Have you considered the benefits of holding safety meetings? When was the last time you held one at your construction company? Who do you think should attend these meetings and how often do you think you should hold a safety meeting? Here's a story to set the stage in showing how important safety meetings can be:

A group of ten people stand in a circle. One person whispers to another person a certain construction safety rule that makes it mandatory for a ladder to be within twenty five feet of any worker in a water pipeline trench deeper than five feet. The person who heard the rule then turns and whispers it to the next person and so forth until each person has heard the safety rule. Can you imagine what the final translation of this rule will be at the end of the tenth person? Probably something to the effect of twenty five ladders for every five workers in an excavator. The point is that it can be very easy for workers to get false or misleading information in the field. This is why it is so important to make time routinely to hold safety meetings where all workers can get together and communicate.

Wet utility contractors are involved with many jobs related to subsurface pipeline. In addition to installing new sewer and water pipes and storm drainage systems, contractors also repair or remove pipes; prepare worksites for demolition work; and restore jobsites once pipeline work is completed.

Wet utility contractors also are involved with installation and repair of municipal water treatment systems, steel tanks, and pre-cast pump houses along with updating deteriorating freshwater pipelines.

Pipeline construction companies have large responsibilities to developers, general contractors, engineers, public utility agencies and to the general public. In pipeline construction, to construct is to install. From fresh running potable water to draining storm water drainage systems, modern-day society as we now know it simply would not be the same without critical pipeline work to make it all happen. Like trucking is to logistics, pipelines are critical to our industrialized living. This is where pipeline construction companies come into play.

A quality wet utility pipeline construction company, for example, installs wet utility pipeline systems so that they function correctly, as planned, meeting the needs of growing industrialized societies. Civil Engineers draw sewer, water and storm drainage pipeline routing plans that pipeline construction companies must follow to ensure properly working systems. These systems designed by Civil Engineers often involve multiple mathematical computations to ensure pipeline designs work and meet the specific needs of any given community, whether residential, commercial, industrial or institutional.

Pipeline construction contractors are responsible for installing, repairing, and replacing pipelines used to convey water, fuel, and petroleum-based products. Contractors are also charged with maintaining utility pipelines used to protect fiber optic cables and phone lines, along with sewer pipes and storm water drainage systems.

Pipeline construction contractors handle most facets of the construction process including trenching, pipe installation, backfilling, paving, and land restoration. Contractors are also in charge of managing the process of applying protective coatings to pipes in order to prevent corrosion.

Pipeline contractors utilize a variety of techniques to install subsurface pipeline systems. The type of pipes used depends upon the construction project. Gas and oil pipelines are entirely different than sewer and water pipelines, although installation processes are sometimes similar.

Pipeline contractors oversee the installation of new pipelines from start to finish. Once a design is provided, subsurface utility engineering is used to locate existing utilities and pipelines. Afterward, the land is prepared by removing rocks, boulders, shrubbery, trees, and other types of landscaping or building materials.

Pipeline construction is an integral process that involves pre-construction planning, the actual construction phase, and post-construction. Each phase requires a dedicated team of highly trained employees including engineers, construction workers, general contractors, and project managers.

The planning phase of pipeline construction involves working with engineers to design the system. Multiple decisions must be made to ensure the project will not have negative impacts on the environment or community. The pipeline project planning team will need to acquire permits, secure easement rights, meet local, state, and federal requirements, and obtain project proposals from various pipeline construction companies.

Pipeline companies are the driving force behind the installation and maintenance of pipeline networks that crisscross the country. Americans rely on pipelines to provide fuel for their homes and automobiles; have uninterrupted telephone and cable services; acquire fresh water for drinking and bathing; and for sanitary hygiene provided by indoor plumbing.

Pipeline companies install pipes and utility systems in several venues ranging from residential to municipal. Projects can consist of water pipelines, sewer pipelines, fireline, storm drainage systems, communications and electrical conduit systems, natural gas pipelines, or petroleum pipelines used to transfer gas and oil to refineries.

Construction safety is a hot topic for the construction industry literally now that summer is officially here and the weather is warming up to three digit temperatures in some parts of California. Construction companies carry large responsibilities as employers to provide adequate training in preventing workplace illness and injury - specifically heat illness. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) set initiatives to educate workers and their employers about the hazards of working outdoors in heat and how to prevent heat-related illnesses.

Heat illness is a common hazard for construction workers who typically work outdoors. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) data, 230 heat-related deaths have occurred from 2003 - 2009 with 81 (40%) of these fatalities in the construction industry. Over that same time period, 15,370 heat-related injuries/illnesses requiring days away from work have occurred with 4,110 (27%) of these injuries/illnesses in the construction industry.

We are often asked, what is the difference between wet and dry pipeline construction companies? Pipeline construction companies can basically be separated into two (2) categories: dry and wet utility pipeline construction. Some pipeline companies do one or specific combinations of wet / dry pipeline construction. Dry utility pipeline construction companies install pipelines that are typically non-petroleum based, that do not hold liquid volumes inside the pipes.

In contrast, there are wet utility pipeline construction companies such as those that install sewer, water pipeline and storm drainage systems. These types of utilities carry liquid volume in the pipe, and are therefore called, "wet" utility pipelines for this reason. Next time you are looking for "pipeline construction companies," consider whether you need dry or wet utility pipeline contractors. Note, too, that oftentimes, they may be referred to as "underground" pipeline construction companies.

Pipeline pricing affects the pipeline construction industry's bottom line. Recently, a major resin supplier to the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe industry declared "force majeure." This is an unexpected and disruptive event, such as an act of God, inevitable accident or unavoidable casualty that may operate to excuse a party from a contract. Recently, such an instance adversely affected material availability for plastic pipeline production, causing increasing pricing in pipe materials because this resin is a key component used for making sewer, water pipeline and storm drainage system PVC-specific pipelines and to some extent, high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipelines.