Permatile Project on the Cover of Precast Today

April 28, 2026
The cover story of the Q1 2026 issue of Precast Today, published by the National Precast Concrete Association, features a Permatile project: the emergency replacement of a washed-out section of Route 321 in Butler, Tennessee, after Hurricane Helene.

The original corrugated culvert under Route 321 didn’t survive the storm in September 2024. The closure forced long detours through the surrounding mountains for anyone traveling between Tennessee and North Carolina. The Tennessee Department of Transportation and the contractor on the job decided to replace the culvert with reinforced concrete pipe, with a 90-day window to get it built and delivered.

The replacement is two parallel runs of 120-inch diameter pipe, 408 feet total. Each pipe section comes in around 26,000 pounds. The pipe sits under 47 feet of cover, so the engineering had to account for loads well above what a standard highway culvert sees. Our in-house engineering team handled the stamped shop drawings, sized the wall thickness and reinforcement to the load, and detailed an interior and exterior joint system to keep the line tight as the ground settles over time.

The article includes interviews with Hank Rainero, our VP of Sales, and John Rainero, our VP of Engineering and Construction. Both spoke about the impact Helene had on the region and on our own employees.

Thanks to the NPCA for the feature, to Roberta Schneider for putting the article together, and to TDOT and the contractor for bringing us in on the project.

You can read the full article in the digital edition of Precast Today.