American Infrastructure Renewal: Building For The Next 100 Years

Even ductile iron pipe, which has been in the ground for a century in some cases, has an expiration date. Its strength has also been a detriment, to some degree, in that the public has taken its reliability for granted. But the time has come to pay the piper.

Maury Gaston of American Ductile Iron Pipe (AMERICAN) and Derek Scott of American Flow Control are tag-team partners in infrastructure renewal, and also for this exclusive interview with Todd and Todd of Water Online Radio.

American Flow Control provides RW (resilient wedge) gate valves, check valves, tapping sleeves, indicator posts, and a number of products to complement the piping solutions provided by AMERICAN.

Gaston notes that “Clean water is the greatest advancement in public health in the history of the world, and we take it for granted here in our country. …It’s underground and it doesn’t get the attention that an above-ground bridge or an above-ground building receives because the public can see those things.”

Although the cost may be a trillion dollars by some estimates, Gaston is optimistic about getting the job done – better than ever. “The fact that these products that we’re experiencing difficulties with are a hundred years old is not that bad a problem. …It’s a good opportunity for systems to upsize their lines, reduce their pumping costs, improve their flow coefficients, and things of that nature.”

“If each utility would have moderate rate increases each year, three to five percent, in a few years they would be able to fund massive improvements for their systems,” he asserts.

Hear more thoughts from Gaston and Scott on distribution technology and the importance of long-term stability – “the 100-year product and not the 20-year product” – by tuning into the interview below.