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Jesse Anna Boone, Senior National Specifications Manager-Carbon-Cure Technologies and Former Pavement Applications Director-SCPA, produced an article (and VIDEO) that were the feature in the Southeast Cement Pavement Association (SCPA) “2021 Promotion Spotlight”. A beautiful Tennessee community called Black Creek, famous for its Raccoon Mountain Caverns, speckles the bottom valley of Aetna or “Etna” Mountain that stands at 1,950 feet in elevation—below the famous 2,392-foot elevation “Lookout Mountain”. Most of the mountain remains undeveloped but a little over a decade ago, the Chazen Family purchased part of the I-24 side of the mountain in Chattanooga and began developing it.
Click to go to “Google Drive” of 2-page Promotion Spotlight ARTICLE
By 2017, Andy Stone, a Black Creek land owner and Developer began to plant his dream of an expansion of the properties—with the development to stretch all the way up to the very top of Aetna. “The view from up there is just spectacular,” Stone said. By 2019, construction began with cutting a two-lane road up the side of a mountain. It was a big task because due to its steep incline, and safety was a concern. The City of Chattanooga required the road to have two 17-foot-wide lanes with one-foot curb and gutters and a median in between.
Stone said, “The road had to be safe and the road had to be durable.” The original plan was for the road to be constructed using heavy-duty asphalt. However, Ariel Soriano, Senior Engineer-City of Chattanooga, Tennessee, suggested they consider using Roller-Compacted Concrete (RCC). After an alternate bid, Stone did his own research on RCC and its capabilities, since he was not familiar with the paving process. Fortunately, the RCC bid came in 15% lower than the heavy-duty asphalt and he was awarded the project. Stone contacted Andrew Smith, Part-Owner-Robert Smith Inc. (RSI) after the advisement of several people.
Click to watch 1-minute VIDEO of RCC mixing, batching, paving…
Robert Smith, Inc. was awarded the contract and began the RCC project in mid-January 2021. RSI had the portable mixing plant on site and were able to position it halfway up the mountain road. The convenience of having the plant on site was crucial for RSI, since they weren’t sure their paver would be able to push dump trucks loaded with RCC up the grade—which averages 14% and as steep as 20%. June 15, 2021, RSI pulled their last run with a crowd of representatives who work in pavement design were invited to see the construction process, most of whom had never seen RCC before, and certainly had never seen it performed in this capacity.
To read the entire PROMOTION SPOTLIGHT, please click on images above, or go to: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A-RbfxBPIb6ve3gtfpZS0gV8yKGM22Ib/view
To view the 1-minute VIDEO, please click on the image above left, or go to Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_2eCssm_OzDMB2wz5DTFn9SqB2zu9a7C/view