Once again, Extrudakerb push the boundaries of completed insitu Central Reserve Concrete Barrier with 632m (180m3) of ECB installed by a single paving team in a single shift.

As we continue to showcase to the industry that ECB is the market leading concrete barrier system, these excellent outputs are only achievable if the site is made available. We therefore once again thank #Costain for their continued support in preparing large sections of site and for having the confidence that we will perform.

Our supply chain of #Tarmac and #GCP were once again on hand providing the support and assistance to make this happen.

Not only are Extrudakerb and #Tarmac focused on pushing boundaries with production, we are also looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint and help the environment. This focus has seen us introduced an “eco-mix” to the project which requires less cementitious material per cubic meter of concrete than traditional mix designs, whilst still providing the required compressive strength.

Not only is ECB the most efficient insitu Central Reserve Concrete Barrier on the market, it is also the kindest to our environment!

Following the recent fund raising clothing collection arranged by Costain’s Richard Paddey, which Extrudakerb were delighted to be involved with, it was our pleasure to be invited along to a presentation and demonstration of the unbelievable work which the Yorkshire Air Ambulance carry out for the people of Yorkshire, and sometimes beyond. The most alarming statistics from the day were the fact that the YAA are called out between 4 and 5 times per day, and that the charity needs to raise an incredible £12,000.00 EVERY day to keep both air ambulances operational.

The passionate presentations by the YAA fund raising and operational teams were certainly very humbling, and then the stark reality of vulnerability hits home, as stories from previous patients who had been unfortunate enough to need the YAA services, but also lucky enough to survive BECAUSE of the YAA teams expertise and response.
This is a charity which Extrudakerb will be looking at ways to support in the future.

www.yaa.org.uk

Following on from the success of Link 1 & 2 Central Reserve works on the M6 J21a to 26 Smart Motorway Project, Extrudakerb remobilised to site mid-April to embark on the Link 3, 4 & 5 Central Reserve works. As expected, the excellent outputs and quality have continued from where they left off, thanks to collaborative working, Extrudakerb’s high tech concrete trucks and a dedicated mobile batch plant supplied by Tarmac.

In the four weeks since works recommenced, 3000m3 of concrete has been placed, slipforming 5km of Surface Water Channel (SWC) and 2km of Extrudakerb’s concrete barrier system (ECB), along with the construction of 120no SWC outfalls.

The slipform SWC works are now complete for the Central Reserve works, which again saw excellent slipform outputs of up to 300 to 350m+ per slipform paver, per shift. The construction of associated SWC outfalls is on target for completion by the end of May, in line with our agreed Construction Programme.

The focus between now and the planned completion (end of June 22) is the Central Reserve barrier which will see the installation of a further 6.5km of ECB along with the construction of various hand lay bifurcations, transitions, and bridge expansion joints. Extrudakerb are once again pushing the boundaries of slipform outputs with the previous peak variable ECB output of 377m already being surpassed, laying down a new marker of 401m.

There will no doubt be challenges along the way, but the delivery of this programme is testament to the collaborative working between Extrudakerb, our supply chain and most importantly our customer, Costain.

Our works on this project continue to showcase what can be achieved with insitu-concrete products as we continue to set new benchmarks.

Further significant investment has been made by Extrudakerb, with the purchase of two more brand new concrete mixer trucks, to enhance their already impressive fleet of self-operated and managed mixer trucks from eight to ten.

Alongside the commercial commitment to continually improve  our position within the supply chain, more importantly this investment also creates employment opportunities from within the local community.

The brand new Mercedes Arocs 8x4 chassis, have been completed with a McPhee Mixers 8m3 barrel mixer body. These trucks have been specially designed, and Extrudakerbs Operations and Technical departments were heavily involved from the outset to ensure that these bespoke trucks successfully meet the demands of the fast paced, quality critical nature of a slipform paving concrete pour.

This investment further enhances our reputation within the highways industry of being the market leading slipform contractor within the UK.

Extrudakerb Expand Fleet Of Concrete Mixer Trucks

The shortlisted entry focuses on the success of the VERIFI® – in transit concrete management used on the M6 J21a to 26 Smart Motorway Project.

Whilst the shortlisted entry is specific to the M6 J21a to 26 Smart Motorway Project, this recognition actually highlights the success of a 2 years collaboration which has seen Extrudakerb and GCP Applied Technologies “innovate the innovation”.

VERIFI® was already an innovation in its own right. For a number of years, GCP Applied Technologies had provided major suppliers within the concrete industry with VERIFI®. The technology had already proven itself as a successful in-transit concrete management tool with higher consistency concrete, but was seldom used with low consistence concrete.

GCP and Extrudakerb’s respective Technical departments worked tirelessly to trial and develop the VERIFI® system. The data required to develop the system could only been collated when the system was in operation. This meant the trials and development had to be undertaken whilst Extrudakerb continued to deliver tight and demanding programmes on various National Highways projects up and down the UK.

Over the course of several months, data was captured, analysed and adjustments were made to the VERIFI® system and as each month went by, improvements in slipform outputs were being realised.

Over the last 12 months, Extrudakerb’s Customers have realised the benefits of the hard work and collaboration between Extrudakerb and GCP, utilising the bespoke algorithm’s that now form part of the VERIFI® system.

We believe the introduction of Extrudakerb’s state of the art bespoke ready mix concrete trucks, the addition of their in-house Concrete and Materials Manager, both perfectly complemented by GCP’s innovative in-transit concrete management tool has seen a collaboration that has offered more to the slipform industry than any other innovation in the last 10 years.

Extrudakerb received the National Highways Award for Outstanding design innovation, using research and development to create efficiencies and continuous improvement earlier in the year and securing this award would further cement our position as the leading specialist slipform concrete contractor in the UK.

Extrudakerb (Maltby Engineering) Limited has been awarded a National Highways Industry Award for 'Outstanding design innovation, using research and development to create efficiencies and continuous improvement' in this year's awards ceremony.

Below is a video highlighting the project in more detail:

As part of Extrudakerb`s growth, innovation and continual improvement programme it recognised that the consistency of its concrete was greatly affected by its transport and delivery method. Moving forward Extrudakerb invested in eight of its own concrete mixer trucks, to help run the trucks as efficiently as possible. All the trucks were fitted with the Verifi concrete management system to assist with this process.  

Extrudakerb use a specific family of concrete mix designs that lend themselves to the slipform paving process whilst still conforming to the required exposure classes. The Verifi system had to be tailored to measure and manage these types of concretes. Extrudakerb and GCP applied technologies formed a partnership to enable both parties to get the best out of the Verifi concrete management system, striving to achieve the best quality and most consistent concrete delivered directly to our pavers. We were invited to support GCP applied technologies, in presenting their Verifi concrete management system, at the Highways UK (Roads for a connected Britain) show at the NEC Birmingham, and supplying some customer feedback, as one of their most successful customers. Adrian Pickard (Extrudakerb, Materials and Concrete Technology Manager) and Helen Frape (GCP Applied Technologies, Business Analyst) presented to representatives from some of the companies attending Highways UK and to some of the representatives from Highway England.     The presentation was well received with positive feedback from all involved and the system was viewed very highly by Highways England as the way forward in concrete management. GCP entered their Verifi concrete management system into the “Resilience, Sustainability and Waste reduction category” at the show and successfully won.  

There were three other categories’ open to awards, the winners of all four categories were put forward to the overall winners of the show and GCPs Verifi system took this award. Highways England and their main contractors are looking at GCP and the Verifi system as a market leader. The accuracy and traceability of concrete delivered using this system is a major game-changer in terms of concrete quality and the supply. With the performance requirements of in-situ concrete continuing to increase this technology will become invaluable to numerous parts of the construction industry, who are all striving to utilise the highest level of quality concrete. Extrudakerb are proud to be at the forefront with this type of technology and see this as a very positive step forward in the continual growth as an innovative and market-leading company.  

Pioneering H&S and efficiency improvements through technical innovation

Extrudakerb has, once again, revolutionised the concrete cutting world with the introduction of an automated concrete slot drain cutting machine that utilises diamond wire, designated the Extrudakerb Wire Saw. The Extrudakerb slip formed concrete slot drain requires sections to be removed to allow outfall chambers to be installed. These outfalls can be as frequent as 30 linear metre intervals. Historically, these sections have been cut with hydraulic chainsaws manually held by the operator. This carries a risk to the operator and limits the time that can be spent cutting, because of the potential for hand-arm vibration. Even though this is an acceptable method of cutting concrete, Extrudakerb knew that by challenging the present, the future could be better. Using in-house design engineers, Extrudakerb created a bespoke piece of equipment specifically tailored to the application, allowing optimum results in performance, safety and quality. To read the full, two page case study, open/download the PDF of the CS006 Wire Saw Leaflet in full using this link:

Mobilising Concrete Supply to Site

Extrudakerb’s Operations team have identified that all too often concrete delivery targets are not met by our supply chain ready mixed concrete partners. Frequently the size of the existing fleet of concrete delivery trucks based at a ready mixed concrete plant is insufficient to meet the intense demands of a slipform concrete pour. In addition this fleet is typically suited to the transportation of high slump materials to normal building and civils works rather than the low slump exacting concrete demanded by the slipform paving process. Whilst the ready mixed concrete supply chain partner will attempt to mitigate the problem by hiring in additional trucking, the success of this is often limited. As a result the quality and rate of supply of concrete delivered can suffer. After extensive research and proactive discussions with our ready mixed concrete supply chain partners, Extrudakerb decided to procure bespoke 8m3 capacity concrete mixer trucks specifically designed to meet the demands of a slipform paving concrete pour. To read the full, two page case study, download the PDF of the CS007 Concrete Truck Leaflet in full using this link:

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