The Federal Highway Administration and the South Carolina Department of Transportation have scheduled an open house on Thursday, April 18, featuring the latest technologies in the concrete materials and paving arena. The FHWA’s Mobile Concrete Trailer (MCT) introduces agency and industry personnel to the state-of-the-art concrete technology in materials selection, mixture design, field and laboratory testing, and pavement evaluation. The MCT is visiting South Carolina to introduce new test methods related to the Performance Engineered Mixtures (PEM) initiative and other innovative tests related to concrete materials and construction relevant to field performance.
Examples of equipment that would be demonstrated/showcased:
• Super Air Meter (SAM) - Cutting edge technology to measure air void characteristics of concrete
• Surface Resistivity - Rapid measurement to indicate permeability of concrete
• Box Test - Measurement of workability for paving concrete
• V-Kelly - Measurement of workability for paving concrete
• Phoenix – Simplified water cementitious ratio determination in the field
• MIRA - Nondestructive device for identifying construction related abnormalities and steel location
• MIT Scan T3 - Nondestructive device for measuring pavement thickness
• Calorimeter – Simple test to determine consistency of cementitious sources/contents during production
The open house will be at the Blythe construction concrete plant at Exit 83 on Southbound I-85 (last exit in Spartanburg - opposite side of the truck stop). For more information, contact Shane Parris, P.E., South Carolina DOT, ParrisSL@scdot.org; Cole Harrison, P.E., KCI, at 864-680-3666 or David Schuster, P.E., Blythe-Zachry JV, 704-778-2855.
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association