Prospering, Building and Securing Our Future Together

Local 18 members help move REX Pipeline across Ohio

Many Local 18 members were busy in 2009 with pipeline work during the final phase of construction of the Rockies Express (REX) Pipeline, one of the largest natural gas pipelines ever constructed in North America. The Ohio portion of the pipeline stretches across the state a few hundred miles from the southern border. The REX pipeline project provided much-needed work in Ohio for operating engineers, laborers, and those in other trades. Click below to see various stages of the work. REX Pipeline moves across Ohio

With Local 18's Help-
     They're Blowin' in the Wind!

They soar 256-feet in the air. And go 32-feet under ground.

They are wind turbines, and each of the four in the Bowling Green Wind Farm Project can produce enough electricity to power approximately 785 homes.

That's wind power! But it was people power.people power from District 2.that helped erect the massive turbines that are bringing renewable, alternative energy to almost 3,000 people in the area.

Local 18 contractors B. Hillz Excavating, Barnhart Crane and Rigging and Jeffers Crane Service, using the skills of District 2 members, did everything from the ground to the sky, from footers to blades that seem to stretch to the heavens.

The Bowling Green Wind Farm is the first utility-size wind farm in the state of Ohio. It began as a joint venture between Bowling Green's public utilities department, American Municipal Power-Ohio and Green Mountain Energy.

Wind energy has become the fastest growing renewable energy sector, and in 2007, capacity of wind turbines in the United States increased 45%.

Local 18 has it covered

The largest covered bridge in the United States, 613 feet long, opened in Ashtabula County in 2008 thanks to the combined efforts of Local 18 members working for Union Industrial Contractors, Koski Construction and All Erection & Crane Rental, and Ashtabula County engineers who are members of Local 18.

Local 18 members moved the dirt for Koski and lifted sections of the bridge into place 93 feet above the Ashtabula River for All Crane. Union Industrial served as general contractor on the project. The Ohio Contractors Association honored Union Industrial's work as the best in its category in its annual Move Ohio Awards program.

The bridge, the fourth longest in the world, is wide enough to allow two semi-trailers to pass each other, replaced an aging steel bridge on C.R. 25 over the river.