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CONSTRUCTION NEWS The Industry’s Newspaper
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www.constructionnews.net H (210) 308-5800 H Volume 19 H Number 12 H DECEMBER 2019
Anniversary lifts
30 years of appreciation
Marge and Marvin Ohlenbusch
(L-R:) Tino Camacho, Jesse Mendez and Robert Fuentes in Decorative Concrete Supply’s Buda office.
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his year, Alamo Crane Service Inc. celebrates four decades of helping the Austin and San Antonio construction industries do their heavy lifting. However, the company actually had beginnings in another cool industry. “Originally, my wife Marge and I had a refrigeration company that we started in 1969,” Marvin Ohlenbusch says. “In 1977, a 7-11 franchise was awarded in San Antonio and the surrounding cities of New Braunfels, Seguin, and the South Texas area. The 7-11 representatives came to town and interviewed different refrigeration companies to do the installation of equipment in the new stores they were going to build, and our company was chosen. In 1978 and the beginning of 1979, we built 115 7-11 stores in the San Antonio area.”
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ased on the core values of teamwork, integrity and commitment, Henry Turner founded Turner Construction Company 117 years ago. The company pioneered the use of steel-reinforced concrete for general building and made its mark in the industry. Today, Turner Construction is involved in all major market segments including healthcare, pharmaceutical, commercial, retail, aviation, education, sports, and green building. Turner provided CMAR services for Texas State University’s Events Center Expansion. The $48,000,000 expansion entailed 68,000sf of new space and 82,000sf of renovated space at the University Event Center. The project included demolition of three existing nearby apartment buildings, relocation of the band practice field, new locker rooms, new coaches’ offices and renovation of the coaches’ existing space, new support
It was a boon for the Ohlenbusch’s refrigeration business, but the couple soon realized one obstacle was getting in the way of their work. “Every building had seven pieces of equipment that had to go on the roof, and they ranged anywhere from 115 lbs. to 750 lbs. – they were not something we could carry up a ladder,” he explains. “Originally, we relied on assigned companies; at one time, there was one crane company in San Antonio. Well, it rained a lot in ’78. To build one of these buildings was easy for the contractors because the exterior walls were concrete block with a wood truss plywood roof and the front was enclosed in glass. They could work on those pretty much any kind continued on Page 14
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n 2020, Decorative Concrete Supply Inc. is celebrating 30 years, four offices, nearly 20 employees, and the best customers a company could ask for. Co-owners Scott and Kim Creager haven’t waited for this milestone to show their appreciation to their employees and customers, however. “They really take care of us,” Buda office manager Robert Fuentes says of the Creagers. “They purchase our lunch every Friday, and we try to put aside all of our business for 30 minutes, or we will meet for breakfast in case we know we’re going to have a busy day. My guys appreciate it.” “We normally have customer appreciation days twice a year, but this coming year, we will probably be doing more of those,” Fuentes adds. “We usually bring in and set up a taco truck here, and Scott
comes in and does free demonstrations for the customers and does giveaways and raffles. It’s just a nice way of us saying ‘thank you’ for the 30 years of service we have received from our customers.” The Buda location joins the other three offices – Carrollton, Fort Worth and Houston – in offering customers a range of products and services for their concrete project needs. Decorative Concrete Supply Inc. offers stamped concrete, stamp rentals, concrete stains, acetone dyes, acrylic sealers, and epoxies/polyurethanes. It also offers concrete resurfacers, wood stains, countertops, skimstone, cleaners/removers, tools and adhesives. While Decorative Concrete Supply Inc. doesn’t always know what projects the products will be continued on Page 14
Expanding Bobcat’s den
University Event Center, before and after.
space for sporting events and staff, the addition of 1,800 seats in the event center, new training facilities, a new chiller plant, a new center-hung scoreboard and a new arena floor. The expansion project came with two significant challenges that were instrumental in setting the strategy for how the project would be built. First, the San Marcos river originates one mile northwest of the project site at the Aquarena Springs, where it flows from a natural aquifer-fed spring system. The river flows past the arena and through San Marcos and Hays County. During construction, Turner was challenged with making sure all water runoff during excavation left the site through a serious of vaults and piping that ultimately discharged directly into the river at an acceptably clean level. Due to the sensitivity of local clean continued on Page 14