Spring has to be close; doesn’t it?  It’s been a strange winter, but for the most part a mild one, however long it seems.  Believe it or not, no matter what the weatherman says, spring will come.  When it does, we have to be ready to go to work.

           Everyone around here this winter has been trying to get work and line things up for a smooth start this spring.  For most, work is now in place, however, more is coming. The Iowa Speedway project, in particular, will be very interesting to follow as it is on the fast track in more ways than one.  This project will involve work to be done by our PCC and ACC crews as well as others. 

The PCC crews have the first phase of paving work; outside of the track on the road to get the race fans in and out of the track.  Hopefully, they will get the rest of this work, too.  It all has to be done before the tracks first race already scheduled for mid September.

The ACC crew will have the task of laying the track itself.  The track is 7/8 of a mile Tri-Oval, 60 feet wide, with banking from 4 degrees to 14 degrees.  This will be interesting challenge for the crew.  As they have shown us in the past, they are up for the challenge.

The Ready Mix plants that have been open for the winter have been pretty busy.  Work at the college, Monsanto and Wal-Mart in Grinnell has kept them going almost every day.  Ethanol plants have kept a couple of plants producing more concrete than in past years over the winter months.  In fact, in the middle of December we provided material to a slip form silo which started on Monday morning and went continuously until Saturday morning, 24 hours a day.  This makes me kind of nervous, with the temperatures as low as they were, but it seems everything went well.  Tama has also kept busy this winter with the hotel and casino expansions out on the reservation.  They have put a nine story addition on the hotel, which, I believe, more than doubled the size of the casino.

Some of these projects will carry over into the spring and summer, others will be completed by then, but the guys have been very busy quoting new work every day.  It looks like we could have another great year.

I’m looking forward to spring and the challenges it brings.  I’m also looking forward to getting everybody back to work in some warm weather.  Stay safe the rest of the winter and think safe when you do come back.