815-416-1000UCP Holiday 2023 Newsletter
Check out our 2023 Holiday Newsletter!
Wishing all of our customers & industry partners a Happy Holiday Season!
It’s been an exciting 2023 for the Utility Concrete Products Team. See below for some of the projects and unique precast concrete solutions we created this year!
Red Purple Modernization (RPM) Phase One
UCP’s RPM Team is thrilled to announce our latest milestone – the completion of precast segmental production!
If you’ve been following along with our newsletters you know by now that the bridge structure carrying the Red and Purple Line trains between Lawrence and Bryn Mawr is being reconstructed in two stages utilizing a precast segmental superstructure. Stage A, consisting of 74 total spans and 841 individual precast segments, was completed and opened to live train traffic in July of 2023. Our production group fabricated the last segment for the project this month and we are scheduled to begin Stage B superstructure erection early next year!
UCP also fabricated and delivered over 1,000 precast noise barrier panels that were installed on top of the Stage A segments. These panels provide not only a reduction in track level noise but also a beautiful aesthetic for the surrounding neighborhoods. An additional 1,000 plus panels are scheduled to be produced and delivered for the Stage B work in 2024.
Congratulations to all of our team members working on this historic project and keep an eye on future newsletters as the job marches towards completion!
Click here to see additional Segmental Bridges projects
Aircraft Rated Box Culvert
Located at the end of an airport runway, 392 feet of an existing 16′-0″ wide x 9′-6″ tall dual cell box culvert required immediate replacement to avoid delays to ongoing airfield operations. Who did the installing contractor trust as their precast partner, you guessed it, UCP!
With limited notice our talented forming department was able to design and build four massive steel forms in only five weeks. In turn, our operations team rolled each of these forms into the production schedule and fabricated 98 total 4 foot long aircraft rated box culvert sections in under six weeks. Each section of culvert weighed in at 54,000 pounds and four special end pieces were poured with exposed reinforcing steel to tie into the existing culvert with cast-in-place collars. The installation of this culvert was no small feat either, diligent coordination was required and our dispatchers assisted the contractor in successfully taking delivery of all 98 pieces in just five days!
Click here to see additional Drainage projects
Central Tri-State (I-294) Reconstruction
The Illinois Tollway is currently underway with their Central Tri-State (I-294) reconstruction consisting of multiple contracts spanning the 22-mile corridor from Balmoral Avenue to 95th Street. The reconstruction of this major interstate through the heart of Chicago will not only provide congestion relief to over 300,000 vehicles a day through widening the roadway but the new infrastructure will support future demand and improve travel reliability.
Utility Concrete Products is the leading precast supplier of noise and retaining wall products on the Illinois Tollway with hundreds of thousands of square feet of precast projected for the I-294 reconstruction work. This year alone we have delivered roughly 1,800 noise wall panels and 2,100 mechanically stabilized earth retaining wall panels with even more targeted for delivery between 2024-2025. If that isn’t impressive enough, we also provided a few thousand feet of temporary cross-bolt traffic barrier as well as hundreds of underground electrical and drainage utility structures. The featured photos will give you a glimpse at the walls supplied thus far which range in height anywhere from 5 feet to over 30 feet tall, but take a look for yourself next time you are going down I-294!
Click here to see additional Sound Wall projects
Click here to see additional Retaining Wall projects
One Year Without a Lost Time Incident
This fall, UCP made it 365 consecutive days without a lost time incident in our production facility. We are incredibly proud of the men and women in our plant who helped reach this important milestone. Safety is our number one priority and we look forward to another year without lost time!
Lake Forest Retaining Wall
Our team has over a decade of experience in the design and supply of retaining walls making us the leading supplier in Illinois. That experience affords us the ability to provide unique retaining wall solutions for various entities including IDOT, ISTHA, County DOTs, railroads and private developments!
Look no further than this custom retaining wall system we built this year for the Forest Park Bluff Stabilization project in Lake Forest, IL. The project required three precast concrete retaining walls with a total of 223 lagging panels and 171 pile covers. What made this one particularly challenging was the requirement for a continuous concrete appearance even at the steel support columns. With the help of our design partners, we developed a unique precast pile cover that had embedded steel plates to facilitate welding them to the columns. The entire front face of the wall system was poured with an ashlar stone formliner to provide the desired appearance.
The use of precast allows for a wide range of aesthetic treatments to provide a visually appealing final product while still achieving its structural purpose of retaining earth!
Click here to see additional Retaining Wall projects
WCL Kirk Yard Sanitary Lift Station
Whether it be a precast alternate to a cast-in-place design or a structure already specified as precast, there is no one better to call than UCP!
Surrounded by railroad tracks and existing utilities, this lift station for the WCL Kirk Yard in Gary, Indiana was comprised of a wet well and separate valve vault. Due to their close proximity to the tracks, both structures were designed for AREMA E90 loading in order to withstand the immense earth pressure being applied to them as trains pass by.
The enormous wet well structure was over 10x10x20 foot and tied directly to the 11x10x8 foot valve vault by a number of force main and drain pipes. The two structures had a combined weight of 210,000 pounds which was split between six individual sections. Both featured dual cast in aluminum access hatches and a davit crane was mounted onto the roof slab of the wet well in order to install and maintain the heavy pumps set inside.
Click here to see additional Drainage projects
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