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One look at the winning projects in the 2007 Creative Use of Precast award program shows the almost infinite range of possibilities for designing and building with precast concrete products. The CUP awards were presented Feb. 9 at NPCA’s Salute to Excellence during MCPX and the Winter Conference in Denver. An independent panel of precast experts judged the entries in Above Ground and Underground categories.

This year’s winning projects range from a luxury highrise apartment complex to a tornado shelter for a mobile home in the Above Ground category, and from a sewer diversion that protects a fish habitat to a double-three-sided box culvert bridge design in the Underground category.

Here’s a summary of the winning projects:

ABOVE GROUND CATEGORY

First Place
Smith-Midland Corp.
Jefferson at Inigo’s Crossing

Jefferson at Inigo’s Crossing is a luxury apartment complex that is strong, functional and cost-effective with the exterior clad entirely with precast concrete – all 106,000 square feet of it. Using its Slenderwall system of precast panels detailed with brick and limestone finishes, Smith-Midland created a look that blends in perfectly with the surrounding neighborhood. The panels at the top of the building are load-bearing to accommodate the roof loadings. In addition to the cost and time savings, the use of Slenderwall panels allowed for significantly upgraded architectural detailing at an economical price.

Second Place (tie)
Barbour Concrete Co.
Mobile Tornado Steps

Barbour Concrete’s mobile home step tornado shelter is a heavy precast product that is unaffected by a mobile home’s skirting and non-airtight underpinnings. Weighing in at 4,000 pounds, the four-step model anchors securely to the ground from the inside of the steps, eliminating chances for air to pressurize beneath the structure and in some instance, flipping the structure up and over. The steps’ concrete is fiber-reinforced with a cast-in steel cage. Much like a typical staircase, the shelter is used for ingress and egress from the mobile home. A heavy-gauge steel door opens and latches from both sides.

Second Place (tie)
Vaughn Concrete Products
Vertical Axis Wind Energy Turbine Structure

Vaughn Concrete Products developed this precast structure which consists of four stacked precast A-Panels. The curved airfoil sections are 12 feet wide by 34 feet tall and weigh 51,000 pounds each. The three precast units channel wind into the turbine to create an energy system that generates power. After one hour of 33-mph winds, the unit generates enough power for 20 Wyoming Homes.

Third Place (tie)
Hanson Structural Precast Pacific
Element Lofts

Hanson Structural Precast Pacific created this luxury urban multi-family structure in Irwindale, Calif., using precast concrete “moment” framing. The double-tee construction used often in parking garages is employed here to create a building with high strength that is capable of supporting long spans.

Third Place (tie)
Modern Precast Concrete
Comcast Center Project

Modern Precast created the precast for a tuned Liquid Column Damper system in the Comcast Building in Philadelphia – the 13 th highest building in the United States. The liquid column damper is a system in which a body of water is tuned to move in sequence with the swaying of the building. The precast panels for this system were installed more than 975 feet above ground.

UNDERGROUND CATEGORY

First Place
Sherman-Dixie Concrete Industries Inc.
The Missing Link

Sherman Dixie created a four-sided box culvert system for the Henderson County Road Department that spanned a 26-foot by 12 section of county road in rural Henderson County. Hydraulically, structurally and aesthetically this was an enormous improvement from the failed twin corrugated metal pipe structure that it replaced. The entire structure was placed in two days – a fraction of the time that would have been required for a typical three-sided installation with cast-in-place footers and much quicker than the 60 to 90 days of road closure that would have been required by a built-in-place bridge.

Second Place
Granite Precasting and Concrete
The Big Gulch Project

For the Big Gulch Trunk Sewer in Bellingham, Washington, Granite Precasting constructed the components of a diversion structure that diverts excess water from the existing culvert in order to prevent flooding and erosion while protecting the fish habitat.

Third Place
Garden State Precast Inc.
Target Retail Abutment

For this project in Hackettstown, New Jersey, Garden State Precast Inc. match-cast two abutments in three 70-ton sections, along with nine wingwalls. Each of the six of the post-tensioned sections displayed a footprint of nine-and-a-half feet by 20 feet. Due to the size of the precast elements and the long reach required, a massive 650 ton mobile crane was used to set the pieces. The abutments and wingwalls were installed in just two working days.

CUP AWARD HONORABLE MENTION

ABOVE GROUND

A.C. Miller Inc., Spring City, Pa., Brooklyn Bridge Redecking

American Precast Products LLC, Prescott, Ariz., Prescott Lakes Development

Arto Brick California Pavers, Gardena, Calif., Hot Topic Retail Store Fronts

Barbour Concrete Co., Independence, Mo., BNSF Grade Separation

Faddis Concrete Products, Downingtown, Pa., Fort Washington Station

GPRM Prestress, Kapolei, Hawaii, Kaumalapau Harbor Core-Loc Project

Huffcutt Concrete Inc., Chippewa Falls, Wis., Dorias Field Multiuse Building

Independent Concrete Pipe, Indianapolis, Ind., Pedestrian Tunnel-Walkway

Jefferson Concrete Corp., Watertown, N.Y., New Seven-Pod Dormitory at Monroe Community College

UNDERGROUND

Dalmaray Concrete Products Inc., Janesville, Wis., Story Lake Project

Firebaugh Precast, Dacono, Colo., Highpoints Lift Station

Mayer Brothers Inc., Elkridge, Md., Bay Restoration Fund, Advanced Sewage Treatment Unit

Rex Vault Service Inc., Newton, Ill., Sandborn, Ind. STEP System

U.S. Precast Group Northern California, Livermore, Calif., CDS PSW 100

Yavapai Precast, Prescott Ariz., 1,250 Gallon Precast Septic Tank