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How RACI’s Casing Spacers Help Municipalities Protect Their Pipes
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32 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2021
an old, sleepy business. We truly feel we are now poised to have a strong presence across the United States and Mexico and aim to continue to service our valued clients for many years to come.
RACI casing spacers.
Municipal Water Leader: Who are RACI’s customers? Brad Mehalko: On the water and sewer side, our customer base includes but is not limited to municipalities, counties, boring and construction contractors, installers, wholesalers, and engineering groups. Some of the applications we commonly see are dual-containment drainage projects for airports and large car lots and dual-containment systems and oil and gas applications for transmission and distribution pipelines. RACI’s environmentally friendly, pure high-density polyethylene (HDPE) casing spacer provides an exact and educated solution for everything from everyday applications to the most challenging of jobs. Over the course of 60 years of executing projects in the field, we have had zero reported failures—zero! Josef Reschreiter: Our customers also include the engineering departments of large municipalities, which use our products for municipal water and sewer lines, from those with diameters of 2, 4, or 6 inches all the way up to those of 140 inches. Our product can go into sewer lines, storm drains, dual containment applications (e.g., airport drainage municipalwaterleader.com
PHOTO COURTESY OF RACI.
nstalling and ensuring the longevity of pipes is a fundamental challenge for municipal water entities. RACI’s casing spacers allow pipes to be installed and secured in place with zero metal bolts, clamps, or other parts that will inevitably fail, thus increasing pipe longevity and allowing for easier installation. In this interview, Josef Reschreiter of RACI and Brad Mehalko of Public Works Products, Inc. (PWP), tell Municipal Water Leader about the advantages of RACI spacers and how the company is seeking to expand its reach across North America. Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions. Josef Reschreiter: RACI started producing spacers in the 1960s and is now a global company. I started working in the distribution of RACI spacers about 31 years ago, focusing on the North and South American markets. We’ve since developed specific product lines for the U.S. market. We can accommodate all the different casing sizes, pipe diameters, and pipe types, which has been well received by our valued customers. I have been closely working with PWP since 1994, and it has been a long and rewarding journey. Over the years, we’ve developed strong friendships and relationships, and everything we do is built on mutual trust. Our word is our bond. In 2020, we had fresh blood come to PWP when Scott Ferguson and Brad Mehalko purchased the company and took over its management. They are doing an amazing job expanding to various different parts of the United States that had not been covered efficiently until now. Brad Mehalko: My story is a little different than Josef ’s. I grew up in southern Alberta, Canada, and had the privilege of playing professional hockey until the age of 32, which afforded me the opportunity to live and work all over the United States, Norway, Finland, and Germany. When I decided to hang up my skates, I transitioned into the energy sector and held various positions in the oil and gas industry over 12 years. In late 2020, I was presented with the amazing business opportunity of joining a group of ambitious, like-minded individuals to purchase PWP, which was then known as Public Works Marketing. PWP has been the exclusive master distributor of RACI casing spacers for 27 years and has built a great book of business over the years. Every day, we learn more about the business and see the value of the great connections that have been forged over 27 years of operations. We have a great working and personal relationship with Josef and RACI and are still the exclusive master distributor of RACI casing spacers in the United States and Mexico. Since the purchase, we have done some rebranding, made necessary changes, and freshened up
