2013 Archives | Page 3 of 3 | The Conco Companies

Spotlight

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All of us who have spent many years in the construction industry have seen unprecedented challenges brought on by the last five years. Construction activity dropped in all markets serviced by Conco with the worst markets off by nearly 80% from their peak. As the U.S. economy fell into a recession, the construction industry dropped into a depression.

Recently, general signs have pointed to a marked improvement in construction activity throughout the western United States. The amount of work secured by Conco has increased dramatically with new projects in the planning stages being announced every week.

With this renewed optimism, Conco has embarked on a plan to put itself in a position to meet the needs of a growing construction market. We have made significant capital investments in our facilities and equipment so that we can best serve our customer base.

Furthermore, Conco has expanded its geographic footprint by opening an office in Denver, CO and has taken a more active role bidding and securing work in Portland, OR. This newsletter will give you an overview of some of the actions taken by Conco to meet the needs of the construction industry. With the infusion of private money into projects, we are bullish that the worst is behind us and recent gains can be sustained in the near future.

Spotlight

New challenges arise for the concrete contractor due to the growing demand for in-fill projects such as Conco’s current Essex-Elkhorn Court Apartment Homes in San Mateo, CA. The City of San Mateo is part of the Bay Area plan drafted by the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Commission designed to find solutions to meet the growing housing needs of the Bay Area. An integral part of their plan is to locate housing near transportation corridors and jobs. The result of doing this would generate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions due to a less automobile traffic.

Therefore, more projects being constructed are located next to existing commercial buildings and residential complexes. These in-fill projects pose challenges such as noise, site access, and impact on the surrounding neighborhood.

The Essex-Elkhorn Court Apartment Homes will consist of 197 apartment units and have 125,978 square feet of office space with below grade parking for all. The project is being constructed by Barry Swenson Builder.

The Essex-Elkhorn project is sandwiched adjacent to a hospital, day care center and residential housing. Because of this, special attention had to be taken to lessen the impact of performing the concrete work on the surrounding neighbors including scheduling large concrete pours on weekends during designated hours only and reducing the traffic around the site by limiting mixer truck traffic by pumping concrete from one pump to another. The attached clip shows a time lapsed video for accomplishing one of four mat pours scheduled for the project.

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