In construction, it is often said that the best solutions are the simplest—the most direct and straightforward. According to Vice President Greg Arvai, Ontario based IECS is in the business of simple, specifically “innovative infrastructure solutions that save time”. It is evident, in conversation with Arvai, that clarity and honesty have been, and continue to be, key to the development of the company’s concrete products and working relationships. Integrity in construction involves constantly striving to be more efficient, not only in immediate terms such as speed, but in the long-term best interests of the local community and environment.

“It’s kind of just the way we operate,” Arvai says without fanfare. “It’s just our business model, which is beneficial for everyone.” This model is based on two core product lines: custom precast concrete structures and Cable Concrete, a trademarked articulated concrete block mat system. Up until now, the precast service has only been available in the Ontario region, but this will soon change. Meanwhile, Cable Concrete has been internationally exported for years as a versatile solution for erosion control. The two sides of the business are distinct but interrelated, as Arvai explains over the course of our conversation.

Precast concrete was the starting point of the company founded in 1984 by Arvai’s father, Louis. Originally pouring concrete for domestic driveways and sidewalks in Ontario, he and his partners then started precasting patio stones. A series of progressions and modifications to the precast product line resulted in Cable Concrete, a turning point for the growing business. An ACB mat system connected by cables, it forms flexibly to the ground’s surface and can be easily cut to fit irregular shaped areas. Initially only available in one block size, it evolved through lab studies and testing into the fully engineered offering it is today, customizable according to the stability required.

Looking at online images and videos of Cable Concrete being installed and in situ, one is struck by the appealing simplicity of its appearance. Rows of neat blocks adhere easily to the undulations of the landscape, belying the sophisticated engineering that went into their design. The mats can be completely vegetated, ultimately becoming invisible. This solution is also safe for pedestrians and animals because the blocks cannot be dislodged or vandalized like loose rocks. It is also a more sustainable option, compared to riprap, which is a non-renewable resource and one that is an expensive import to places where it is not native or readily available.

“Ultimately, we’re just coming in as an engineered solution and offering support.”

When Cable Concrete is imported as an engineering solution, the actual blocks will be made locally, with local materials and local workers. The steel molds are manufactured by IECS in Canada, from where they can be shipped to any location across the globe. This mode of production is a factor in the company’s capacity to turn out large-scale erosion control and pipeline protection projects in far flung locations, while maintaining a lean staff. The economic and other benefits are not just one-sided though. Job creation, along with a sense of real involvement in and ownership of projects is a positive legacy to leave with the communities who will live with these structures. Local teams will be supported by training and project management teams from IECS who will oversee the project. As Arvai describes it: “Ultimately, we’re just coming in as an engineered solution and offering support. And other than that, it should be looked at as a local product and a local success story.”

As Cable Concrete took off in the late 1980s, the precast product line was also growing and diversifying. It began with headwalls in residential areas. Louis and his then partner Charlie kept seeing them in the plans of projects for which they’d been brought in to install concrete mats. The two wondered if they could cast them and after some experimentation, IECS was the first to market with a precast headwall. From there they diversified further, on to larger box culverts, box manholes and bridge elements, drawn to anything unique and challenging, a factor in their move towards heavy civil structure projects. One of very few companies willing to take on some particularly difficult challenges, IECS still offers a fair price. As Arvai tells it: “Our norm is these unique projects. We can offer the market custom structures with a non-custom price tag and offer competitive solutions.”

These bespoke solutions also have the additional benefit of streamlining the process for contractors considerably. Specializing in large scale structures, IECS offers segmental precast alternatives that save contractors time and money, while also cutting down on other processes such as shoring, dewatering, and bypass pumping. Items traditionally formed and poured on site can take 4-8 weeks to do so, whereas ones manufactured off site at the IECS facility can be installed in a matter of days. There are also improvements in quality, when the pouring is done in a completely controlled environment, within an enclosed facility. Quality is improved and weather variables do not need to be accounted for, making scheduling easier. Contractors also do not need to sub out as much work; they can use their own team and their own equipment to lift the large precast structure from the trailer and move it into place.

“We want to be fair. We want to offer good products. We will continue to grow our product line.”

On the subject of sustainability, Arvai explains that it is built into the company’s business model, as shipping and unsustainable resources are avoided as much as possible. The concrete used today is also more environmentally friendly than the type used previously and the production facility is constantly upgraded with the latest energy efficient tools and materials. A newly acquired rebar bending and cutting machine promises to reduce energy consumption and steel waste by 20%. On the subject of ethics, Arvai is frank: “We want to be fair. We want to offer good products. We will continue to grow our product line. We will continue to grow the solutions we offer our industry. We’re not going anywhere. We’re very excited about the future.”

There’s a lot to be excited about. In 2021 the team will commence work on the biggest project it has ever been involved in to date: the Davenport Diamond Grade Separation Project, owned by Metrolinx. The bridge will be constructed in collaboration with design engineer IBT and contractor Graham Construction. Work is also underway with multiple contractors on five of the new dam projects on the Trent-Severn canal, for Parks Canada. IECS will build the bridge decks for these.

At the time of writing, the potential for geographical expansion is growing. Cable Concrete is in the approval process for the list of products officially endorsed by the Ministry of Public Works in Chile. This approval would create opportunity and diversification, by opening doors into previously uptapped markets. Once this approval happens, the product can be specified for use on any federal or government funded projects, and will naturally also come into the radar of private sector contractors. As Chile strives to be a leader in innovation in the region, Arvai believes that this will also open the door for business in surrounding countries in South America.

Recent big investments in facilities will support these and other projects. The Ontario manufacturing shop was recently extended with a 25,000 square feet area specifically for custom precast products. It is in the location that the Davenport Diamond Bridge will be manufactured. The facility boasts a 70 ton overhead crane indoors, along with an 80 ton rubber tire gantry crane in the yard. Land has also been purchased in Saskatchewan, with plans to establish a new fabrication shop and headquarters in Humboldt, to offer customers in the west of Canada a greater range of precast products beyond Cable Concrete.

“He speaks proudly of the current staff roster, which he describes as bright, open-minded, and a great mixture of young and old.”

In contrast to many, the IECS experience of the pandemic was not one of surviving but thriving. 2020 was in fact the company’s most successful year to date. Lots of existing contracts were deemed essential by the government, allowing work to continue, albeit with additional safety measures. There were no virus cases among workers at the manufacturing facility or those based in the office. Despite, or perhaps because of, the surrounding uncertainty that unfolded as the pandemic raged on, the 110-strong team became closer. Arvai attributes this to a positive work culture. Despite the scope of its endeavours and ambition, there is still something refreshingly down-to-earth about this family-run business, with its base in a small rural area. For Arvai and his father, maintaining a “big family” feeling is important. He speaks proudly of the current staff roster, which he describes as bright, open-minded, and a great mixture of young and old.

Optimism around the work is another key value. “We have a core belief that we can solve any problem,” he says, and this clearly extends beyond engineering challenges to interpersonal dynamics and international collaborations: “We want people to know that there is no country or city that we won’t visit. If there’s an opportunity where we can come in and offer a solution, then we’re willing to make the journey and establish the relationship and the trust that is needed to do business, and build that solid relationship with new people. We love meeting new people.”

Industries develop on unique paths. The story of the United States can, in one way, be told as the story of intrepid people forging businesses out of determination and a keen eye toward the needs of a given market. One successful effort spawns competition and not long after, you have the beginnings of a full-blown industry. Providing a market continues to grow, so will the individual providers. Managing the nation’s wastewater is a colossal undertaking, one that requires a nearly endless quantity of piping to keep us all in living standards that people several hundred years ago could not have fathomed. And up until the late 1970’s, ductile pipe fabrication had many providers, but no specific industry standards. Several large manufacturers and a slew of independent outfits all operated according to their own guidelines, leading to all sorts of inefficiencies and real difficulties. Sensing a chance to remedy the situation, at a convention in 1979, Ted Wright introduced the National Association of Pipe Fabricators to the industry. Wright pulled together a number of independent fabricators to form the Board of the NAPF and shortly thereafter established the first industry-wide standards of ductile pipe manufacturing. This set the stage to eventually bring most of the country’s ductile pipe fabricators and manufacturers under the aegis of the NAPF and thereby raise the quality of the industry wholesale.

First and foremost, the establishing of one set of standards and specifications for ductile pipe fabrication was paramount. Allowing for significantly greater cohesion for everyone involved, this solved innumerable problems. This was accomplished by a number of initiatives.  NAPF’s Quality Plus Certification Program is available to Members. With input by a seat on the AWWA A21 committee, C115, which covers the manufacturing of Ductile Iron Pipe Fabrication, now requires NSF61 listing for fabrication used in domestic drinking water. According to former NAPF Chair, Joe Palombo, “When NSF comes in, they have a checklist and they stay here for the day, and we make sure that we’re spending time with them to show them that everything that needs to be up to snuff, is up to snuff. And that’s from the paperwork that we keep, to the certifications on the pipe that we purchased to make the fabricated pipe. We have to show them the paperwork from the foundry of the testing of the pipe.” This meticulous process allows for a sense of trust, and that everyone is always on the same page. It generates a confidence across the industry. Also, in March 2000 NAPF published the NAPF 500-3 Standard. This standard, which sought to address best practice and give guidance on “surface preparation for duction iron pipe and fittings in exposed locations receiving special eternal coatings and/or special internal linings” is now used by both engineers and the piping community.

Industry-wide standards are important from a logistics standpoint but there were multiple reasons Ted Wright and his colleagues sought to establish the NAPF in the first place. Protection against reputational harm was a serious concern. Especially amongst independent fabricators, all it takes is one bad apple to sully the rest. Without the same name-brand leverage that the biggest companies enjoy, one smaller outfit underperforming could tarnish them all. Palombo, said, “We had to make sure that everybody knew what they were doing. Everybody was on the same page, make sure they were making everything the right way, threading it properly, tightening the flanges properly, lining up the bolt holes properly, using the proper thread sealants, and all that had to be centralized so that we were all doing it the same way.” Joining the NAPF is a way to ensure a measure of protection for independent fabricators, one that also gives them a voice in the conversations that affect the direction of the industry.

“Staying up to date on current trends, networking with other members from all corners of the industry, and availing the educational programs on offer are just some of the built-in benefits.”

Membership in the NAPF ensures keeping a finger on the beating pulse. Staying up to date on current trends, networking with other members from all corners of the industry, and availing the educational programs on offer are just some of the built-in benefits. The NAPF acts as a nexus, facilitating as much as possible for the industry. As Palombo described it, “We’ll be up to date with everything that’s happening in the industry, including coatings, linings, what’s happening with all the different epoxies, what’s going on with the funding by the government. We have speakers that come in to talk, experts on the subject. The members are always kept up to date to know what’s going on. And you know, we always say, you don’t know what you don’t know. And so, if you’re not a member, you can’t always know what’s going on, you’ll be all by yourself out there on an island, not hearing all the things that are happening in the industry.” With the sheer volume of information to stay abreast of, the NAPF are making a concerted effort to organize it all in an accessible manner under one umbrella. 

One of the topics anyone involved in the wastewater sector keeps a keen eye on is government funding. Traditionally the allocation of funds in infrastructure spending has been focused above ground. Roads and bridges are the common refrain in the halls of Washington. Wastewater systems maintenance and upgrading funding has been harder to come by. Frustratingly, it may be simply a case of “out of sight, out of mind”. Mostly underground or behind thick walls, ductile piping may not inspire landscape artists like some cloud-rippling suspension bridge, but it is inarguably more crucial to our everyday lives. Current NAPF Chair Dan Henrie, said, “Water is very important, as we saw down in Dallas, Texas, when those folks down there had the frigid temps. And what happened with the water infrastructure, it’s aging.” Without significant spending increases these problems will only become more frequent, and more expensive. Being reactive to these situations is far from ideal. Citizen’s lives get upended for sometimes weeks on end and often these recovery efforts end up in the multi-billion-dollar range. Henrie continued, “If they have significant water main breaks, or their infrastructure is too old. Some communities have 100-year-old, ductile cast iron pipe. It’s managed by exception. When there’s catastrophe, or when there’s a problem, then it’s significant. And it’s a part of the infrastructure issue as a whole.” Membership in the NAPF allows businesses to keep on top of the latest developments in this area and to participate in the ongoing conversation as well.

It has been important for the NAPF to maintain an open stance to a broadening coalition over time. Palombo stated, “It’s evolved over the years. Little by little where we started allowing associate members in, people that sell us the product, the components that we use to make the pipe, we included them. If they make pipe, if they fabricate pipe, then they’re included also.” In the eyes of the NAPF, getting everyone in the ductile pipe business together at one table is to the benefit of the industry as a whole. Henrie added, “Our organization has always been about being inclusive… And just recently, in the spirit of being inclusive, we added two board seats for distribution members. Because we feel that they have a voice and they have a significant presence in the pipe fabrication and the water and wastewater business.”

“It’s a very cohesive, supportive, tight-knit membership.”

NAPF members are proud to use products that are made from recycled scrap metals making them environmently safe. Beyond the practicalities of the business, the organization is proud of its human-level achievements. Palombo added a worthwhile sentiment, “You don’t have to believe me, but the people in this association are really great people.” A lovely notion; one that is perhaps overlooked in today’s busy world. Something you wouldn’t want to take for granted, either. Henrie agreed, “They are a great, great group to work with. It’s a very cohesive, supportive, tight-knit membership. We rely on each other and support each other in in the day-to-day business. And they’re amazing folks, a very cohesive group.”

As the population grows, so does its infrastructure needs. Wastewater maintenance requires a mammoth ductile piping industry to keep us humans in the style we’re accustomed to. The NAPF seeks to ensure that industry functions as smoothly and coherently as possible while shining a light on the integral work that its people and businesses provide. Work that a very industrious nation should most certainly appreciate. 

The Prairies cover an almost inconceivable stretch of land across Western Canada. At nearly 690,000 square miles, you could fit France inside with some change left over. Forever skies. Wide-open spaces. A volume of space that dwarfs even our most ambitious engineering feats and architectural wonders. It’s a landscape that seems a natural home for a company like Inland Pipe, whose portfolio includes one colossal project after another. 

Based in Calgary, Southern Alberta, at the edge of the Prairies, Inland Pipe, alongside its sister outfit, Lehigh Cement (formerly Inland Cement), has been manufacturing and supplying concrete pipe and cement in the region for more than a century. The original iteration of the company was the result of four construction companies banding together and forming Consolidated Concrete. These days Inland Pipe operates as part of Lehigh Hanson, the North American subsidiary of HeidelbergCement, and is one of the industry’s leaders in front-to-back concrete piping solutions. Technical Sales Manager Shawn Rogers has been with Inland since the mid-eighties, rising up through the ranks as the company drew the attention of global conglomerates. About being with the company he said, “We were Consolidated Concrete at the beginning and then we transitioned into CBR Hydropipe. We have been under the Lehigh Hanson brand for a little over ten or twelve years now. We do tend to have a fairly long loyalty list.” With a devoted workforce and an ability to tackle large-scale projects, it’s little surprise Inland Pipe was appealing to a large construction materials company like Lehigh Hanson. And you don’t have to look far from Inland’s Calgary headquarters to find examples of its abilities. 

The Bonnybrook Wastewater Treatment Plant is the largest of Calgary’s three plants and was first constructed in the 1930’s. The population growth of the city and its environs over the years necessitated that its biggest wastewater plant be significantly upgraded. Inland Pipe was one of the companies sought out to work on the sizeable project. Rogers recounted, “There’s been some expansion plans for years. It was kind of expedited, if you will, by the floods that we had. They were revamping the outfall structure and upgrading capacity at the at the wastewater facility.” While no large-scale project would be considered easy, on its face it may seem a job like any other for a concrete piping company. The expansion of Bonnybrook, however, contained considerably more difficult challenges than at first glance. Rogers continued, “The challenge of it was that it had to go underneath one of the Canadian National rail lines. So, you only get about a twenty-day construction window for installing or shutting down the rail spur.” On top of the normal intense logistics endemic to laying underground pipe, the Bonnybrook project required alacrity as well. Speed and quality aren’t always comfortable bedfellows, but sometimes there’s no choice in the matter. Sometimes you just have to answer the bell. Rogers summed up the complexity of the installation, “So, there were essentially four different conduits stacked on top and beside each other. The rail spur had to be taken apart, the berms ripped down, the boxes installed, backfilled, and the rail line put back in place. It was quite an operation.” And all inside the twenty-day deadline. Perhaps the art of working underground inculcates a manner of understatement in its practitioners.  

“Speed and quality aren’t always comfortable bedfellows, but sometimes there’s no choice in the matter. Sometimes you just have to answer the bell.”

If complexity is one axis of the challenge graph, scale is represented on the perpendicular. In the Cranston neighborhood of southern Calgary, the Rangeview Sanitary Trunk project required laying 3.4 kilometers of pipe.  On top of the sheer length of the installation, Inland was operating with a newer technology. Only appearing in North American operations relatively recently, micro-tunnelling installed pipe is used in smaller-bore tunnelling projects, ranging from 500 to 4000 millimeters in diameter. The small size doesn’t allow for operators to drive the machines and so an even higher degree of precision than normal is required. According to Rogers, “It’s a very tightly spec’d product and you need a lot of trust. There’s a lot of emphasis placed on the supplier product and quality.” The first micro-tunnel projects in the region were actually supplied by pipe companies from outside the province due to the delicate nature of the work. Relying on previous relationships where that trust had already been built, made it difficult for any of the Alberta concrete pipe companies to get a foot into the micro-tunnelling game at first. Eventually, however, Inland was able to join forces with one of its prior partners to win the Rangeview job and expand its repertoire in a progressive direction. Rogers continued, “One of our major customers in Calgary, Volker Stevin, we’ve got a long-term relationship with them. And they joined forces with another tunnelling company, Innovative Pipeline Crossings. They’re actually owned by Bothar, which is a leader out of Australia. They’re quite a substantial micro-tunnel company that is looking to make a presence and establish a footprint in North America. So, we were able to partner up with them for this project and it was turned out quite well. This is pretty successful project.” 

As in the case with expansion into micro-tunnelling, Inland is pushing forward into other progressive arenas as well. Across all industries, climate-friendly solutions are rapidly becoming not just sensible options but the state of the art. Inland’s Cement division is offering EcoCemPlus amongst its range of cementitious materials. Designed to impart both strength and durability, it also significantly lowers the environmental effect of cement and concrete. A Portland-limestone blend, EcoCemPlus has less storage requirements at plants and was found to have a 22 percent smaller carbon footprint than General Use cement. And they’re pushing even further ahead into the realm of cutting-edge technologies. Rogers said, “The other thing our cement people are doing is, in Edmonton, they are undertaking a feasibility study of building a carbon capture facility where they’re going to actually capture the CO2 off of their operation.” Inland Pipe is certainly used to stepping up to monumental tasks. Engaging with the front line of heavy-industry environmental technology seems to be just the next step along the path of success.

Despite its significant successes over the years, challenges always remain. The pandemic has collected a heavy toll everywhere, including from most businesses. Juggling cost-concerns with the welfare of employees is no easy consideration. Then there are the more prosaic concerns of market fluctuations, which vary significantly in Canada. Rogers remarked, “There’s a different market for pricing even between southern and northern Alberta. And then it just it varies greatly as you go province to province. You’re always trying to keep your finger on the pulse of where the market is for each region. It can be a challenging thing to try and keep up with.” One strategy the company is turning towards to ensure future growth is a more holistic market offering. Being able to meet every aspect of their customer’s needs. Rogers said, “So, there’s a lot of value-added opportunities we’re pursuing, partnering up through some of the waterworks individuals that are out there so that we can provide turnkey options to the market to essentially reduce construction time in the trench. Our industry operates on how many days in the trench the contractors need to get the products in the ground. So, if you can reduce it in any way, it’s going to be helpful to them and it’s going to make everything more efficient.”

Tackling some of North America’s largest concrete pipe installations is a given. Embracing and developing new climate-friendly materials and technologies has begun. Keeping a constant eye out for potential partnerships to expand the breadth and reach of Inland Pipe is ongoing. It’s the kind of vast ambition that requires a broad horizon. And the Prairies happily oblige. 

In an ideal scenario, health and safety would not need to be a consideration in a professional setting. The idea of risking your life, or even encountering the possibility of suffering a serious debilitating injury, while attempting to earn an income seems incompatible with how many of us view the world. However, as our professional lives have shimmered and blended into a form of lifestyle synergy, some all-encompassing living experience, there are an ever-increasing number of safety concerns across all industries. Each year, thousands of workers within the construction industry lose their live or suffer serious injury through work-related incidents. It is reported that in the U.S. alone, employers and their staff spend more than $100 billion each year resulting from back injuries sustained while working alone. Despite huge training and funding in the areas of safety and training, construction related jobs account for a large portion of work place fatalities. This is not a recent development either. While health and safety requirements are of a high standard, challenges remain. According to the latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor, fatalities right across construction have risen year-on-year by 5% and the industry is well embedded within the top ten most dangerous workplaces. Even with an increased awareness of safety protocols, statistics show no sign of improvement so the question that needs to be asked is, what can be done to stop this?

For decades, research in the area of robotics has identified the potential to assist humans by amplifying their strength. As far back as 1965, General Electric spent a number of years designing and trialling a robotic exoskeleton suit that would improve the wearers strength by a factor of 25, thus allowing the user to lift a 1,500 pound object as if it weighed 60 pounds. It was anticipated that this ground-breaking technology, referred to as a “man-augmentation” system at the time, would operate by humans performing the “thinking” while the robot provided the strength. In a 1968 presentation to the Society of Automotive Engineers, Ralph S. Mosher, GE Project Engineer, wrote that “man and machine can be combined into an intimate, symbiotic unit that will perform essentially as one wedded system.” Unfortunately however, despite the clear innovation and will to succeed that was on display, the ‘Hardiman’ was unsuccessful due to many constraints such as its weight, stability and power supply issues. Thankfully, engineers did not give up.

“ABI themselves are now predicting that the market will be worth over $11 billion before the end of the decade.”

Many studies have been conducted in the area of robotics and exoskeletons, particularly in terms of their viability. Back in 2015, it was being predicted that the robotic exoskeleton market would reach $1.8 billion by 2025. This growth, which would have represented a market expansion of almost 40%, was being attributed to the opportunity that the technology provided within the construction industry. ABI Research, who has conducted the study, said that “commercial systems that augment or amplify capabilities will exhibit the strongest growth moving forward. This is especially true for industrial tasks requiring heavy lifting, extended standing, squatting, bending or walking in manufacturing facilities, particularly within construction and agriculture industries.” More recent research, however, is even more encouraging. ABI themselves are now predicting that the market will be worth over $11 billion before the end of the decade. It seems as though the industry is ready for change.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), has issued guidelines recommending that two or more people should lift any weights over 50 pounds. So, within this context, does the robotic exoskeleton fit into the modern construction industry? In essence, yes. However, the technology is still in its infancy and is yet to be widely adopted. This in itself, given the level of technology currently available, is remarkable. For example, one such piece of technology is the Guardian XO from Utah based company, Sarcos Robotics. The company is an industry leader in “industrial robotic systems that augment human performance by combining human intelligence, instinct, and judgment with the strength, endurance, and precision of machines to enhance employee safety and productivity.” The Guardian XO is the flagship product within the Guardian range and was unveiled last year. The technology is borne from a collaboration with Delta Airlines and has been in the works for a number of years.

The product was first prototyped back in 2000 and at the time, was based on a hydraulic design. However, issues with an echo of ‘The Hardiman’ remained. According to Ben Wolff, CEO of Sarcos, “The first prototype used around 6,800 watts of power per hour.” Through design tweaks and technological advances, the XO, now battery powered, uses around 500 watts per hour. While this is a welcome advancement from an operational point of view, does the XO work? According to Sarcos themselves, the answer is a resounding yes. The Guardian XO is “a battery-powered, full-body exoskeleton designed to boost human performance and endurance while helping to prevent injury. This robotic suit, designed for employees to wear, does the heavy lifting. By bearing the weight of the suit and the payload, the exoskeleton may enable an employee to lift up to 200 pounds repeatedly for up to eight hours at a time without strain or fatigue.” With the XO demonstrating its capabilities last year at the CES trade show, these statements are not simply PR speak.

“The Sarcos team achieved a significant engineering feat last year by completing the R&D phase of the world’s first battery-powered, full-body industrial exoskeleton—the Guardian XO.”

It is worth noting that there seems to be a strong appetite for this equipment within the industry. Sarcos recently raised $40 million in an oversubscribed Series C round of investor funding. As the funding is to be used to begin commercial production of the XO, it seems as though the market is keen to bring this product to the masses. Speaking at the time, Wolff was keen to recognize both the innovation itself and its potential to revolutionize the industry. “The Sarcos team achieved a significant engineering feat last year by completing the R&D phase of the world’s first battery-powered, full-body industrial exoskeleton—the Guardian XO. This new funding will allow us to achieve our next goal of scaling production and shipping commercial units of the Guardian XO exoskeleton. In addition, we will also advance the development of our ‘smart’ version of the Guardian XO exoskeleton with our Cybernetic Training for Autonomous Robots (CYTAR™) artificial intelligence platform, which will enable the robot to augment the operator’s precision and skill to complete specific tasks.”

It is tempting to imagine a time when repetitive strain injuries, impact accidents and workplace fatalities are minimized, or eliminated completely. It is also vitally important to recognize that when the statistics are studied, it seems that the construction industry does still have a problem with workplace safety. It is perhaps too early to say that exoskeletons are the answer to these challenges however, strides in the right direction are being taken. In addition to the full-body XO, other companies such as Samsung are working on more targeted, limb specific products that support lifting, carrying or walking. This presumably stems from the acknowledgement that not every construction related use will need a whole body solution. This, again, is something that those at Sarcos are all too aware of also. “Not every task requires lifting 200 pounds,” says Wolff. “Maybe a suit only needs to lift 100 pounds. It could be much lighter and more efficient on power.” While it is abundantly clear that this technology has clear ergonomic and safety benefits, barriers remain, namely the cost and training for staff. However, it is important to recognize innovation and problem solving when you see it. Sarcos Robotics, along with Samsung and a number of other tech companies, are identifying a clear path towards a safer site, a project with zero fatalities, a workforce that is fit and able for the job. With construction exoskeletons, the future of construction safety, while always a vital consideration for any company, may just get slightly safer. 

Business does not remain static for long. Each year brings developments, adaptations and new ideas, clients can often look for things faster, better and cheaper. As industries grow and develop, the mechanisms that surround them change also; the tightening of regulations and infrastructure adaptations can leave a business on unsure ground. Ensuring that a company is successful over a long period of time is not an easy task and very few reach the fifty year mark. In order to achieve this, a company needs to work with the flow of an industry, to be innovative and flexible. The company also needs to understand that longevity comes from working with clients like they are family. With over half a century of experience and expertise, V. Paulius and Associates (VPA) have developed from being a design consulting firm to a complete turnkey solutions company, working with clients from site acquisition through to design-build. In addition to general contracting and construction management, VPA offers full architectural, engineering and planning services, specializing in customized storage, distribution and manufacturing facilities. The company, run by brothers Raymond and Robert Paulius, has certainly learned to make adaptations along the way.

“V. Paulius and Associates (VPA) have developed from being a design consulting firm to a complete turnkey solutions company, working with clients from site acquisition through to design-build.”

Vytautas Paulius started the company in 1967. His experience until then had been a story of dedication and perseverance. According to Raymond, his father had arrived, initially in Canada before making his way to the United States, from his home country of Lithuania as ‘’a 17-year-old kid that didn’t speak the language and had five bucks in his pocket.’’ His formative experiences in Canada were positive, attending the prestigious McGill University before completing his education with a master’s qualification in civil engineering. His desire to succeed brought him to the U.S. where he met his future wife and began gathering knowledge of the industry. Raymond explains that his father’s work as chief engineer for a large metropolitan development company in the New York area served as a worthwhile apprenticeship before he ventured out alone. ‘’He said to himself, I’m going to take this risk and do it myself. From there, he started as a design consulting company, strictly doing architecture, civil and structural engineering for industrial buildings. That is what he was managing at his previous job.’’

However, it became apparent to Vytautas that by expanding into related fields, he could grow the company in exciting new directions and provide a more well-rounded service to his clients. ‘’It started to grow and he saw that the real control and development of a project is in the construction. It morphed into this complete design-build very early on.’’ One skill that carried over from his previous engineering work was the use of tilt-up technology. Tilt-up uses ‘’site-cast concrete wall panels that you form-in-place as opposed to coming from a precaster. These panels are poured on-site on floor slabs, concrete aprons or casting beds. Once the concrete attains proper strength, you lift the panels up and the building is instantaneously built.’’ By utilizing and adapting a technique that was not particularly common in the Northeast of the country at that time, the company was able to offer genuine innovation to a customer base that, until then, was only being given one option. ‘’It’s very popular in the warmer climates, like in California, Texas, and Florida. In the northeast it wasn’t that prevalent because most of the builders were all working with concrete block. My father adapted it to our environment and to our weather and we proceeded to excel in this process. It was a very cost-effective way to build large distribution centers.’’

In addition to offering a complete design-build package to clients, VPA are also in the unique position of being able to secure the land required for a project. This came about through a highly successful working partnership that grew to the extent that the client suggested that VPA extended its services to acquiring the site and even financing the entire project. This allows the company to provide the complete spectrum of services which can be tailored to the requirements of the client. Raymond explains that this specific set of circumstances led to the company expanding in a truly innovative fashion. ‘’They asked us to assist in searches for potential locations. They would say, we need a distribution center in the northeast or in the New York City area. Please do a site search for us and come up with some prospects. Here are our financials, come back to us with the complete design-build package; land, building, financing, everything and we lease the building from you on a long-term basis. That was our ticket to a whole different level of business.’’

The decision took VPA into an exciting new direction, one that has led the company to where it is today. The development and investment into a property and real estate portfolio allowed them to strengthen relationships with clients by anticipating their needs. Raymond explains that by forward planning in this manner, the company was in the fortunate position of being able to both solidify and diversify. ‘’So my father would end up buying land, but he would look at larger parcels that we could develop in the future, so we started to develop industrial parks. This led to a whole succession of new clients, new possibilities. We began working with local Chambers of Commerce and commercial real estate companies to bring businesses into our park. We did this in the northeast – New Jersey, New York, we did it in Atlanta, and we are looking to do it in Florida right now.’’

“The development and investment into a property and real estate portfolio allowed them to strengthen relationships with clients by anticipating their needs.”

The project in Florida is not one that has happened overnight. Having built up a strong network of clients in food distribution, VPA has remained vigilant to the possibility of acquiring land parcels near ports. These relationships are borne from historical client relationships in Vytautas’ homeland and a proven track record in creating bespoke premises for the distribution and processing of meats and other foods. VPA had been using its Lithuanian base as a platform for distribution but a knock-on effect of the devastating Hurricane Katrina was that many ports along the Gulf of Mexico were left severely damaged and disabled. The company identified Jacksonville, FL as an alternate point of distribution and initial work was completed. However, the distribution industry settled once more and the plan was shelved until recently when Argentina-based Axionlog, a full-service logistics provider of restaurant food and supplies for some of the world’s largest fast-food chains in South America was seeking to enter the North American market. ‘’They were looking to establish a distribution center in this area, primarily Jacksonville because of its port and came across our property. They are going to start off by exporting U.S. manufactured products to Latin America and eventually importing goods for domestic distribution. The 38,000 square foot facility will be a combination of dry and cold storage with warehouse facilities and administrative offices. The plan is to expand the facility to a little over 100,000 square feet within 5 years.’’

Given the interconnected nature of logistics and supply chain management, the tumult of COVID 19 is likely to have been a stumbling block for any new developments around the globe. Interestingly, Raymond identifies the need to migrate to online platforms as a silver lining in terms of communication and collaboration. ‘Video conferencing has actually been a blessing. We have been able to communicate with Axionlog quite frequently and work through the design. It is nice that we have familiarity with that type of building because we’ve built so many of them. They have a great comfort level with us. And you know, it’s interesting how they have to adapt because we do some things differently in North America than they do in South America. So it’s a sharing of ideas, bouncing things off each other. Obviously building code requirements vary as well as construction methodology from country to country so it’s been a very challenging process.’’

Raymond and his brother Robert believe that, as a family business, they are in the privileged position of being able to offer continuity and ongoing support to clients. These relationships are an intrinsic aspect of the company and have led to exciting developments and opportunities to build long term partnerships. One in particular, a project with STERIS Isomedix, has resulted in the company assisting with cutting edge technology on a number of occasions, most recently as an essential response to COVID-19. ‘’Right now we’re working on a sterilization facility in the lower Hudson Valley, in the Village of Chester, New York. This is going to be the third project we’ve done for them in our industrial park since 1990, collectively totaling over 200,000 square feet. We worked with them to build a gamma irradiation facility which was a new building type for us. They came back to us and asked us to build a new facility using a different technology, E-beam irradiation, which is a particle accelerator used to produce a highly charged stream of electrons to sterilize single case medical devices, supplies and laboratory equipment. They now are expanding this facility and building two X-Ray irradiators which will also be used to sterilize all these products, but in larger palletized loads.’’

V. Paulius & Associates has been built, quite literally, from the ground up. It encapsulates everything about family run businesses. In this company, relationships matter. This is not a company willing to chase rapid expansion to the detriment of client experiences. Raymond explains that the company wants to build in a different way, to ensure that the success they have experienced over the past fifty years continues by doing the right things. ‘’We start a relationship with the client early on, and I think they become very appreciative of that. What happens is that they begin to trust us. They get a comfort level and then it leads to a very successful building. Maybe it leads to more buildings with the same client. Quite simply, that is our approach. There’s a line that says, hey, stick to what brought you to the Super Bowl, you know? That’s what we do. We stick to the buildings that we know.’’