Casting your dreams: how to make money on that one of a kind job - Cover Story

Concrete Producer, The, Jan, 2004 by Rick Yelton

Every producer has a favorite way to return home. More often than not, the trek is savored after a difficult day. Somewhere along the way, the drive is sure to pass a special project. While the owner may have funded the project, the producer knows it was his team of skilled professionals that really paid the price. Their combined effort of innovation, hard work, and even sweat often was a turning point in the company's history.

Steve Fossler has his special route. He turns left out of his gate and goes about 2 miles on Illinois state Route 25. Just past downtown, Fossler turns right onto North Avenue.

If the traffic isn't too heavy, the crowd cheering on the little league game nearby isn't too loud, or the time for sunset too far away, Fossler will park under the elm tree and watch the river flow by. From this perch, he views an almost pastoral scene.

The Fox River, the centerpiece of Aurora, Ill., flows southward. The river bisects Illinois' third largest city with a green valley of flora and fauna. At the centerpiece of this particular outlook is the recently renovated North Avenue Bridge.

Long neglected by city and state highway departments, the North Avenue Bridge had fallen into disrepair. It was repaired in 2002 to its former class. And Fossler's crew at Aurora Concrete Products provided elements that have helped return the cultural standard.

What made the job special for Fossler is that it was the first time in his 25-year career he had a chance to showcase and display his plant's craftsmanship to the home team. In the course of the work, Fossler's team proved craftsmanship to the local design and specifying community.

Structuring beauty

When the city fathers commissioned the North Avenue Bridge the first time in the 1930s, they opted for an aesthetic symbol of civic pride. Aurora was a town on the rise, a center of commerce and transportation. The bridge with its two strong curving arches, ornate sidewalls, and decking dramatically displayed strength.

So a key element in the repair was to not only return the structure to current engineering standards, but also to its original look. The bid specs called for a complete rebuilding of the structure, from the foundation to the decking.

It was this key parameter found in the state and local bid documents that challenged Fossler and Armando Sanchez, the plant manager. In the past few years, Fossler and Sanchez had been quietly transforming Aurora Concrete Products into a dynamic company focused on high-quality special projects.

Fossler's role in the project was to cast the railings, spandrels, beams, and wing walls, in addition to the some of the underground utility pieces.

This was the first time Aurora Concrete Products had bean awarded structural bridgework for an Illinois Department of Transportation project (IDOT). "We knew we would have to prove ourselves to the local resident engineer," says Fossler. Even though the plant had been accepted into IDOT's QC/QA program, mix designs were reviewed very conservatively. The local engineer initially urged purchasing ready-mixed concrete from a local plant. But after Fossler's first mixes well exceeded performance requirements, the issue was dropped.

The project was a series of special castings, according to Fossler. Each element required its own handcrafted form. Thus, each unit's drawings required a careful review of the IDOT structural drawings. Fossler hired a retired engineer to handle the process. Along with the concerns of formwork requirements, the general contractor would also review the unit's pieces. "We often added fasteners and inserts to speed their placement, and that would require a new round of reviews by the IDOT engineers," says Fossler.

One part of the process that Fossler didn't foresee was the project's quick pace. Combined with the needed drawing revisions and approvals, the plant crew had to work long hours each week to keep up with the contractor.

The project called for a great deal of reinforcement in each element. Sanchez praises his crew's ability to react quickly to drawing revisions. But most importantly, it was their can-do attitude that pulled the job off. No matter how difficult the steel diagram looked, the crew also had it ready for the pour the next day, says Sanchez.

Beauty and strength

Along with IDOT's concern for strength and durability was their emphasis on surface appearance. This was an area where Fossler and Sanchez knew they would be successful in gaining acceptance. Prior to the plant's relocation to North Aurora from Northbrook, a Chicago suburb, the producer's main product line was architectural products. They had been casting walls and high-end planters. After the move, product focus had switched to structural elements.

So the North Avenue Bridge project offered a showcase for the plant's skill in making curved and bending elements. This was especially true in the case of the handrails. Each piece required an artist's eye for the multiple openings. And each opening required a rounded edge.