This year is the American Concrete Pipe Association’s centennial. Founded in 1907 in Ames, Iowa, as the Interstate Tile Manufacturers Association, it was a small group of concrete farm drain tile manufacturers who gathered to exchange ideas and standardize their precast products. By establishing an association of concrete pipe producers, the early founders laid the keystone for a vibrant industry. Had they not established an association of concrete pipe producers and the companies that develop the equipment and supplies needed to produce pipe and boxes, the quality of America’s buried infrastructure could be quite different than it is today.
To mark the ACPA’s 100-year relationship with America’s engineers and recognition that concrete pipe and boxes are widely used for public works that protect the health and safety of Americans, the ACPA has opened its membership to professional engineers. Professional membership is limited to any individual, firm, partnership or corporation which is actively engaged in specifying, designing or providing consulting or other professional services to the ACPA, its members or the precast concrete pipe and box culvert industry, as defined by ASTM Committee C-13. Details of the new “Professional Membership” category are posted on the ACPA’s website at www.concrete-pipe.org. Any professional interested in applying for membership may do so online.