With INFUSION24 on the horizon, it’s time to announce our five 2024 Grand Champions of Fusion!
In January 2024, we announced a few changes to our annual Champions of Fusion promotion. In addition to featuring entries weekly on our various social media pages, we also shifted Champions of Fusion into a year-round promotion.
Since then, we’ve received nearly a hundred entries from around the globe, showcasing just how many operators and contractors are committed to our mission of improving the world through better infrastructure. We’ve been thrilled at the response, and we appreciate everyone who took time to enter, discuss, and share in this year’s promotion.
Winners were chosen from entries received January through June. Any submissions received through the rest of 2024 will be rolled into our 2025 promotion. And if your submission wasn’t chosen, please feel free to re-enter for our 2025 contest!
International Winners
Marco Gonzalez – Chile (EMIN)
Marco Gonzalez submitted this photo of work that took place over a two-year period in Chile. For this infrastructure project, Marco began by building a 110mm line to feed underground layers using a TracStar® 250.
At the same time, a provisional 110-160mm line was established to transport and reuse water at the plant, and another 180mm line was installed to feed the layers that were already in place. To carry out the layer lines, Gonzalez’s team also had support from a crew fusing with a Pit Bull® 412.
As time went on, Marco and his team faced the technical challenge of constructing a 500mm line for tailings discharge into a retaining wall with the TracStar® 900. This project was located more than 4,500 meters (14,763 feet) above sea level. Extreme temperatures and difficult terrain were constant throughout the project.
“Fortunately, the McElroy equipment proved to be extremely useful and efficient in handling these challenges, facilitating movements, and ensuring safe and effective work at all times,” Marco said.
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Ronan Crilly – UK (Anglian Water)
Ronan Crilly submitted this photo of a large-scale water project happening in England.
The Strategic Pipeline Alliance is a £500M ($638M USD) water infrastructure project based in the East of England with the purpose of increasing drought resilience. It will be constructed of both large diameter steel and polyethlene pipes.
The four principle contractors, Farrans, MMB, Jacobs, and Costain, are working together with Anglian Water to deliver on hundreds of km of pipelines. It will transfer up to 55M Litres of water everyday through the East of England.
The team will also use new technologies to deliver the pipeline, such as the Tracstar® T900i series for the PE welding and low-water commissioning during the commissioning phase of the project.
Domestic (United States/Canada) Winners
Mitchell Webb (Keystone Pump & Power)
Mitchell Webb sent us this photo of a 300-foot 24-inch line for a new water intake in the Susquehanna River, located in the northeastern United States. The fusion work took place in the river itself in Somerdale, New Jersey.
This job required a portadam, which held back about 13 feet of water around the jobsite so that work could take place.
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Derek MacSweyn (RH MacSweyn)
Derek MacSweyn sent in this photo of a landfill gas header being installed using a TracStar® fusion machine in summer 2023 in Maxville, Canada. Maxville is a city in the Ontario province, located southwest of Montreal and just southeast of Ottawa.
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Ryan Ethier (ISCO)
Ryan Ethier submitted this photo of a 12 x 54 side wall fusion in Ocean Falls, a community on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada.
In next month’s Connections, we’ll share more information about our domestic winners’ entries. In the meantime, please join us again in congratulating this year’s winners!
As a reminder, submissions are STILL being accepted for our 2025 promotion. CLICK HERE to submit your own fusion photos and stories for a chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to INFUSION25 in Tulsa!
