Pavimentos y Pisos De Hormigon, Instituto Del Cemento Y Del Hormigon De Chile (The Institute of Cement and Concrete Chile) (ICH), released an article titled “The Rebound of the Concrete Pavement Industry”. Today the use of concrete in construction is quite extensive, highlighting the area of building height and mining applications, as is the case of shotcrete—rallying the concrete pavement industry. Augusto Holmberg, General Manager-ICH, explains that the increase in some industrial areas of building partly offsets the fairly stagnant growth of the use of concrete in today’s general construction, along with increased use of concrete in mining and pavement projects.
Increased productivity, a major challenge
Holmberg points out that there is a pending challenge in productivity in construction in general. It becomes much more evident when there are problems of deficiency of labor, either in quantity, adequate training of the workforce, or types of materials used. “Today, predictions about availability of manpower are not so pressing, but probably will be in the future when we return to higher growth. This pressure occurs during greater productivity, and aims to be much stronger, as in 2012,” he says.
In the area of road pavements, the consolidation of short slab concrete pavements—versus asphalt pavements—improves both quality and alternative start-up costs. “Since this technology was developed, a new aspect has been developed—ultra thin concrete floors 8-cm to 10-cm thick slabs and short fiber—intended to be used in low-traffic roads. Basic and intermediate are competing in costs, in some cases with double surface treatments,” says Holmberg.
The ICH representative notes that “there has been significant support within the Ministry of Public Works to the introduction of short slabs pavements. Unfortunately, this contrasts sharply with what is happening in urban development. It is difficult to understand building short concrete slab pavements on one of the busiest routes in the country, but artificially limit the use of the same solution in urban streets and other passages.”
Next stage for construction
Asked how the ICH provides the remainder of the year for the construction sector in general, Holmberg said that “from the point of view of technology, I think we will still have news. ExpoHormigón will take place in October, where we will present the latest innovations in the concrete industry.” As for the volume of construction this year, the executive estimates that the country’s concrete use will likely be in a manner similar to the figures observed in 2014.
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Source: EMB Construction Magazine.
