tom Iseley.

Magazine published its first
fiber optic cable report.

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Underground Construction - May 2021

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