815-416-1000UCP Winter 2020 Newsletter
Follow along as we continue sharing the history of UCP’s 50 years in business by highlighting our accomplishments throughout the 1980’s, 1990’s, & 2000’s.
The 1980’s
UCP survived the severe recessions of the early 80’s by sticking to the mindset of offering our customers the highest quality precast concrete products while continuing to diversify our product catalog. The most impactful of the new products during this period was precast median barrier. The first government project that we were awarded and completed was 7,000 LF, which cemented our place as the premier provider of median barrier in Illinois- a position that we maintain to this day.
Additionally, we began working closely with Fermi Lab on some of their bigger contracts of this decade. We produced large quantities of shielding blocks (some of which weighed 50 tons) as well as tunnel sections for the underground accelerator ring.
As we continued to expand our product offerings, we added another 10,000 SF to our production facility, as well as additional bridge cranes. A major product that contributed to the need for the additional space was our adoption of CEV’s (controlled environmental vaults). UCP became the second precaster in the country to produce these for the Bell telephone system, which housed Bell’s electronic equipment leading into the fiber optic age.
Like the 1970’s, the 1980’s was a decade of great challenges but also proved to be an era of endurance, innovation, and expansion that resulted in UCP emerging as a stronger business leading into the 1990’s.
The 1990’s
The industry continued to increase its adoption of precast concrete throughout the 1990’s, allowing us to widen our customer base and product offerings. During this decade, we began producing a substantial amount of the electrical manholes and handholes, marker light bases, and drainage structures for O’Hare International Airport. Many of the electrical products became precast “standards”, as cast-in-place for these items became obsolete due to precast’s advantages.
A similar trend was seen with catch basins and junction chambers, which were no longer being cast-in-place, with contractors preferring the precast alternates.
This was also a period where Commonwealth Edison began a massive rebuild of their underground distribution grid. UCP worked with ComEd to develop larger standard vaults, and we secured contracts to produce thousands of electrical manholes throughout the decade.
Towards the end of the 1990’s, we produced our first stormwater detention system using modified 12x6x7 manhole forms. The first project was installed beneath the parking lot of a funeral home in Plainfield, and while we did not know it at the time, it would end up marking a huge milestone in UCP’s history.
The 2000’s
Our new stormwater detention system product line grew at a rapid rate throughout the late 90’s and early 2000’s. In 2002, the success of these systems warranted the creation of its own company—StormTrap. With the increased production required from StormTrap along with a new IDOT standard barrier shape (requiring production capabilities of more than 150 pieces per day), UCP started to evaluate options for a new production facility.
In 2003, we moved into our new location in Morris, IL on 50 acres of land, where we built a state-of-the-art 100,000 SF facility dedicated as the F.W. Hawken Production Facility.
StormTrap and our traditional product lines continued to flourish through the 2000’s, and the additional building and yard space allowed us to continue to add new products throughout the decade. Fortunately, our diversification paid off to some degree during the great recession. While most of our product lines were impacted, we were able to spread our exposure amongst different markets and end-users, allowing for continued growth and strength as a company.
Nevertheless, UCP continued to explore new products and markets throughout the recession. In 2009, we were officially awarded our first noise abatement wall project. This event marked a significant moment in UCP’s history that changed our focus as a product-based company into one that could provide complete engineered project solutions, which paved our way into the 2010’s.
Stay tuned, as we will be sharing UCP’s past 50 years through “decade” history sections over the coming weeks.
Follow us on Social Media
Interact with us and learn about our recent projects and company news as soon as they are posted!