CONSTRUCTION PROFILES A PUBLICATION OF GUNTERT & ZIMMERMAN
SPRING 2012
EquipmentOverlay Concrete Update
KOSS HITS A HOME RUN IN WESTERN KANSAS Much of Interstate 70 in western Kansas had reached the end of its life. It was a full-depth asphalt pavement; sections ranged up to 20 inches deep. The most recent asphalt treatments had lasted just five to seven years, said Andrew Gisi, geotechnical engineer with the Kansas DOT. The state wanted something that would last longer, so they chose a 6-inch bonded concrete overlay -- 1.45 million square yards of it, to be exact. Last year, Koss Construction milled out 6 inches and slipformed two projects with concrete on 15.1 miles of four-lane interstate. Including shoulders, the two projects totaled 725,000 square yards and cost $20.1 million. This year, Koss will mill and pave two more similar projects on I-70 for a total of 727,000 square yards at a cost of $21.9 million.
KOSS’ SMOOTHNESS NUMBERS ARE SECOND TO NONE Koss’ smoothness numbers last year were remarkable. Using a Guntert & Zimmerman S850 Quadra four-track paver to pave 30 feet wide, the contractor averaged just 8.5 inches/mile on a zero blanking band over the two projects. What’s more, the MissouriKansas Chapter of the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) gave Koss the “Smoothest Day Paving Award” for a 4,500 foot section on which the contractor hit just 5.4 inches of deviation. On every section of concrete pavement last year, Koss earned a smoothness incentive from the state.
In fact, to showcase Koss’ success and to demonstrate a large bonded concrete overlay project under construction, the MissouriKansas Chapter of ACPA hosted an open house last fall at the project. KDOT’s Gisi attended, as did representatives from most neighboring state transportation departments. The Colorado Department of Transportation is an especially important player in the Kansas situation, because KDOT used Colorado’s pavement design criteria and system in designing its 6 inch overlay on asphalt. The overlay is sawed into panels that are 6 feet square – and such overlays have provided Colorado with 10 to 12 good years on heavily traveled roads and remain in service. Gisi says that Kansas expects to get 20 years from the “6 X 6 X 6” overlay, possibly with some panel replacement at mid-life. “The road really needed reconstruction, but we couldn’t afford that,” says Gisi. “We get really good smoothness numbers everywhere we go,” said Robert Kennedy, quality control manager for Koss. “It is not uncommon for us to get single digits.” It is easier to achieve low smoothness numbers on the thinner 6 inch pavement, because the paver is not pushing a big head of material. “You can push the small head of mud and you are not extruding a lot of concrete either,” says Kennedy. Kennedy explained how Koss achieves such smooth-riding pavements. The contractor used dual stringlines. “We pay a lot of attention to the stringlines to make sure they are set up right. We make sure our paver is set up right and that our concrete batch plant
KOSS CELEBRATES 100 YEARS This year, Koss Construction will mark its 100th anniversary. It’s been a full century since second-generation German immigrant George W. Koss founded the company in 1912. Since then, Koss has grown to become one of the nation’s largest concrete pavement contractors. In the early twentieth century, nearly everything moved by rail, and George Koss saw a booming market in railroad bridge building. Soon his company, based in Des Moines, Iowa, was building some of the largest bridges in the country across 11 states. Koss has often done things in a big way. “When World War II broke out, the company went from a concrete pavement market defined by small projects for multitudes of owners to big paving job after big paving job for the military,” says David Howard, P.E., the current president and CEO of Koss Construction Co. “Some of these airfield contracts were unparalleled in size for that time – 500,000 to
is right. Then when we are confident that all of those things are set up, you have to be consistent,” says Kennedy. “The plant has to give you consistent slump on the concrete in every single batch after batch. And you have to have consistent delivery so that the paver never stops. Everything has to be in unison, working together.”
G&Z PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN KOSS’ SUCCESS We asked Kennedy how he likes the Guntert & Zimmerman paver, “We own a couple of those, and we like them a lot,” he said. “I don’t see us as a company buying anything else. They are easy to set up, and easy to train people on. And Guntert gives us excellent service. If we need something, they are always available to us for parts or support. The Guntert paver gives us the smoothness numbers that you see. It’s a nice-looking finished surface.” On a good day, Kennedy said Koss paved one mile a day, working 30 feet wide. “We averaged about 1,800 square yards per hour, or maybe a little better,” says Kennedy. Two belt placers spread concrete in front of the paver, and that helped boost production. That way, Koss could dump two trucks at once. Each project last year had its own batch plant, and typically 15 trucks hauled concrete to the site. For nearly two miles of pavement last year, Koss paved with a stringless automated
George W. Koss
750,000 square-yard contracts were not unusual – and the company had to organize to pave every day to handle that volume of work. The scope of the company really changed at that point.” Then in the 1950’s, The Interstate Highway Program got underway. Koss Construction was recognized as the first contractor to enter into a contract under the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. Since then, large sections of Interstate highways across the Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Iowa have been maintained or improved by Koss Construction. In 2011 Koss delivered just under two million square yards of concrete pavement. This year, the company will rebuild or rehabilitate almost 78 two-lane miles of Interstate highway, among other projects. Information for this sidebar came from Concrete Pavement Progress, published by the American Concrete Pavement Association.
control system from Leica Geosystems. The automatic paver control system bases its guidance on a digital terrain model – a digitized 3D model of the pavement – that is entered into a computer onboard the paver. The paver also has two prisms, mounted above the machine which provide a reference for the machine location for the two robotic total stations set up on tripods ahead of the paver. The prisms on the paver have a relation to points on the concrete paver’s pan. When setting up the two total stations, a technician back-sights each of them to known control points. That fixes the location of the total stations relative to the runway’s digital model. The total stations can then “see” two prisms on the paver and communicate to the paver – by free-wave radio – the paver’s precise location. The on-board computer then processes the differences between the actual paver location and the digital terrain model. Knowing those differences, the computer controls the paver pan location automatically. Koss used a total of three robotic total stations, and set two of them 250 feet in front of the paver. One robotic total station was
set behind. When the paver advanced close to the two forward stations, a technician would leapfrog the rear total station to a point up ahead. “The smoothness was good with the stringless system,” says Kennedy. “But those weren’t the two smoothest days we had. We were still learning the equipment. The guys were still on a learning curve. The crew liked the access to the equipment and they liked the access to the slab for finishing. But some of them have been paving for 20 years, and to not have that stringline to check grade was a little concerning for them.” Kennedy said one advantage to the milling and concrete overlay process was that Koss could correct roadway slopes and transitions into and out of curves. With so many asphalt treatments over 40 years, the slopes had gone awry. “We could go in there and pave back to the exact slope and correct all of those geometric issues,” Kennedy said.
EquipmentPaving Stringless Update
STRINGLESS CONTROLS SPEED AIRPORT PROJECT Compared to mainline highway paving, slipforming concrete taxiways, aprons, and runways at an active airport is a challenging business. Production is hampered by the many small, irregularly shaped pieces of pavement that need to be paved one at a time.
pavement. Most of that is 17-inch jointed plain concrete with no steel. There are smaller amounts of 15-inch and 8-inch concrete pavement.
That’s the situation faced by MCM at Dallas Love Field Airport, a heavy civil and building contractor with corporate offices in Irving, Texas. At Dallas Love Field Airport, the city of Dallas and Southwest Airlines are collaborating to build a $500 Million-plus airport renovation project. A number of gates must remain open during four years of construction, which will wind up in 2015.
“The biggest challenges are the small pieces of pavement and the phasing,” says Luis Munilla, Business Operations Manager for MCM in Texas. “Our average production days as we get into the largest segments of work are going to be in the area of 1,200 cubic yards per day.” To take on the paving project, MCM bought a new four-track S850 Guntert & Zimmerman slipform paver fitted with a stringless control package from Leica Geosystems.
MCM has a $68 Million contract to remove concrete, grade the subgrade and base, relocate utilities (including a new aircraft refueling system), and place 298,000 square yards of new concrete
MCM is a 100% Hispanic-owned Minority Business Enterprise, certified by the North Central Texas Regional Certification Agency (NCTRCA). MCM’s home office is based in Miami, FL with division
MCM’S ROOTS IN CUBA MCM would never have existed if not for the powerful family bond and the ethics instilled by Fernando Munilla Sr. in the face of devastating oppression when Cuba fell to communism. For nearly two decades (1941 to 1960), Mr. Munilla was the country’s premier builder and a pioneer in construction methodology. His company included three of the largest concrete plants in Cuba, and built a great portion of the nation’s pre-cast and pre-stressed construction projects. “Our father demanded quality in everything,” says Jorge Munilla, MCM’s president. “His insistence on quality earned him a reputation for excellence. As a result, his firm was selected for some of the most important and historical construction projects in Cuba.”
Fernando Munilla
Then, in 1960, Fidel Castro confiscated the firm. Four of the six Munilla brothers made it to the U.S. through the Pedro Pan Program just before the Bay of Pigs invasion and were placed in an orphanage in Ohio. The two youngest sons stayed with Maria, their mother, till safe passage was arranged. Fernando stayed behind orchestrating Covert Operations against the Castro regime, was arrested three times and finally managed to escape by boat, bringing with him only his credentials and a fierce determination to reunite his family. He succeeded within a year
offices in Irving, TX and Panama City, Panama. Established in 1983, MCM ranks as the 6th largest Hispanic-owned construction company in the U.S., and 48th largest overall Hispanic-owned firm in the nation. With a $1 Billion dollar bonding capacity, MCM utilizes its solid financial resources to guarantee a timely completion. MCM’s portfolio of work includes road & bridge, aviation, education, municipal and building construction for both government and private clients. “When we came to Texas we were committed to hire a local workforce”, Munilla continues, “and we understood that the key to a successful project was a solid team that would offer the best possible value to our client, so we strived to find the best concrete paver on the market. Guntert & Zimmerman is number one and in spite of the inherent complexities of the job the project is advancing smoothly”. “We also purchased the Leica stringless package with the paver, and we have had some amazing results with that,” Munilla continues. “Many of our pavements out here are right on plan grade, or within 1/100th of an inch; the results are just amazing. The stringless controls really help trucking and production.” “Typically MCM paves either 25 or 30 feet wide, and saws the pavement into 12.5-foot square panels or 15-foot panels,” explains Joe Roundtree, General Superintendent for MCM’s Dallas Love Field Airport. “The Guntert & Zimmerman paver helps with placing small pieces because the tracks can turn 90 degrees under the paver at the end of a run”. We asked if the stringless controls help with small pieces. “Absolutely!” says Mark Vanness, the paving estimator for MCM in Texas. “We can set up the machine to do those pieces in the morning and then we just move from one to the other, with no stringline. The digital model is already programmed into the machine. You don’t have to worry about anything being in the way.”
With stringless controls, two robotic total stations utilize two prisms on the paver to “tell” the paver its precise location. A computer onboard the paver then computes the difference between the actual location of the paver pan and the design location in the 3D digital model. With that information, the onboard computer can automatically control the paver pan. MCM actually uses four robotic total stations on the project. “We have additional total stations out there so that we can check our depths and our pavement surface right behind the paver,” says Vanness.“We have a man who stands on the rear catwalk of the paver when we get to the area where we need to check the height of the pavement. He uses a Leica rover and data collector to check the existing slab. That way we can move forward with confidence that we don’t have any issues with non-conforming pavement.” Quality control inspectors on the job “are thrilled,” says Roundtree, with the pavement edges produced by the Guntert & Zimmerman S850. “The edges are sharp and clean, and this is a very big point of contention on airport jobs,” he says. MCM gains about 15 to 18 percent in production by using the stringless controls, compared to stringline. The stringless system eliminates the cost of line setting and the issues that go along with it. “One of the biggest advantages to stringless is that you create a 3D model,” says Munilla. “Many people don’t consider this, but that 3D model lets you check for flaws and problems that may not show up in any other way. When we build this model, we can actually look at the surface and check drainages and other things that keep us from running into bottlenecks and problems in the future. So that model is a neat thing about stringless.”
On behalf of Guntert & Zimmerman, I want to wish you success in this 2012 paving season. Just recently, I accepted the position of President responsible for all Guntert & Zimmerman day to day activities. I am very excited and appreciate the confidence that Ron Guntert, our CEO and owner, has given me with this new role. This change in leadership doesn’t mean Ron Guntert will be any less involved in the company. On the contrary, Ron will be busy mentoring the new leadership team, responsible for corporate risk management, leading the engineering development team in designing new products and features, and staying involved in the day-to-day equipment sales activities. So rest assured that Ron is going nowhere, and like always, Ron is just a phone call away for our customers.
G&Z ADDS ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL TO PARTS TEAM Guntert & Zimmerman has always taken great pride in being responsive towards the spare parts needs of our customers. We acknowledge that to make our customers profitable we must help you minimize any down time when unforeseen things occur. The more days we can keep our customers paving, the more profitable they will be. Through the leadership of Alessandro Bernacchia, a seven year G&Z veteran and our recently named Executive VP, we have embarked upon a cross training exercise within the company to make more of our people available to quote, enter, and ship emergency parts orders. The goal is to not only have a person to answer spare parts calls, but also, in most cases, someone who can then be able to ship emergency parts that same day or at the latest within 24 hours. Additionally, we want to introduce Joe Hartless who has been hired to lead our purchasing department.
Joe’s broad range of talents and experience cover everything from steel to hydrostatic equipment. Joe’s daily mission is to find solutions for containing costs on items we buy out which allows us to stay competitive in the market on machine and parts sales.
SERVICE TEAM CONTINUES TO GROW AS SALES INCREASE Internally, we all believe that one of the crown jewels within the company is our Service Department. Under the leadership of Jerry Dahlinger, VP Engineering and Marco Cantu, Chief Service Technician, we have continued to bolster our service team by recently adding Jeff Dahlke based out of Wisconsin. Jeff brings a wealth of equipment and contractor experience and is a great addition to our team. With the hiring of Jeff, we continue to expand our regional service coverage of North America. This winter, we also had one of our international dealer’s service technician training with us for two months. It is a very exciting time at Guntert & Zimmerman, and I am proud to be a part of this team. I welcome any feedback or input you may have, and I look forward to your phone call anytime.
RON MESKIS President
G&Z DEBUTS S600 TO INTERNATIONAL MARKET Sharing a booth with its French Dealer, Global Consulting, Guntert & Zimmerman (G&Z) participated in INTERMAT 2012. G&Z exhibited its new S600: Multi-Purpose Slipform Paver. The S600 has taken the US market by storm since its domestic introduction at CONEXPO/ CONAGG 2011. INTERMAT 2012 gave the international market its first opportunity to see the G&Z S600 in person.
S600 COMES TO INTERNATIONAL MARKET JUST IN TIME
INTERMAT WARMLY RECEIVES THE NEW S600
As the market continues to make the shift from large dual lane, mainline paving jobs to smaller cut-up projects, the S600 is designed to fulfill the need for a small or medium, versatile, multipurpose paver that retains the ability to achieve good smoothness numbers. The S600 has been engineered to make contractors more productive. Its time saving options provide the contractor with the opportunity for more paving hours in the day and more paving days during the season.
The S600’s reception at INTERMAT was quite favorable. The AccuSteer feature received a lot of attention as the tracks were rotated to the counter rotate position for exhibition. G&Z’s presence at INTERMAT communicated a clear message to the market regarding a commitment to growing its market share internationally. With its productivity gains, the S600 is the perfect paver to meet the demands of varying markets across the globe.
Guntert & Zimmerman Const. Div., Inc. 222 E. Fourth St. Ripon, CA 95366 U.S.A. Phone +1 209-599-0066 Fax +1 209-599-2021 Toll Free 800-733-2912 (USA / Canada) Email: gz@guntert.com Web: www.guntert.com
Construction Profiles is published by Guntert & Zimmerman to inform readers of applied construction technology utilizing Guntert & Zimmerman equipment. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in whole or in part without the consent of Guntert & Zimmerman. Printed in U.S.A. Manufactured under one or more of the following U.S. or Foreign Patents: 4,433,936; 4,483,584; 0051885; 6,390,727; 6,390,726; 6,176,643B1; 5,135.333 and 117323 and Patents Pending. Some items shown may be optional. G&Z reserves the right to make improvements in design, material, and/or changes in specifications at any time without notice and without incurring any obligation related to such changes. Brochure No. 400P118