More mileage from every mile
RCC helps village stretch road maintenance dollars
 Roads built with roller-compacted concrete (RCC) deliver longer life – and, as the Village of Streamwood, Illinois has discovered, the cost savings are hard to beat.
“So far, we see nothing but advantages,” says Matt Mann, director of public works for Streamwood, where crews recently repaved a 450-foot segment of residential roadway with RCC from Prairie Material.
“After a successful test pour in 2009, we decided to make RCC part of our road replacement program,” reports Mann. At current costs, he says, RCC is cheaper than asphalt, lays down just as easily and provides a stronger road base for years of additional service.
 Fast placement, instant strength
Streamwood workers were reluctant to try RCC at first, Mann admits. “In fact, Prairie was the only supplier willing to work with us,” he says. “This material is fairly new to our area, but we'd read about the success other cities and towns were having with it, so we’re glad Prairie agreed to help us get started.”
RCC is a low-moisture, zero-slump mix that road crews can place with virtually the same equipment and methods used for asphalt. Streamwood workers self-performed all aspects of the 200-yard job, Mann says. “We picked the mix up directly from Prairie using our own dump trucks and placed it in an 8-inch layer, which we compacted to 6 inches using a vibrating roller.”
 Since residents favor a smooth driving surface, crews capped the durable base with asphalt. “We let the RCC cure a few days before adding the top layer,” Mann says, but thanks to RCC's fast strength gain, the street reopened to local traffic the same day.
Durability and Savings
On its own or partnered with asphalt, RCC has proven its value in a range of commercial, industrial and public works settings, says Gary Hall of Prairie Illinois, who worked with Lonny Terzo and Len Burkart to design the mixes used in Streamwood.
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“RCC delivers strengths of 4,000 to 6,000 psi, but without the forms or steel reinforcement needed with conventional concrete,” Hall states. “It's ideal wherever durability, speed and cost savings are equally critical.”
In addition to road building, RCC has been used to construct dams, power plants, high-traffic parking lots and large commercial storage areas, the Portland Cement Association reports.
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Tough as rails
RCC's the right choice for CSX transport center
Originally developed as a super-tough, weather-resistant surface for the lumber yards of Canada, RCC is fast gaining ground as a high-strength paving option for heavy industry. Contractor Orange Crush, LLC of Hillside, Illinois recently used 2,200 yards of RCC to rebuild a 5,000-foot runway at CSX's intermodal transport center on Chicago's near southwest side.
The runway supports a huge crane designed to lift and place fully loaded railway cars, explains Dan Ahern, project lead for Orange Crush. “With each wheel handling around 25 tons of pressure, including the crane's weight, you can see where the toughness of RCC will have real value,” he says.
To create the runway, crews placed 16 inches of RCC in two lifts. “Our tests found the material reached nearly 100% compaction right away, so the second lift could be laid down immediately over the first,” Ahern reports. “We then topped the surface with 2 inches of asphalt.”
Prairie's commitment to superior service helped ensure the project's success, Ahern says. “We needed the full production capacity of their local plant for 2 days at a rate of 100 yards per hour,” he notes. “In the end, they produced around 140 yards per hour, which cut our 12-hour days down to just 8 hours.
“This is the second major project we've done for CSX using RCC,” he says, “and we appreciate Prairie's partnership in getting the job done.”
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