by Zach Rich, Silvi Regional Sales Mgr.

Silvi Concrete, headquartered in Fairless Hills, PA, is in the midst of trying to do what many claimed in the concrete business couldn’t be done: Deliver premium concrete pavement parking lots at a comparable INITIAL installation cost to that of asphalt. The initial 6-month track record is turning heads, and is changing the concrete market landscape. 

“Concrete parking lots should be one of the top priorities for all ready mix producers throughout the country in 2014,” says Zach Rich, Silvi Concrete’s NJ Regional Sales Mgr, who is leading the way. “The ready mix business tends to be reactionary in nature.  We wait for someone to call our company when they need concrete.  This trend needs to change.  The parking lot market is an untapped resource for ready mix producers nationwide.”

What is Silvi Concrete doing that is different?  Silvi is bridging the concrete pavement knowledge and automation gap job by job and for each owner, general contractor, engineer, and concrete contractor involved.  It doesn’t stop there though.  The Silvi team is involved during the entire the process from initial discussions to final installation.

An example of how it works

Silvi approached the owner of Campbell Freight who was in the middle of building an 80,000 sf facility in South Brunswick along the busy corridor of the NJ Turnpike.  Silvi wanted to help put together a concrete parking lot bid package that would compete against the asphalt lot Campbell Freight specified.  The building was design/build, so it allowed for value engineering as the project progressed.  Campbell Freight wanted the best product it could get for its money.  Campbell absolutely wanted concrete, but thought it wasn’t financially feasible.

Well, in Silvi’s mind it was feasible. Rich says that he reviewed the drawings, and made the apples to apples comparison to do the job in concrete.  The drawings called for 4” DGA, 2.5” base course, and 1.5” surface course asphalt. Paving it in concrete, the conversion was 4” DGA and 4” of concrete.  The heavy duty asphalt called for 6” DGA, 3.5” base course, and 1.5” surface course.  The concrete conversion was 5” DGA and 6” of concrete.

More importantly, the concrete package was over designed compared to asphalt.  This was a very easy concept for the Owner, General Contractor, and Engineer to consider and approve.  The mix design was 4,000 psi ae midrange with a 467 stone blend.

During the process, Zach absorbed himself with all things concrete paving.  He utilized resources such as the NRMCA’s Design Assistance Program (DAP), NRMCA concrete pavement online classes, ACI 330 R08- Concrete Parking Lots, and ACI 330.1-03- Unreinforced Concrete Parking Lots information to become a reliable resource for converting asphalt parking lot paving to the alternative, concrete. Once he had submitted the bid for the job and they were reviewed by the customer, Silvi was awarded the job!

By choosing concrete as the parking lot material, crews had many construction advantages over the alternative.  During installation, the process used 3D grading of the fine grade relying upon computers for pin point accuracy.  The 3D profiler/laser screed automates the labor intensive installation process.  It also allows the concrete parking lot to be built with 3D contours for drainage. During this process, Silvi Concrete placed anywhere from 500-800 cy of material per pour, up to 120’ wide.

As a way to dramatically reduce labor cost, concrete crews avoided “touching” the concrete as little as possible.  Once the 3D profiler screeded the concrete to the desired height, it was followed by bull floating, and then a broom texture finish applied via a “kite” method. At the end of the day, the Campbell Freight parking lot added over 6,000 cy of back log.  The 2,000 cy job now became 8,000 cy.

New opportunity

Once the Campbell Freight project had been completed, on it’s very next project, the General Contractor offered this new value added service to a client as an alternative to asphalt paving. That job called for more than 725,000 sf (14,000 cy) of concrete pavement.  While the project is out of Silvi’s service area and Silvi was not involved in the project, it generated value for another ready mix producer that otherwise would not have had the sale.

This past summer, Silvi Concrete enjoyed similar concrete paving success at a new 2.3 million sf Amazon.com warehouse in Robbinsville, NJ.  Using the same techniques employed at Campbell Freight, Silvi was able to sell the Owner and GC on the importance and value of changing over 600,000 sf of asphalt pavement to concrete.  Again, the depth of the sub grade and the pavement did not change to accommodate the concrete.  The General Contractor on this Amazon.com project is planning to use over 1 million sf of concrete pavement on its very next 2014 project.

In less than six months, Silvi Concrete has been able to convert projects that were planned to pave with asphalt into projects that will call for more than 20,000 cy and 1 million sf of concrete pavement. Through their efforts, Silvi indirectly encouraged the use of an additional 32,000 cy and 1.7 million sf of ready mix concrete in projects outside of its own service area. The future is looking bright for concrete pavement in the Northeast. Several other projects are under consideration for this conversion process in 2014.

Concrete Parking Lot Advantages:

• Highest quality product, competitive installation cost, and lower life cycle cost/yearly maintenance.
• 30+ years of service life.
• 3x the reflectivity of asphalt.
  • 35% increased lighting.
  • Enhanced safety for employees, customers, etc.
• Environmentally friendly
  • Reduced heat island effect. 7-10ºF Cooler
  • Storm water runoff: Lower temperature and nontoxic.
• HVAC System- Cooling lower temperatures from around the building.
  • Lower electric bills/Longer HVAC lifespan
• Proper joint spacing allows for increased load transfer between panels in the form of aggregate interlock.

SILVI CONCRETE is a member of The SILVI GROUP and headquartered in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania.  The SILVI GROUP was founded in 1946, employs over 200 people and consists of companies engaged in the manufacture of ready-mixed concrete, mining, cement, and real estate in southeastern PA and central and southern NJ.

For more information please contact: Zach Rich N.J. Regional Sales Mgr

The Silvi Group Companies
355 Newbold Road|
Fairless Hills, PA 19030

T: 267-907-9133
F: 267-907-9189
C: 267-566-1814
E: zrich@silvi.com