Editor's Report

In Louisville, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher joined state and local dignitaries to turn shovels of dirt in a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Louisville Arena project. The project site is situated on the block bordered by River Road and Main Street between Second and Third streets.

Actual construction of the arena will begin in summer 2008. Louisville Gas & Electric Co. (LG&E), one of the property owners, is relocating equipment on the site. Construction of a new LG&E substation is to begin this spring. The Louisville Arena Authority has purchase agreements in place with LG&E and Humana Inc., the other owner.

PC Sports LLC, San Antonio, Texas, was hired in September by the Louisville Arena Authority to oversee the entire project, including design and construction of the new state-of-the-art, multipurpose sports and entertainment arena. PC Sports will also coordinate development of a flagship hotel and a unique restaurant on the site. In the coming months, the Arena Authority plans to hire an architectural and engineering firm. The design process is to begin this spring, with completion of the arena scheduled for November 2010.

Tarlton Corp. construction consultant and general superintendent Robert J. Wesolich has been honored by the Concrete Council of St. Louis for his long service to the industry. With more than 50 years of experience in construction, Wesolich has played a vital role in numerous Tarlton concrete projects in the St. Louis area, including the precast parking garage for the original Kiel Opera House, Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District's Bissel Point Pump Station, and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

The council also honored Tarlton with the American Concrete Institute (Missouri Chapter) Special Award for the firm's work as general contractor on the Facilities 1 segment of the Cross County MetroLink Expansion project.

MC Industrial Inc., an independent McCarthy company, began work in December on a 16-day, around-the-clock concrete pour for the first two of 13 slip-formed silos being built at the new $905-million Holcim (US) Inc. cement plant in Ste. Genevieve County, Mo. It took nearly three hours and 140 yards of concrete to fill the forms for the two 60-foot-diameter by 275-foot-high blend silos.

The design-build silo project was awarded by Holcim in fall 2006 to MC Industrial and joint-venture partner T.E. Ibberson, a Minneapolis-based design-build contractor and worldwide leader in slip-form technology.

In February and March, work on two 150-foot-diameter by 207-foot-high clinker silos, by far the largest in diameter of the 13, will begin. Following these, eight, 275-foot-high by 79-foot-diameter inverted cone silos with the capacity to store 260,000 tons of cement, and one, 40-foot-diameter by 207-foot-high reject silo will be constructed.

In all, MC Industrial will pour and place more than 90,000 cubic yards of concrete to complete the silos. At peak, the project will employ 340 tradespeople who will work two, 12-hour shifts during the 18-week slip-forming schedule. Expected completion is February 2008.

Holcim's new plant will feature the largest single clinker production line anywhere in the world. When it comes online in 2009, the plant will have an annual cement capacity of 4 million metric tons (12,000 tons per day clinker).

Missourians are experiencing 2,200 miles of smoother, safer roads one year ahead of schedule thanks to the Missouri Department of Transportation's (MoDOT) early completion of the state's Smooth Roads Initiative. The department met Governor Matt Blunt's challenge to improve 2,200 miles of the state's busiest highways by the end of 2006 — a full year ahead of schedule. The Smooth Roads Initiative delivered smoother pavement, brighter striping and other safety improvements on Missouri's most heavily traveled highways. With completion of the initiative, about 70 percent of the state's major roads are in good condition.

MoDOT experienced its largest construction seasons ever in 2005 and 2006 because of the Smooth Roads Initiative. Highway workers placed more than 12.8 million tons of asphalt in those two years, double the amount for a typical two-year period.