Three Mat Pours Blog Photo Collage - The Conco Companies

Saturday, August 24^th was not your typical day for Conco. While many projects are shutdown for the weekend, this Saturday was one of the busiest Saturdays in Conco’s 60-year history.

The activity began Friday evening in Southern California. Starting at 9:30 PM, Conco began to pump, place, and finish 10,400 cubic yards in downtown Los Angeles on a project known as The Grand. The Grand is a mixed-use project with retail, residential and a hotel across the street from the Disney Concert Hall. The developers for The Grand are The Related Cos. and CORE USA for this Frank Gehry designed structure.

The Grand Concrete Pour

The Grand 10,400 concrete pour was the second of three foundation pours for the structure. Eight concrete pumps were positioned around the foundation to receive concrete at the scheduled delivery rate of 750 cubic yards per hour. In order to supply concrete at this rate, Calportland, with the assistance of Associated Concrete, utilized five batch plants and over 120 concrete mixer trucks.

In addition to the work performed on The Grand, Conco had another large concrete pour on this day in downtown Oakland, CA. Working for the Holland Partner Group, the project located at 24^th & Harrison, site of the old Acura dealership, will comprise of luxury apartments with retail and other amenities.

Before placing the concrete, Conco was responsible for fabricating and installing all the rebar. Comprised of mainly #11 bar, more than 4.1 million pounds were needed for the entire mat foundation.

24th & Harrison Concrete Pour

The 24^th & Harrison project by the Holland Group was the second of two foundation pours at the site, requiring 7,300 cubic yards of concrete supplied by Central Concrete out of five concrete batch plants. Prior to pouring the concrete, Conco provided the fabricated rebar and installation. The challenging site necessitated that six concrete pumps (five were active at any given time) be used with a scheduled delivery rate of 600 cubic yards per hour being delivered by 120 concrete mixer trucks. The concrete pour began at 1:00 AM.

950 Market Street Concrete Pour

Furthermore, in addition to the Los Angeles and Oakland pours, a mat foundation pour also took place simultaneously in San Francisco, CA. The project at 950 Market Street will be a mixed-use development consisting of housing, a hotel, retail, and a dedicated non-profit space. This project is being developed by Group i, a San Francisco-based real estate development company. Working for the general contractor, Pankow Builders, Conco also fabricated and installed the rebar for the foundation. More than 1.7 million pounds were needed to be put in place prior to concrete placement for the entire foundation.

The mat pour for the 950 Market Street project was the first of two for the site and was supplied by CEMEX out of three concrete plants. A total of 3,195 yards of concrete was pumped, placed and finished by Conco through three concrete pumps that were supplied at a scheduled rate of 300 cubic yards per hour.

For the activity in three separate markets to transpire, multiple internal and external meetings were held to discuss every facet of activity associated with making each concrete pour a success. For Conco, success comes from developing the proper plan and executing that plan. Items such as safety, concrete mix designs, pump placement, street closures, individual company responsibilities, and contingencies are just a few of the details that must seamlessly be ironed out.

The resources that were used and vital statistics for Saturday, August 24, 2019 were:

	The Grand Los Angeles	24 & Harrison Oakland	950 Market San Francisco	Total
Concrete Placed	10,400	7,300	3,195	20,895
Concrete YPH Placed	750	600	300	1,650
Square Feet Finished	41,000	44,800	18,000	103,800
Mixer Trucks Used	120	140	60	220

With the combined effort of Conco, our customers and suppliers, all three projects finished on time with only 5 extra yards of concrete for all three projects combined. More importantly, all were completed without so much as a first aid claim.

Large mat foundation pours require extensive planning and collaboration with customers, suppliers, public agencies and various other third parties. Conco’s success is dependent on everyone doing their part and we at Conco are thankful to work with great customers and suppliers day in and day out, who give us the opportunity to succeed.

Thompson Hotel - Denver

Dubbed the Mile High City and situated just an hour east of the famous Rocky Mountains, Denver is Colorado’s capital and most populous city. Given its dual characteristics as a major metropolitan area and its proximity to the ski slopes and hiking trails of the mountains, Denver is a go-to tourist destination for millions of people every year. To meet the high demand of visitors wanting to experience all the city has to offer, Denver cultivated a robust tourism and hospitality industry that will soon welcome the luxury hotel chain Thompson Hotels into its fold.

Beginning construction in 2019, the Thompson Hotel project is an exciting collaboration of T2 Development, architects DLR Group, Layton Construction, and Denver commercial concrete contractors, The Conco Companies. The hotel will be on the 16th Street Mall, a booming commercial district in the heart of the city with restaurants, bars, retail shops, businesses, and arts and entertainment complexes. The upscale hotel will take the place of a surface parking lot and will loft to a height of 13 stories with over 200 rooms. Its high-end amenities will include an outdoor sky patio and fireplace, a full-service restaurant and bar on the street level, a rooftop bar with private event rooms, and meeting and event spaces situated throughout the hotel.

While the hotel itself will fit right into the dynamic 16th Street Mall, its location will pose some challenges for its construction. Primarily, the close proximity to the many other businesses and ongoing activities of the area will constrain access to the construction site and require strategic use of large equipment. For this reason, the Conco Companies is an ideal partner in the project, as they have decades of experience in tackling logistically challenging projects. After lending their expertise in the preconstruction and planning stages of development, Conco is slated to commence construction in August 2019. For their part of the Thompson Hotel project, Conco will be providing Denver concrete pumping and placing, formwork, concrete reinforcement, concrete finishing, and shotcrete services as well as construction trucking. The scope of work includes drilled pier foundations, pier caps and grade beams, mat foundations, slab on grade, shotcrete foundation walls, elevator core walls in two locations, and elevated post-tensioned structural slabs. Once completed, the Thompson Denver promises to be one of the premier hotels in the city.

Conco’s mission is to be the best supplier of concrete services in the Western United States and to bring expertise and unsurpassed quality to each project. We continue to upgrade and expand facilities to better serve the growing market for public works projects, commercial, educational, parking structures, and other construction development. Allow us to show you how we can assist your next project with our extensive experience and first-rate Denver concrete services.

The city of Oakland, CA has been undergoing significant change over the recent years as prominent development groups and city officials work to revitalize existing structures and re-envision the lay of the land. Strada Investment Group and CIM Group, along with Bay Area commercial concrete contractors The Conco Companies, have joined these efforts with their work on a joint venture at 1100 Clay Street. This exciting mixed-use project is one of several in the companies’ portfolios and promises to contribute significantly to the evolving dynamic of downtown.

1100 Clay Street: a robust collaboration

The Strada Investment Group is a real estate investment company headquartered in San Francisco with expertise in research, acquisitions, asset management, and construction and development. The CIM Group is an owner and operator of a variety of real assets, including urban residential, commercial, retail, hospitality, and infrastructure investments. Together they conceived of the 16-story mixed-use residential tower at 1100 Clay Street and have partnered with area contractors to commence construction on the project. The residential component of the building will feature 288 apartment units with floorplans ranging from studios to three bedrooms, all outfitted with on-trend finishes and fixtures and large windows with excellent Bay Area views. Residents of the building will also benefit from a fitness center, co-working meeting spaces, a rooftop lounge, underground parking, and bike storage. 1100 Clay Street will also provide several public amenities, including 4,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor and a landscaped pedestrian plaza next the building and stone’s throw from the 12th Street BART Station.

Laying a strong foundation

In order to make this vision possible, the project’s development groups partnered with the Conco Companies to provide a range of commercial concrete services. The work of concrete contractors is the foundation and backbone of many large-scale construction projects and Conco will be contributing 14,590 cubic yards of concrete and shotcrete as well as four million pounds of rebar and post-tension reinforcement to the endeavor. Known for its ability to take on complex projects while keeping them on budget and on schedule, Conco was tasked with the project’s concrete finishing, concrete pumping, concrete reinforcement, concrete formwork, construction trucking, and shotcrete services.

Conco is a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western United States. As one of the leading commercial concrete contractors in the Bay Area, we have been involved with large-scale projects in the area including the new 49ers Stadium. Our concrete services include commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects and highways.

Within the concrete construction industry there are several avenues for recognition for Los Angeles commercial concrete contractors, such as for the design, scope, or execution of a project. And while an award for outstanding concrete work on a restoration project is impressive, awards garnered for the safety of a project or overall operations are particularly important to the industry. One such award is the Albert H. Atwood Safety Achievement Award which seeks to recognize a significant contribution to safety and accident prevention by a company or individual of the Southern California Contractor’s Association (SCCA). For 2019, SCCA announced that the Conco Companies were selected as the winners of Atwood Safety Achievement Award.

Conco Pumping receives the 2019 Albert H. Atwood Safety Achievement Award.
The award is presented in recognition of distinctive achievement by a company, individual, or crew that made a substantial contribution to safety and accident prevention.Pictured left to right: Mike Martinez – Conco Pump Sales; Jon “JP” Madigan – Conco Pump Service Manager; Dora Veronica – Conco SoCal Office Manager; Doug Marquis – Conco Pumping SoCal GM; Gary Brandt – Conco Pump Sales; Robert Thacker – Conco Safety

Conco’s Innovations in Safety Practices

In order to be considered for the Albert H. Atwood Safety Achievement Award, candidates must submit an application to the award committee that outlines the safety issue they worked to address and the practices or initiatives the candidate employed to mitigate the issue, along with the impact of those efforts. As a prominent commercial concrete contractor offering a range of concrete services, Conco Pumping recognized a gap in safety measures with concrete pumping and belting technologies: there was a general absence of fall protection systems on concrete boom pumps, separate placing booms, and Telebelt mobile conveyors. Conco’s concrete pumping safety team worked diligently over the course of four years to address this significant and unnecessary safety risk by partnering with manufacturers to provide fall protection systems on its equipment.

Years of Work to Increase Safety

Conco’s concrete pumping safety team used a combination of approaches to shift the safety provisions of concrete pump and conveyor manufacturers. For new equipment, they ordered and purchased the technology with the contingency that fall protection systems would be provided with the delivered equipment, which was already a common practice in Europe for standard boom pump models. Conco also worked with engineers and manufacturers to develop and test new fall protection systems, and then required that they be installed on the concrete boom and placing pumps and conveyors they utilize. Conco has shared their work openly with the industry at large, leading to a increased adoption of these fall protection systems in the industry.

The Conco Companies’ mission is to be the best supplier of concrete services in the Western U.S. and to bring expertise and incomparable quality to each project. We continue to upgrade and expand our facilities to better serve the growing market for commercial, educational, parking structures, public works projects, and other development. Contact us to learn more about the services from one of the most trusted concrete contractors in Los Angeles.

61-Story Salesforce Tower Distinguished for its Sustainability

CEMEX, a global building materials company, today announced that Conco Companies, has been awarded a prestigious CEMEX Building Award for its work on Salesforce Tower, San Francisco’s tallest building. Salesforce Tower won first place in the Sustainable Building category in the 2018 International Edition of the CEMEX Building Award during a ceremony Thursday, November 8 in Mexico City.

Salesforce Tower, a 1,070-foot skyscraper completed in 2018, required 110,000 cubic yards of ready-mix concrete from CEMEX to complete its foundation and core interior walls. The building’s mat pour was one of the largest in San Francisco’s history, requiring 18 hours to complete.

2018-USA-conco-wins-building-award-pr3 (1)

“Salesforce Tower is probably one of the most challenging projects we have done,” said Joe Sostaric, Conco’s Corporate Vice President. “CEMEX worked very hard with us. We went through multiple trials, including building mockups, so that we had a mix design to meet all the standards, not only to meet the ultimate strength of 10,000 psi, but also making sure it was placed correctly and had the correct characteristics. We’re proud of what we’ve been able to build.”

Salesforce Tower includes state-of-the-art amenities with low environmental impact, designed for LEED Platinum status. The building includes the usage of recycled water and rainwater as well as the incorporation of natural daylight. Recycled materials were also used where possible. In addition, Salesforce Tower’s design includes innovative power-saving features and 100 percent natural air on all floors.

2018-USA-conco-wins-building-award-pr1 (1)

CEMEX Building Award distinguishes the best in Architecture and Construction around the world to develop a global culture of continuous innovation in construction by encouraging creativity and the application of new concrete technologies in projects with a high sense of sustainability and social well-being, encouraging the exchange of ideas and solutions amongst the world’s different construction industries.

“The CEMEX Building Award recognizes industry leaders, and Conco Companies is a strong example of one,” said Marsat Lal Mirpuri, CEMEX USA’s VP/GM Ready-Mix Bay Area. “We’re proud to have worked with Conco on such an exemplary achievement, reshaping the San Francisco skyline with an iconic project that will stand for years to come.”