Make More Project Money BY KRIS MOORMAN
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With volumetric mixing, a contractor performing multiple pours of different specifications can toggle through the designs stored in the mixer. That process is controlled through a metered belt system in the aggregate bin, an individual water tank and a dual auger system that measures the cement as it’s poured. Additionally, liquid admixtures are controlled by an electric pump through a flow control valve. Once the curbs, gutters, drains and medians are in place, the contractor can bring in his asphalt crew to pave the roadways. Photos courtesy of Cemen Tech Inc. For many asphalt contractors, concrete is a dirty word. But members of the asphalt industry have opened new revenue streams and taken greater control of their job costs by adopting volumetric concrete technology as part of their suite of services. There are benefits to diversifying your operation through the precision, detail and efficiency of volumetric concrete technology, such as eliminating delay costs—both internal and external. By flipping the current asphalt contractor–concrete subcontractor paradigm on its head, asphalt companies can take full control over projects that have curb, gutter, drain, sidewalk and median requirements. That alone can add a direct revenue stream to your operation. Better yet is selection of a volumetric concrete mixer, which adds flexibility to traditional barrel mix technology. With a volumetric concrete mixer, contractors can pour multiple mix designs across several pour locations. For example, if a bid for a municipal road project includes curb and gutter components, each will likely require a different concrete mixture at different volumes. With a volumetric mixer, the contractor eliminates the need for multiple batches of concrete from a subcontractor. Through volumetric mixing, he toggles between different mixtures on demand. For many major asphalt contractors, such as G&T Paving of Brownsville, Texas, the addition of two Cemen Tech C60 volumetric mixing trucks is netting immediate returns that have allowed the company to take on more work while cutting costs in half.
36 // November 2020
G&T PAVING BEATS THE HEAT WITH VOLUMETRIC CONCRETE
In the world of public utility contracting, versatility, speed and efficiency are paramount. Robert Gonzales, the owner of G&T Paving— located along the Mexico border—has learned that lesson over the years as his company was required to complete jobs at multiple sites daily around his community. Gonzales and the G&T team worked to be as nimble as possible, but there were always limitations. In the past, they relied on traditional barrel trucks to deliver concrete, so they would often have the site prepped and ready to go, but they were left waiting for the material to arrive. A lot of time was being wasted, Gonzales said. Additionally, the barrel mixers oftentimes weren’t up to the task of completing multiple jobs in the same day that required different concrete mixes, different pressure requirements, different fiber additions, etc. “Our schedule was completely thrown off,” Gonzales said. “So, we’d have to come back to the site a second time and even sometimes a third time because of the way the schedule would go with a barrel truck.”
ON TOP OF THOSE CHALLENGES WAS WASTE
“When we were running barrel trucks there were a lot of times we were moving around to four or five different locations,” Gonzales said. “Every time that we were moving around, there was a quarter yard here,
