Archive – 2004-2008
Precast Under Live Fire
Bullet-absorbing precast concrete helps re-create a safe, realistic Iraqi village for live fire training.
By Fernando Pagés Ruiz
The U.S. Marine Corps Training Command Center at Twentynine Palms functions as the largest Marine Corps base in the world, covering a half-million acres of Southern California desert. Maj. Richard Doherty oversees the integration of new engineering systems for troop training, where the emphasis has shifted to design facilities for military operations on urban terrain (MOUT). “The war on terror unfolds in cities and towns,” Doherty said. “As more people move into urban centers, the world’s conflicts move into dense, populated environments.” More than military might, urban warfare requires experience in close-quarters combat and highly trained light forces to move from street to street and room to room, as well as the ability to distinguish between civilians and hostile forces. Read More »
Portland’s King-Size Railing
Railing rough and tough enough to withstand 60 mph-plus vehicle impacts – and it just so happens to look good too.
By Greg Snapper
Since 1937, the Martin Luther King Jr. viaduct in Portland, Ore., has served as a major traffic artery. A confluence of trade, Portland relies heavily on commercial traffic flowing through the inbound and outbound lanes. But due to years of wear and tear, the viaduct faces a structural overhaul, and in the process, it will become safer and more aesthetically appealing than its predecessor.
Precast architectural bridge railing will line the east and west perimeters, serving not only as an aesthetic spindle-railing touch, but as protection for drivers as well. Read More »
Comment on this post...Precast Concrete Goes to the Beach
On a California beach, manhole shafts provide a delightful alternative to block construction for restroom facilities.
By Fernando Pagés Ruiz
Most people who use the stylish showers and privies located along the picturesque, white sand beaches of San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura, Calif., don’t realize that they have actually stepped into a manhole. When Jim Pleasants, general manager of Inland Concrete Inc. in Riverside, learned that his precast manhole shafting would become an architectural component, he explained to the project architect, “These pipes are not finished for above ground applications. They’re, well, rough!”
Read More »
Port Call
A massive construction project at the bustling Port of Tacoma calls on precast concrete for speed of installation.
By Leslie Lichtenberg
The Port of Tacoma, located on Washington’s Puget Sound, is a busy hub of shipping terminal activity, as well as home to warehousing, distribution and manufacturing. In 2002, approximately 1.47 million containers crossed the Port’s terminals, thus contributing to its nickname, the Gateway Port.
That same year, the 2,400-acre Port embarked on a $341 million Capital Improvement Plan, the largest construction project in the Port’s 86-year history, which includes the widening of the nearly three-mile-long Blair Waterway and the redevelopment of the Pierce County Terminal. The latter component of the project, begun in November 2003, involved transforming the Pierce County Terminal into the largest single container terminal north of Los Angeles. A wide range of precast concrete components proved to be a quick and easy installation for the massive project. Read More »
Comment on this post...The Green Side of Precast Concrete
By Andrew Zumwalt-Hathaway
Clients are demanding greener, more sustainable buildings. Precast concrete manufacturers, contractors and specifiers are increasingly being asked to provide a product that can demonstrate environmentally responsible attributes.
One measure of environmentally sensitive buildings is the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System, which “scores” a building’s sustainability according to a host of features, including materials. Understanding the LEED rating system, how the sustainable attributes of precast concrete contribute to LEED certification and the documentation procedures that demonstrate compliance with LEED will enable precast concrete manufacturers and contractors and specifiers to respond to the market and develop more sustainable products and procedures. Read More »
Comment on this post...Crumb Rubber Concrete
Precast of the future?
By Floyd Allen
You may already have enjoyed the benefits of riding on asphalt that has had rubber mixed with it, but have you considered the viability of utilizing rubberized concrete in various precast concrete applications? While this may seem a bit preposterous, the host of possible applications is extensive, and the advantages may make it well worth the consideration.
Before discussing rubberized concrete, a brief history of the product should prove beneficial. In the late 1990s, Dr. Han Zhu, an engineering professor at Arizona State University, was amazed at the number of recyclable tires he saw while visiting a shredding plant in the greater Phoenix area. His immediate thought was to develop a way to convert them for use in concrete. Utilizing facilities at the university and the ready labor force his students provided, Zhu started putting his ideas to work. Read More »
Comment on this post...Critical Junctures
Precast panels help NYSDOT make emergency bridge repairs without shutting down a major artery into New York City.
By Bridget McCrea
It was mid-2001 and the more than 190,000 vehicles that used the inbound lane of the 3.5-mile-long Gowanus Expressway into New York City every day would soon be traveling on a new bridge deck. Precast concrete Exodermic panels, a licensed product that was to be instrumental in completing the redecking project quickly, were ready and waiting to be installed. But then tragedy struck.
The project, having just begun in 2001, was promptly shut down after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. “When 9/11 hit, it literally stopped us in our tracks,” says Robert Harding, vice president and chief engineer at Whitestone, N.Y.-based Grace Industries, the project contractor. “We were in the process of getting everything ready to do this major project, and suddenly everyone’s attention had to shift to more pressing matters.” Read More »
Comment on this post...Why Precast Costs Less
The total cost of ownership equals quality, service, delivery and price.
Would you pay a higher price if it bought a lower cost? For contractors and specifiers, there is a big difference between price and cost. While price is but one element of cost, it is the initial, most visible and the easier of the two to understand. Focusing on price is not a preferred strategy in any business, especially where high-quality, reliable manufactured goods are concerned. Instead, for precast concrete products, the focus should be on the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
How is TCO calculated? The Total Cost of Ownership is equal to the sum of the four cost components: quality, service, delivery and price. Read More »
Precast Goes to Extremes
Giant precast endwalls support a road above a stream in a small Maryland town.
By Joy LePree
Officials in Taneytown, Md., went to extremes in the summer of 2002 during the construction of a road that connected two housing developments. Since the road – dubbed the Crossing at Baumgardner Street – had to pass over a sizeable stream, engineers knew tremendous endwalls would be required to support the avenue and the three 72-inch culvert pipes needed for the project. Weighing in at 80,000 pounds apiece and measuring more than 28 feet long and more than 10 feet high, the large precast endwalls used in the Roberts Mill Run housing development project are thought to be the biggest of their kind in the state of Maryland. Read More »
Practical Prisons
The state of North Carolina chooses “turnkey” precast concrete construction to improve speed, quality control and safety – and to cut costs.
By Barbara Bogo
When the North Carolina Department of Corrections (NC DOC) needed fast-track construction of three 1,000-cell high-security prisons, it turned to precast concrete for the solution. The prisons, erected in Alexander, Anson and Scotland Counties, used a first-of-its-kind project delivery methodology.
The North Carolina Central Engineering Department reported that project costs were reduced by using a single contractor that cut completion time nearly in half compared with conventional building processes.
It took approximately 18 to 24 months to finish the three new correctional facilities. In contrast, conventional construction would have taken an additional one to two years, if not longer. Read More »
-
Sponsor Links
-
Sponsor Links
