Michigan National Guard Maintenance Facility - Lansing, MI

Project Focus
IHC won the 2003 Michigan Concrete Paving Association Award for Best Industrial Parking Area constructing this 36,000 square yard heavy-industrial parking area for the new Michigan National Guard maintenance facility in Lansing. The PCCP work was performed as a subcontractor to Kares Construction of Charlotte, who had responsibility for the overall project including site work and maintenance buildings.

Project Details
Schedule & Complexity
The PCCP portion of this project was completed on time in the fall of 2003. Working around this completely new maintenance facility while adjacent buildings were under construction created many challenges. In a tight working space with many different contractors, it was necessary not only to provide certain, timely access to the other contractors but also to protect new slabs from damage.

Construction & Innovation
Consumers Concrete Company Concrete delivered 4000 psi specification ready-mix concrete to the grade with front-discharge paving mixers. IHC placed the concrete in 19’ widths using slipform pavers, a Guntert-Zimmerman 850 and a CMI 350. A CMI MTP belt-spreading machine was also used to provide a uniform spread in front of the paver. Small and irregular areas were placed with forms and a Clary finishing machine.

Expansion joints, one-half inch wide were required four sides on 100-foot squares throughout the parking lot. To improve the quality of the pavement and productivity, the Contractor paved through the transverse expansions joints and then sawed the pavement to place the expansion fiber. The placement of the longitudinal fiber at construction joints was very precise to provide function and aesthetics. Contraction joints were sawed and left unsealed per the specification.

Quality
The 9.5’ by 9’ panels were laid out and saw cut to maintain true and straight joints. The drainage design provided that surface water would flow off the ends of the pavement; therefore, the final elevations of the PCCP were critical to prevent water ponding on the finished surface. Special care was taken during placement of adjacent matching slabs to eliminate any entrapment of water at the construction joint.

Strengths using the minimum required 6-sack, all cement mix easily surpassed the 4000-psi requirement.