In just under five days a 130-foot, eight section concrete elevator was erected in Fairmont, Nebraska for Cooperative Producers, Inc. (CPI).  Overland Ready Mixed in Geneva began the 24-hour continuous slip form pour at 7 a.m. on July 23 and delivered the final load at 6 a.m. on July 27.  The pour utilized 10 drivers, 2 batchmen, 1 daytime loader operator, and quality control personnel.  During the night shift, batchmen were used to also load the plant between loads.

With the CPI pour consuming as many resources as it did, the York, Aurora and Hebron plants were needed to cover Geneva by handling all of the regular customers using trucks from all Overland sites and occasionally receiving help from Lincoln and Kearney.  The pour took a slight detour when the Geneva plant went down and forced the trucks to load out of York for four hours while the shop repaired the plant.  The crew was able to continue the slip without missing a beat.

At the jobsite, Todd & Sargent Construction used a total of 140 people on the slip to tie rebar as well as place and finish the concrete. In the end, there were 3,400 yards of concrete poured into the 130-foot tall elevator that included 8” walls and used 26.5 yards of concrete per foot.

Construction season is well underway and in Lincoln the skyline is peppered with cranes. One of the more prominent projects in the area is the $179 million Pinnacle Bank Arena project set to be completed in the fall of 2013.

NEBCO companies have played a significant role in the arena project with Concrete Industries and Ready Mixed Concrete Company being two of the major suppliers. Ready Mixed Concrete-Lincoln has supplied over 16,000 cubic yards of concrete to the project.  The first loads of concrete were delivered on October 4, 2011 and shipments have continued to the site on a near daily basis.

Concrete Industries is set to supply approximately 1,410 pieces of precast for three different structures – the bowl of the arena, a pedestrian ramp and an attached parking structure. In total, the Arena portion will take 750 pieces of precast to form the bowl and 190 insulated wall panels around the perimeter of the building.  A pedestrian ramp leading to a plaza and main concourse will occupy the East side of the Arena. The ramp will take 220 pieces of precast and will include the heaviest piece weighing 114,000 pounds.  The West side of the arena will have a total precast parking structure requiring 250 pieces to complete.  Altogether, Concrete Industries will design, detail, fabricate and deliver 38 different products, with the erection phase only recently underway.