ForConstructionPros.com

A massive building project is taking place at the old Joliet Arsenal in Elwood, IL. The arsenal is being converted into the Deer Run Industrial Park. Two buildings there house the national distribution facilities for a major department store, providing 3.4 million sq. ft. of warehouse space.

L&M Concrete, which is based in Elwood, served as the curb and gutter contractor on the project. It used a GOMACO GT-3600 to slipform 31,000 ft. of high-back curb and gutter.

Another contractor had been hired to pave approximately 20,000 ft. of dolly pad for the semi-truck trailers to sit on between loading and transporting. The contract fell through, leaving the development coordinators looking for a replacement. They turned to L&M to pave the 10-ft.-wide, 8-in.-thick pad.

"When the developers first approached me about the dolly pad, I told them I just couldn't do it," says Les Cheney, owner and president of L&M Concrete. "Later, I was telling my GOMACO distributor, Marty Ahrendt with Finkbiner Equipment Co., about the project and told him that I wished there was a little paver I could rent. Marty said I didn't need a paver - that my 2005 GT-3600 could pave 10 ft. wide."

Kit adapts paver to the task
Cheney started L&M Concrete in 1982, specializing in patios and driveways. His focus soon shifted to city sidewalks and smaller curb and gutter projects. Within a couple of years, the company was handforming approximately 200,000 ft. of curb and gutter per year.