Hillsborough County Florida is using a mix of expanding polyurethane foam and conventional cement grout as a more cost effective means of filling sinkholes. Officials say the mix uses 30 to 40% less grout adding up to a 30% cost savings. The article in the Tampa Tribune did not indicate the contractor or product name that they are using but apparently several agencies in California and other states are using the same material. Story via ASCE SmartBrief.
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Minnesota Company Transforming Highway and Bridge Repair by Using NCFI Engineered Polyurethane Foam
August 11, 2011 MOUNT AIRY, NC—Gary Molstre, owner of Mudpumpers Mudjacking, Moorehead, MN, says there is no chance they are changing the company name, but they are definitely changing the material they use to repair highways and bridges to an engineered polyurethane foam system and they’ve coined a term for it: “foamjacking”.
Mudjacking, also called slab jacking, concrete lifting, concrete raising, and slab leveling, is the traditional method of fixing damaged concrete highways and bridge approach panels. The process was developed in the 1930s and involves pumping “mud” (everything from clay, sand, and loam, to Portland cement, fly ash, lime, casting plaster, and hot asphalt have been used) beneath concrete slabs that have become uneven, sunken, and/or pulled away from bridge approaches due to soil erosion and/or the soil being compacted or compressed from the sheer weight of the slab. Mudjacking involves drilling holes in the concrete and pumping “mud” and pressure beneath to lift the slab to its original place and keep it there. [Editor] Click th rough for the rest of the press release. [/Editor]
More Trouble for Bertha TBM, Sinkhole, Tunneling Suspended
Grain Bin Settlement Problems Common to Concrete Foundations Solved with NCFI’s Geotechnical Polyurethane Foam Technology
New Solution Saves Money and Time Preventing Loss of Grain and Equipment Damage
MOUNT AIRY, NC—Soil consolidation and settlement happens. It’s a fact of farm life. Secondary consolidation slowly forces water out of the spaces between soil particles. As this happens, soil particles move close together and settling occurs. Floors drop and become uneven. Newer grain silos and bins are using concrete floors instead of metal, and as secondary consolidation occurs beneath them, depressed or “settled” areas, form within the bin. Grain accumulates in the depressed areas, but cannot be retrieved by the bin sweeper. In fact, the sweeper, a kind of auger that transports grain up from the floor, can become damaged from prolonged exposure to the uneven floor.
This is exactly what Kirk Roberts of CJGeo, a Williamsburg, Virginia-based commercial foundation repair and geotechnical contractor, found when he got the job to repair the foundation of a massive 106-foot diameter grain bin at a poultry processing facility on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. “Once they removed the hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain, we found the floor had dropped some three inches in one section of the bin leaving a large pocket of grain out of reach of the bin sweeper.”
[Editor] Read on for the rest of this press release from GeoPrac sponsor NCFI Polyurethanes. [/Editor]