The Plastics Pipe Institute Inc. (PPI), a North American trade association representing the plastic pipe industry, has announced the winners of its Projects and Members of the Year for 2022.
PPI presented the awards during its annual worldwide membership meeting, which was held May 9-12, 2023. The awards included Project of the Year and Member of the Year awards across five PPI divisions: Building & Construction, Drainage, Energy Piping Systems, Municipal & Industrial, and Power & Communications.
According to PPI President, David M. Fink, the institute received a record number of submissions for the awards.
“We had an all-time high number of exciting projects being submitted,” Fink said. “This is reflective of the growing use of plastic pipe in so many different areas. During 2022, according to our data, shipments of pipe from our members grew by more than 20%, and the use of recycled post-consumer content increased to its highest level ever. We also had a record number of attendees at this meeting that exceeded 450 members and guests.”
Each year, PPI’s membership reviews and votes on a Project of the Year and a Member of the Year for each of the five PPI divisions. The PPI Member of the Year Award is for an individual’s outstanding support and contributions to the association and the industry.
“It was very pleasing to see among the projects submitted there were many that had a positive impact on the environment. These included an underground rainwater collection system and a pipeline designed to protect the Great Salt Lake.”
PPI's winning projects and members are as follows:
Project of the Year awards
Building & Construction Division
Society Orlando Mixed Use Apartment Complex, Florida
PPI Member Company: Uponor, Apple Valley, MN
Society Orlando is a two-tower, 1.5-million-square-foot, mixed-use, high-rise project in the downtown Orlando Central Business District. One tower is a 330-foot, 26-story building with 462 units, while the other is a 16-story building with 245 units. In addition to the combined total of 707 rental apartments, the finished structure will have 36,000 square feet of office and retail space.
The HVAC mechanicals for the project include a hybrid air-and-water system involving condenser-chilled water from a rooftop cooling tower through 800 feet of large-diameter Uponor PP-RCT pipe in diameters up to 10 inches. The water runs through vertical risers of 12,600 feet of Wirsbo hePEX™ PEX-a pipe, which branch off to fancoil units inside the apartments. A second return line of the same materials follows a similar route in reverse, carrying warmed water from the apartments back to the cooling tower to be chilled again. The project also has 138,000 feet of Uponor AquaPEX® PEX-a pipe and ProPEX® fittings, including multiport tees, in diameters from ½ to 1 inch for the domestic water system.
Drainage Division
PPI Member Company: Prinsco, Willmar, MN
The underground rainwater harvesting system for The Fred, a residential apartment complex that has a focus on green construction, used 250 feet of 60-inch diameter Prinsco Goldpro Storm® corrugated polypropylene pipe. The system’s rated capacity is 4,877 cubic feet of water that will be captured from the impervious surface and store it for reuse to irrigate the area. Due to the footprint, depth, and watertight constraints, this system required custom elongated fittings with integral gasket and bell and spigot coupling joints.
Energy Piping Systems Division
PPI Member Company: FlexSteel Pipeline Technologies, Inc. Houston, TX
The project used 3,937 feet (1,200) meters of the new 10-inch FlexSteel MXL spoolable, steel-reinforced composite pipe for a brine transfer line at a potash facility in Saskatchewan, Canada. The 10-inch diameter pipe with a high-pressure rating of 1500 psi and designed and tested in accordance with API Specification 15S, was installed in approximately seven days and required only seven couplings and two end fittings. FlexSteel’s thermoplastic pipe provides a 10-inch nominal diameter alternative for high pressure lines, which historically used welded steel pipe. The increase in FlexSteel pipe diameter improved flow capacity by more than 50 percent over available eight-inch solutions. The large diameter and high-pressure capability of the FlexSteel pipe permits reliable transportation of corrosive fluids with no corrosion concerns and minimal integrity management.
Municipal & Industrial Division
North Davis (Utah) Sewer District
PPI Member Company: Pipeline Plastics, LLC, Westlake, TX
Using 6.25 miles of 63-inch diameter high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe, the North Davis Sewer District (NDSD) completed a capital improvement project to meet the state’s new Technology Based Phosphorus Effluent Limits (TBPELs). The project now redirects badly needed water back into the Great Salt Lake to meet state nutrient level requirements and protect the ecosystem and wildlife. The HDPE pipe was chosen because the soil is extremely corrosive, and because the pipe could provide leak-free, fused joints. It also eliminated more than 450 truck deliveries (400,000 truck miles), reducing the carbon footprint of project by eliminating over 1800 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
PPI-member company Pipeline Plastics manufactured and provided the HDPE PE 4710 pipe used for the project.
Power & Communications Division
PPI Member Company: Dura-Line
The City of Orangeburg Department of Public Utilities constructed a new underground link between its substation and distribution network. The utility switched from PVC to a total of 10,000 feet of six-inch diameter, SDR 13.5 high-density polyethylene (HDPE) conduit from Dura-Line. The superior thermal properties of the HDPE conduit enabled the cable specification to be changed from 1,000 KCM copper to smaller, 750 KCM aluminum 25KV cable without any loss of performance. The conduit also provides the necessary, superior cooling performance and favorable installation cost. Additionally, the HDPE sweeps, not the typically used galvanized metal, provided better abrasion resistance for the cable when pulled through the HDPE conduit.
Member of the Year awards
Building & Construction Division
Reliance Worldwide Corporation, Atlanta, GA
Rich has held multiple positions of PPI leadership during his 20+ years of involvement with the association that includes: BCD Division Chair from 2018-2020 and serving on the PPI Board of Directors again from 2021-2022. He is on the BCD Management Committee as the Codes & Government Affairs Liaison and participates on PPI’s Umbrella Government Affairs Committee. Rich is also the current chair of five BCD R&D projects.
Drainage Division
Advanced Drainage Systems, Hilliard, OH
Greg has been instrumental in development of the education strategy and content for the PPI Drainage Division. In addition to his leadership of the Education Subcommittee, he is actively involved in division’s Research Committee, where he previously served as R&D Chair. Greg’s continued engagement with NTPEP on behalf of the industry has helped to beneficially position the Drainage Division members within this AASHTO auditing program.
Energy Piping Systems Division
Chris Ampfer
WL Plastics, Ft. Worth, TX
Chris has worked on multiple EPSD projects including EPS-2017-05 - TN on Scratch Depth, EPS-2021-01 - Test Pressure Calculator, EPS-2021-02 - TN-54 R&R. He also wrote the new PPI Technical Note on squeeze-off, EPS-2021-03 - MS-2 R&R, EPS-2022-04-TR-22 R&R, EP-2022-05 - TN-4 R&R, and was involved in the H2 Presentation to Wisconsin Pipeline Safety.
Municipal & Industrial Division
Infra Pipe Solutions, Ontario, Canada
PPI’s Municipal & Industrial Division Chair, Barb Donaldson (right), Sovereign Pipe Technologies, with Gerry Groen, P.Eng. who was named Member of the Year for the division.
Gerry's latest contributions were his work on documents MAB-8 (cold weather fusion), MAB-9 (seismic/earthquake), anchor blocks, and fabricated fittings. His expertise and volunteer service have been extremely valuable to the M&I division, PPI and the Municipal Advisory Board. A participating member of PPI for more than 20 years, he was awarded Honorary Lifetime Membership in PPI in 2018.
Power & Communications Division
Teel Plastics, Baraboo, WI
Christian is very active as Communications & Marketing Chair and on the PCD Management Committee. He leads the PCD R&D project to establish requirements for using recycled HDPE in conduit, and is active in many other of the division’s projects.
