# United Concrete Pipe Corporation

33°46′20″N 118°13′22″W﻿ / ﻿33.772219°N 118.222686°W﻿ / 33.772219; -118.222686
United Concrete Pipe Corporation was a manufacturing and construction company based in Southern California. It was in the business of constructing and installing concrete water pipes for irrigation, water lines, sewers, and drains, and after 1930 expanded into general construction, building concrete bridges, tunnels, concrete roads, and building foundations. United Concrete Pipe was established in 1919 in Ventura, California, by (Thomas) Tom P. Polich. In 1924 Steve Kral and B. J. Ukropina became partners with Polich. Tom Polich was born on March 22, 1888, in Serbia and came to the US in 1905. Polich worked for a concrete company in Van Nuys, California, before starting his own company. His first contract was installing a irrigation system in Tuttle, California. In the 1930s under the Works Progress Administration the company grew to nine plants and became a general contractor, not just a pipe company. Plants were in California, Texas and New Mexico. In 1953 the three started a new parallel joint venture Ukropina-Polich-Kral of San Gabriel, a general contractor company. United Concrete Pipe Corporation headquarters was at 85th St. and Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, California. One Works Progress Administration project was the Wawona Tunnel built in 1933. In 1937 United Concrete Pipe completed a Works Progress Administration project the Mad River Water Supply Project in Eureka, California. United Concrete Pipe Corporation last plant closed in 1994, at Riverside, California.
In 1943, United Concrete Pipe established a shipyard division in Long Beach, California, to build small coaster ships for the US Army under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. The shipyard of United Concrete Pipe was in Long Beach at Berth 83, at the north side of Channel 2, at the entrance to the channel. Unique to the boatyard was the assembly line railway the ships were built on. As the boat was built it would move down the rail track towards the water. The steel for the shipyard was shaped by United Concrete Pipe's Baldwin Park, California, plant. The Army ships were 176-foot, a beam of 30 feet, a draft of 8 feet, and were 935 tons loaded. Power was from two General Motors Cleveland diesel engines each with 500 hp. The first ship was complete on March 23, 1944.

## Ships

| Name | Owner | Type | Tons | Length | Built | Notes |
| FS 387 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | May-44 | |
| FS 388 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | May-44 | |
| FS 389 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | Jun-44 | To the Philippines as Neptuno |
| FS 390 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | Jul-44 | To USN 1951 as Deimos (AKL 40), to Korea 1951, scrapped 1960 |
| FS 391 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | Jul-44 | To USN 1947 as Hewell (AG 145), later AKL 14, sold 1960 |
| FS 392 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | Aug-44 | |
| FS 393 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | Sep-44 | To the Philippines as Basilan |
| FS 546 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | Sep-44 | To China as Hai Who |
| FS 547 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | Oct-44 | To USN 1951 as Renate (AKL 42), to Korea 1951, scrapped 1960 |
| FS 548 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | Nov-44 | To USN 1950 as AKL 32, struck 1961 |
| FS 549 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | Nov-44 | To the Philippines as Corregidor |
| FS 550 | US Army | Coastal Freighter | 560 | 176 | Dec-44 | To the Philippines as Bohol |
| Tangier Island | Omega Protein | Fishing Vessel | 538 | 166 | 1944 | |
| Joan of Arc | | Fishing Vessel | 131 | | ca. 1946 | 1 shaft direct drive 805 hp FM 37-E-14 7cyl. 2 225 hp Atlas-Imperial 6cyl. aux |
| Star Kist | | Fishing Vessel | 131 | | ca. 1946 | 1 shaft direct drive 805 hp FM 37-E-14 7cyl. 2 225 hp Atlas-Imperial 6cyl. aux |
| Courageous | | Fishing Vessel | 131 | | ca. 1946 | 1 shaft direct drive 805 hp FM 37-E-14 7cyl. 2 225 hp Atlas-Imperial 6cyl. aux |
| Santa Barbara | | Fishing Vessel | 131 | | ca. 1946 | 1 shaft direct drive 805 hp FM 37-E-14 7cyl. 2 225 hp Atlas-Imperial 6cyl. aux |
| Alaska | Diehl Trust | Fishing Vessel | 221 | 94 | 1947 | |