Six concrete silos topped with nearly 90 crew members dominated the landscape just east of Syracuse, NE for over five days.  Once completed, the silos will store up to 1 million bushels of corn and soybeans and be the heart of Midwest Farmers Cooperative’s planned rail shuttle complex.

Concrete Industries – Nebraska City supplied 3,600 cubic yards of concrete for the project which required three shifts of drivers, batchmen & quality control technicians.  The lead contractor, Hogenson Construction, had crews pouring around the clock with massive floodlights illuminating the site at night.  The continuous pour lasted 125 straight hours totaling approximately 342 truckloads of concrete.

“Whether you were on the slip pour or not, it took all of us working together to make it happen,” Craig N. of Concrete Industries – Nebraska City said, “With Ready Mixed Concrete Lincolns’ help on the silo pour and Beatrice Concrete helping cover some of our other pours, we were able to complete the project in 125 hours; 15 hours ahead of schedule.  The 9-inch thick walls raised 12-inches per hour to a height of 140 feet.

All concrete was chipped from Concrete Industries’ Syracuse Plant.

Concrete Industries – Nebraska City & Beatrice Ready Mixed recently joined forces on a large concrete pour for Midwest Farmers Cooperative at their new grain silo facility in Syracuse.  Approximately 1,000 yards of concrete was estimated for the grain silo pad so two plants were used in order to complete the project in the 4-5 hour time frame requested by Hogenson Construction, the contractor on the project. Two pumps and more than 30 Ready Mixed trucks were used on the pour, with Beatrice Ready Mixed supplying 400 yards of concrete out of the Hwy 2 plant and Concrete Industries Nebraska City supplying the remaining 600 yards.

Concrete Industries Nebraska City and Syracuse plants have supplied approximately 3800 yards to the project so far and will be providing approximately 3300 yards on the 6 day around the clock pour for the grain silos that is scheduled start on April 11th.  The silos are part of a new rail-shuttle complex to handle grain and fertilizer shipments near Syracuse. Construction of the complex began in June of 2015.

Ready Mixed Concrete recently replaced the cradle and 10 year old mixer at the Y Street Plant in Lincoln. The plant, which was built in the late 1980’s, was still operating with the original cradle that was installed when the plant opened. The new mixer is a 12 cubic yard RexCon Mixer and was installed by Ready Mixed Lincoln with help from Davis Erection and Barnhart Crane. The roof panels were removed to allow the crane space to set the mixer inside the plant. In 2015, the Y Street Ready Mixed Plant produced 100,000 yards of concrete.

The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association honored Ready Mixed Concrete in Lincoln with the 2015 Commitment to Environmental Excellence Awards at its ConcreteWorks Conference & Expo held in San Antonio in Late September.  The College View Plant in Lincoln received Honorable Mention recognition in the category of plants with production volumes between 50,000 yds. to 100,000 yds.  The program offers producers national recognition for protecting the environment and maintaining sound environmental management practices.

The NRMCA operations, Environmental and Safety Committee and its Environmental Task Group underscore how award candidates have not only met, but surpassed governmental compliance requirements and demonstrated commitments through plant and staff investment.  Eligible plants include those sites under NRMCA producer members located in the U.S., its territories or Canada.  Environmental Excellence Award entries are divided into categories based on production volumes.

The College View Plant in Lincoln returns to the Environmental Excellence program after being recognized in previous years.  Since recognition in 2013, Ready Mixed Concrete has received the Nebraska Industrial Council Environmental Leadership Excellence Award for innovation.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 7 staff concluded an inspection by observing how the plant’s SWPPP performance exceeds permit requirements.

With strong management practices across environmental, safety and fleet operations, Ready Mixed Concrete staff have provided site tours for agency representatives from Lincoln and Omaha, and peers in ready mixed and precast concrete industries.

Constructors and Concrete Industries – Nebraska City have been hard at work at Indian Cave State Park, located in the southeast corner of Nebraska.  Working alongside Mainelli Wagner & Associates, Inc. engineers, the Nebraska Department of Roads and Nebraska State Parks, Constructors and CINC plans to lay more than 40,000 square yards of 8” thick concrete and 30,000 tons of asphalt between April 2015 and June 2016, when the project is expected to be complete.  The project includes all roads, trails, drainage and sewer improvements and a larger, newly paved boat dock and storage area.

“Constructors was the only company to bid on the project,” said Randy H., President of Constructors.  “With the difficult hilly terrain and isolated location, I honestly think most other companies couldn’t handle the difficult task in the time frame the State wanted the project completed by.”  Constructors has been working closely with the Ready Mixed plant in Auburn and have had trucks from Auburn, Nebraska City, Tecumseh, Syracuse, Fall City and Lincoln locations hauling concrete.  “Thus far we’ve had three big pour days,” said Craig N. of Southeast Ready Mixed. “With over 1,000 yards of concrete poured on each of the three days; we’ve used 25 trucks running non-stop from our Auburn location.”

The $7.3 million Indian Cave contract looks to be one of Constructors’ bigger projects of the season.  Overseeing the difficult task at Constructors is project manager Eric A. and onsite superintendent Kelly B.

Construction on the new Kearney East Bypass has progressed quickly since breaking ground.  The activity on the bypass has recently picked up near Highway 30 as Hawkins Construction has begun work on the bridge that travels over the Union Pacific Railroad and Highway 30.  Kearney Ready Mixed is supplying the concrete that includes some difficult challenges, including working around peak highway and railroad traffic hours.

The bypass is planned to reduce some of the traffic off Kearney’s heavily used north-south corridor, Second Avenue, and will carry truck traffic to Kearney’s manufacturing plants and visitors to attractions, including The Archway, Nebraska Firefighters Museum and Education Center, Classic Car Collection and Cabela’s.  The bypass will also form a corridor for new businesses, industries and attractions.

The Concrete Cares of Nebraska’s 3rd Annual event took place on September 27 at the Archway in Kearney.  Kearney Ready Mixed and Kearney Crete & Block hosted a booth at the Concrete Cares of Nebraska Car Show and Shine.  Mike H., Bobby L., Alan J., Cole F., and Terri H., helped kids make a Pet Block for them to take home.

The event had a great turnout with kids taking home 68 pet blocks. The blocks were cut into 1.5″ x 1.5″ x 3.0″ pieces and the kids glued eyes, ears, tails and legs on them to decorate however they imagined.

Concrete Cares of Nebraska is a non-profit organization that raises funds to help local Nebraska patients fighting cancer.  The event, which featured a car show, silent auction and family fun activities raised over $8,000.

Ready Mixed Concrete and Constructors and subcontractors Commonwealth Electric, Dustrol Inc., Millard Sprinkler, Trafcon, Lincoln Tree Service and Nebraska Hydro-Seeding continue work on the Lincoln Airport Entryway Corridor Project. Construction for the project began in mid-March and is set to be complete in October. The Lincoln Airport Entryway Corridor project includes pavement repairs and streetscape enhancements along West Cornhusker Highway, W. Adams Street, and NW 12th Street.  The project is set to repair and resurface the existing pavement, new concrete turnlanes, striping, new curbs, storm drainage inlet tops and curb ramps.  Significant streetscape enhancements will also be incorporated in the project and includes district markers and pole-mounted banners with trees and median plantings as part of a separate, but coordinated project.In total, 12,775 square yards of patching/joint repair and 8,294 tons of asphalt overlay will be used on the $5.5 million dollar project funded by the city, along with donations from local Lincoln businesses.

Nebraska Concrete and Aggregates Association members Craig N. (Concrete Industries – Nebraska City), Tim H. (Ash Grove Cement Co.) and Jereme Montgomery (NC&AA) recently hosted a Concrete 101 class for Johnson County School in Cook, Nebraska.

It was another successful education program helping young students learn about the different ingredients used in concrete.  It was also educational for the students to learn all the different applications concrete has to offer.

Concrete 101 is not only a great learning experience, but it has also turned into a slight competition.  During Concrete 101, the students produced a concrete beam that was 1.0″ x 1.0″ x 18.0″ in size and tested their beam against the instructors’ beam to see who’s beam could hold the most weight.

Kearney Crete & Block and Kearney Ready Mixed recently hosted tour groups from the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) Construction Management program as well as students from Centura High School.

Both groups toured the block plant and the ready mix plant.  The 53 students from a Centura Industrial Arts class learned about material and how to figure concrete with a concrete slide rule.  The UNK students were part of Dr. Ken Larson’s Construction Management class and were more focused on the technical aspects of concrete production, including the different mix designs and options for color, strength and other production variations.