For the most part, this season has been good. Crews have put up with rains in the spring and heat in the summer. It’s just like working in Iowa.

All of the crews are finishing projects or phases of projects as this year progresses. I want to remind everyone to “pay attention to detail” and “ think safety” as the construction year stretches on.

      The Cedar Rapids Air Port project has given us the opportunity to manufacture, place and finish, Cement Treated Base as one of the items of construction. This process is not common in Iowa. The crews that are doing this work have never been around CTB in the past. Steve Naderman, Gary Bacon and Portable Plant Crew are handling the manufacturing of the product from the concrete drum plant located on site. The material looks like moist rock when delivered. LL Pelling is placing the product with an asphalt paver and compacting it with sub-grade rollers. With-in thirty minutes of being placed and compacted, Jim Shafer’s grade crew is trimming the product to finished grade with an 80,000-pound machine on the new base. All of the crews accepted the new and strange methods of construction, and the job has gone very well from the start.

Mike Viehdorfer, Kenny Alexander and B J Epperly’s PCC Crews are on the Roadway Phase of Rusty Wallace Speedway project in Newton. Visitor traffic to the speedway and project scheduling are every day concerns for this crew. If that’s not enough, a construction crisis or weather related crisis may occur at the Iowa Speedway and this crew is called on to help out. The schedule for this crew tightens as race day is approaching in Mid- September.

Jeff Banes, Cortney Graber and Rick Hudson will have the other PCC Crew at Cedar Rapids Airport as soon as the base materials are all in place. This crew has finished various phases of I-235, City of Ames, and Iowa speedway. The schedule requires this crew to return to Polk County’s Mega Project as soon as concrete items are completed at the airport.

Brian Manatt is starting the Mahaska County project. This job requires four to six weeks of preliminary work with subcontractors and scheduling concerns before Manatt PCC crews can start their construction phases.

Alan Manatt’s is overseeing Montgomery County materials shipment to plant sites and related concerns. Before construction crews move in, material and plant sites have to be delivered or constructed.

Larry Goodwin, Brett Strong and the Underground crew are working in Coralville and Knoxville on city projects. Knoxville is a carryover job from last year with sanitary sewer and lift station construction. Coralville is mostly storm sewer construction. The Coralville project is plagued with utility conflicts in every direction they turn. This project is on highway #6 in the down town business district.

Brian Novak and the Crushing Crew are in Mercer, Missouri. Norris Aggregate Products was in need of outside crushing help to meet their market demands for supply. The crew plans on crushing 190,000 tons of product for N.A.P. and moving back to Iowa when completed.

The season is in full swing and crews are working at finishing jobs and starting others. Let’s be mindful of our responsibilities to everyone working around us for safety concerns.