Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Concrete Updates

I have been light on posts the last couple months not because there is too little going on. It's completely the opposite, the big concrete jobs have been keeping from the little fun ones.
Here are a couple pictures of some on-going big projects.
The first full-scale photocatalytic pavement section is under construction on MO61 in St. Louis. This is cement technology originally developed as self-cleaning concrete for a white church in Rome. Since then we have learned it is also smog eating. The mainline section is two-lift smog eating concrete and we are installing photocatalytic pervious concrete shoulders too, pretty cool.

Here is an example from left to right of the self cleaning ability when submitted to sun for a couple hours a day.
I have slowly been refining the mix for shotcrete countertop panels and have a very good system in place. Other than high range water reducer, glass fibers, and metakaolin clay, everything else comes from home depot. That means for a normal kitchen countertop installation I will be in less than $200 in materials.
On a related note, a few weeks ago I received the American Concrete Institute's Walter P. Moore Jr., Faculty Achievement Award.