We did have some nice projects over the past year. The first one that comes to mind is the Monsanto job east of Grinnell. We started this project in March and over the next six months or so, furnished over 17,000 cubic yards of concrete. I’d love to have a dozen projects just like it each year.

Between Monsanto and the chicken ranch, Grinnell had a pretty good year, volume wise. Overall, our volume is down some, but talking to others, I think that is normal across the state this year.

Another notable project would be the culverts and bridges in Grundy Co. At one letting we picked up around 12,000 cubic yards in a string of structures for new Highway 20. To furnish this concrete, we set up one of the portable plants in Wellsburg. This plant is currently closed for the winter with heated concrete coming from either Grundy Center or United, but will open again in the spring to furnish bridge deck concrete. Eric Brashaw operated this plant for us this past season.

One other notable project is the Target Distribution Center in Cedar Falls. We have not yet, got all this work, but currently, we are furnishing concrete for the footings and foundation work out of our Waterloo plant. When this project is completed, there will be only one building bigger in the state. Hopefully, we will end up with more of this work.

These are just three examples of the work we have done, or are doing now. It would be impossible to list all the projects we furnished concrete to in the past year. We did win four of the Excellence in Concrete awards at the Better Concrete Conference. They were for the Paul Van Hamme, ICF house in Tama; Fremont Farms, which is the chicken ranch east of Grinnell; the City of Newton bike path, we were also the contractor on this project; and the Varied Industries Building at the State Fair Grounds in Des Moines.

In our ongoing effort to update equipment, we have completed the building of a new plant for United in Elk Run Heights, and are in the process of building a new plant in Independence. Plans for next year include building a new plant at Montezuma.