A strong turnout made for a lot of happy kids, and successful day for the Kearney Area Children’s Museum as it hosted its first ‘Roadway Heroes Touch-A-Truck’ event at Hilltop Mall in Kearney.

Kearney Ready Mixed displayed a concrete truck at the event, which was designed to give children the opportunity to touch and explore the trucks, as well as provide a platform to raise awareness of safety habits around large vehicles and roadway safety.

In total there were more than 20 vehicles for children to explore, including a fire truck, military Hummer, ambulance, semi truck, snow plow, dump truck, tow truck, and many more. Proceeds raised at the event will fund future events at the Kearney Area Children’s Museum.

The Mighty Mo did its darnedest, but it couldn’t stop construction of the $32 million concrete bridge that now serves as the new gateway to Richardson County and the river town of Rulo, connecting Missouri and Nebraska.  During the past three years, Missouri River Water stranded construction barges, flooded nearby roads, damaged cofferdams and kept workers at bay for months at a time.

Construction of the bridge began in August of 2010 and was finally completed this September.  Bridge construction took place during three of the top 10 high-water years on the Missouri, including the devastating flood of 2011, and the project was completed only a year behind schedule.

The Rulo bridge project included work from three NEBCO companies.  Southeast Ready Mixed supplied 10,350 cu. yds. of concrete for the bridge, as well as all of the concrete for the new paving on roadways leading up to and around the Rulo Bridge.  Constructors handled the concrete pour for the roads inside Rulo as well as on Highway 159.  In total, there was over 24,000 sq. yds. of 8″ and 9″ concrete paving.  Concrete Industries supplied 46 concrete girders totaling 6,400 feet for the approach slabs on both the Nebraska and Missouri side of the bridge, 3,200 linear feet of reinforced concrete pipe for various projects around the bridge, and 25 tons of rebar used on culverts.

The 2,400-foot concrete bridge replaces an iron bridge that was built in 1938-39. The old bridge is located about 650 feet away from the the newly constructed bridge.

Falls City recently celebrated the completion of a new Grain facility in their community. Southeast Ready Mixed supplied 10,844 cu. yds. of concrete for the project out of their Falls City Plant. The project began in December of 2012 and Consolidated Grain and Barge celebrated their Grand Opening in September.

The ribbon cutting by Governor Heineman on August 27 indicated the opening of Kearney’s newly completed Interstate 80-East Kearney Bypass Interchange and the completion of Phase 1 of the planned bypass around Kearney.  Kearney Ready Mixed provided concrete to Commercial Construction Inc. for the deck of the bridge spanning Interstate 80.

Phase two of the project will begin in 2014 with an estimated build time of two years.  The second phase will extend the four lanes north and add a U.S. Highway 30 interchange and overpass.

Overland Ready Mixed recently completed work on a 240,000 sq. ft. Pioneer Distribution Facility in York.  With a project of this size and a short time frame to complete it in, workers were faced with a demanding deadline that affected many Overland employees.

It took the crews six days, beginning on June 27, to supply 6,000 cy of concrete to the new 5.5 acre (240,000 sq. ft.) Pioneer Distribution facility.  Litchko Contracting, Inc. from Lenexa, Kansas was on site to place the concrete.  “Installing the six slabs was a big team effort and Overland was a huge player on the team,” Brian Cutting of Litchko explained, “I have heard nothing but positive comments regarding service, quality, and safety, and all of our efforts have helped meet and exceed the customer’s expectations.  We would like to extend our appreciation to Overland for the great service provided for the whole Pioneer Seeds Project.”

To complete the project in the time frame given, seven truck drivers, a batchman, a quality control tech., and loader operator began their work days at 1:00 am each day.  As drivers maxed out their hours, the operations manager, salesmen, and shop personnel stepped in to assist.  All seven plant managers and their teams were needed to complete the job on schedule.

On January 9th & 10th several NEBCO companies participated in the Nebraska Concrete & Aggregates Association “Quality Concrete Conference.”  This was the 54th year for the annual event.  The Quality Concrete Conference was held in both Kearney and Omaha with over 250 attendees present.  This year’s theme was “Quality Concrete through Innovation.” A handful of speakers discussed various topics such as – Innovation with Concrete Overlays, Challenges of Non- Roadway Concrete Paving, Innovations and Trends in Decorative Concrete, and Everything Old is New Again.  NEBCO employees from Kearney Ready Mixed, Christensen Concrete, Overland Ready Mixed, Western Sand & Gravel, Lincoln Ready Mixed Concrete, Concrete Industries of Nebraska City, Kerford Limestone and General Testing Lab attended.

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.