16 • April 2014 www.concreteproducts.com
Occupying the site of a hotel that hosted
guests from Pope John Paul II and Ronald Rea-
gan to John F. Kennedy and U.S. Chief Justice
Earl Warren, the Wilshire Grand Center is rising
on sound footing thanks to a Guinness Book of
World Records-grade concrete placement.
Catalina Pacifc Concrete delivered 2,120
loads of ready mixed over a 19-hour, mid-Feb-
ruary window for the 73-story hotel's mat
foundation. The fagship concrete business of
Glendora Calif.-based CalPortland Co. mustered
208 mixer trucks and 235 drivers across fve of
its own and three A&A; Ready Mixed Concrete
plants, four to 20 miles from the downtown
Los Angeles site. Executed without a single in-
jury, the operation marked what project off-
cials note is a new volume threshold for a con-
tinuous foundation pour: 21,200 yd., slightly
besting a 1999 record set for The Venetian, Las
Vegas.
"A typical sequenced pour on a similar
project would occur over weeks. With a con-
tinuous pour, we saved time, and because we
poured at once, rather than in segments, we
were able to create an incredibly strong foun-
dation for this iconic tower," says Scott Bor-
land, vice president in the Los Angeles offce
of general contractor Turner Construction.
NEWS SCOPE
BY DON MARSH
Catalina Pacific deploys eight plants, 200+ trucks for record 21,000-yd. pour
Gauging the heat of hydration in a concrete mat at least 18 feet—even with a 25 percent
fy ash binder component—engineers specifed plastic piping to circulate chilled water
through the mass concrete supporting the new Wilshire Grand Center.
PHOTOS: CalPortland Co.
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