The total project involving both the eastbound and westbound lane replacements is 10 miles long, 14 in thick, and 24 ft wide concrete in each direction. I thought I’d head down there and talk with the McLoughlin field team to see how they are using our products and get some feedback.
I got down there early evening. It’s a night pour. They were setting up the slipform paver and dowel bar inserter. Dozens of our American Highway green dowel bar bundles were lined up on the side as far as the eye could see. There are three critical components of a successful concrete project. Those components are people, process, and materials. It’s exciting to know that our products are part of the materials (dowels, tiebars, and baskets) that go into making a quality, durable, and long-lasting concrete pavement. Last year McLoughlin replaced the eastbound lanes using their two-year-old paver with dowel bar inserter (dbi). Mcloughlin poured the 24 ft wide pavement using a 3D machine control solution. As the name implies, stringless technology replaces the traditional stringline with an electronic tracking process that controls the horizontal and vertical operation of the paver.
The use of a dbi with a stringless paving solution allowed McLoughlin to back up concrete trucks right in front of the paver, which drastically improved productivity versus walking-in baskets or using a placer spreader. This type of forward-thinking and technology allows for not only working faster but also better quality. Another exciting feature of this project is that the base was comprised of a 6 in thick rapid-set lean concrete material that allowed the haul trucks carrying 10 yards of concrete to drive on the base within 3 hours after installation. The final pavement section that was installed was also a rapid-set concrete that had to come up to specified strength and be ready to accept the usual highway traffic within 12 hours.
For the quality of work that McLoughlin has done on this project and other concrete paving projects previously done with McLoughlin Engineering, we are very proud to call them our partners. It’s how we think about our clients, and I genuinely get the most excited when I see our products implemented. Hard not to feel proud at that moment.American Highway would like to say a special thanks to the McLoughlin Engineering Paving Team for allowing us onto their site to film and talk to their team about this project. Please keep a lookout on our social channels for the video series we filmed on location. We look forward to visiting many other job sites this year and discussing our products’ ins and outs and the process they go through to find their way into America’s highways. Stay tuned!
