Local pipe company highlights strength
Published: November 4, 2009
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Oldcastle's Rex Busa explains the uses of concrete pipe prducts duringa facility tour last week. STAFF PHOTO/STACI WILSON
Concrete pipe may not be the most titillating product on the market but it may well be one of the most dependable with some pipes still in the ground after more than 100 years.
“It’s not the most glamorous part of infrastructure,” said Rex Busa, of Old Castle Precast Pipe, “but it becomes more important as time goes on to handle the water runoff (increased by development).”
The concrete pipe manufacturers at Oldcastle Precast Pipe, Rt. 706, Montrose, were happy to demonstrate the product’s benefits and strengths to engineers, elected officials, PennDOT and other agencies at a facility tour held last Thursday (Oct. 29).
Busa, one of seven tour leaders, said that Oldcastle was one of the largest precast and asphalt companies in the United States. Oldcastle, partnering with Kerr/Cayuga, bought the former Irving Loomis & Sons pipe plant in 2000.
Currently, Busa said the state transportation departments were currently the company’s biggest customers but the organization has also seen some work as a result of the area’s natural gas boon.
Concrete as a structural product has been around for well over 100 years, said Busa.
Al Hogan, of the American Concrete Pipe Association, agreed. He estimated some projects with pipe have been in the ground for over 100 years.
“I like to say, we take rocks, reshape them and put them back in the ground,” said Hogan.
Local companies provide all the raw materials used to make the concrete. “It’s a very good way to support the local community. It’s a local company supporting other local companies and the DOT,” said Hogan.
Each state’s DOT has its own criteria for concrete pipes and a third party checks the quality control from the raw material to the finished pipe.
“Concrete pipe is the only product that can be tested structurally before it leaves the plant,” said Hogan.
And the pipes are tested. One pipe out of every 100 is put through a stress test, explained Debbie Loomis-Major, a sales representative with Oldcastle. If an order is for fewer than 100 pipes, one pipe from the order is tested to ensure quality.
Montrose is home to just one of the four Oldcastle Precast manufacturing locations in the Northeast Pipe Group.
