CONSTRUCTIONPROFILES

SPRING 2012

A PUBLICATION OF GUNTERT & ZIMMERMAN

Equipment UpdateConcrete Overlay

KOSS HITS A HOME RUN IN WESTERN KANSASMuch of Interstate 70 in western Kansas had reached the end of its

life. It was a full-depth asphalt pavement; sections ranged up to 20

inches deep. The most recent asphalt treatments had lasted just

fi ve to seven years, said Andrew Gisi, geotechnical engineer with

the Kansas DOT.

The state wanted something that would last longer, so they chose

a 6-inch bonded concrete overlay -- 1.45 million square yards of it,

to be exact. Last year, Koss Construction milled out 6 inches and

slipformed two projects with concrete on 15.1 miles of four-lane

interstate. Including shoulders, the two projects totaled 725,000

square yards and cost $20.1 million. This year, Koss will mill and

pave two more similar projects on I-70 for a total of 727,000 square

yards at a cost of $21.9 million.

KOSS’ SMOOTHNESS NUMBERS ARE SECOND TO NONE

Koss’ smoothness numbers last year were remarkable. Using a

Guntert & Zimmerman S850 Quadra four-track paver to pave 30

feet wide, the contractor averaged just 8.5 inches/mile on a zero

blanking band over the two projects. What’s more, the Missouri-

Kansas Chapter of the American Concrete Pavement Association

(ACPA) gave Koss the “Smoothest Day Paving Award” for a 4,500

foot section on which the contractor hit just 5.4 inches of deviation.

On every section of concrete pavement last year, Koss earned a

smoothness incentive from the state.

This year, Koss Construction will mark its 100th anniversary.

It’s been a full century since second-generation German

immigrant George W. Koss founded the company in 1912.

Since then, Koss has grown to become one of the nation’s

largest concrete pavement contractors.

In the early twentieth century, nearly everything moved by rail,

and George Koss saw a booming market in railroad bridge

building. Soon his company, based in Des Moines, Iowa, was

building some of the largest bridges in the country across 11

states. Koss has often done things in a big way.

“When World War II broke out, the company went from a

concrete pavement market defi ned by small projects for

multitudes of owners to big paving job after big paving job for

the military,” says David Howard, P.E., the current president

and CEO of Koss Construction Co. “Some of these airfi eld

contracts were unparalleled in size for that time – 500,000 to

750,000 square-yard contracts were not unusual – and the

company had to organize to pave every day to handle that

volume of work. The scope of the company really changed at

that point.”

Then in the 1950’s, The Interstate Highway Program got

underway. Koss Construction was recognized as the fi rst

contractor to enter into a contract under the Federal Aid

Highway Act of 1956. Since then, large sections of Interstate

highways across the Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Iowa

have been maintained or improved by Koss Construction.

In 2011 Koss delivered just under two million square yards

of concrete pavement. This year, the company will rebuild or

rehabilitate almost 78 two-lane miles of Interstate highway,

among other projects.

Information for this sidebar came from Concrete Pavement Progress, published by the American Concrete Pavement Association.

KOSS CELEBRATES 100 YEARS

In fact, to showcase Koss’ success and to demonstrate a large

bonded concrete overlay project under construction, the Missouri-

Kansas Chapter of ACPA hosted an open house last fall at the

project. KDOT’s Gisi attended, as did representatives from most

neighboring state transportation departments. The Colorado

Department of Transportation is an especially important player in

the Kansas situation, because KDOT used Colorado’s pavement

design criteria and system in designing its 6 inch overlay on asphalt.

The overlay is sawed into panels that are 6 feet square – and such

overlays have provided Colorado with 10 to 12 good years on

heavily traveled roads and remain in service.

Gisi says that Kansas expects to get 20 years from the “6 X 6 X

6” overlay, possibly with some panel replacement at mid-life. “The

road really needed reconstruction, but we couldn’t afford that,”

says Gisi.

“We get really good smoothness numbers everywhere we go,”

said Robert Kennedy, quality control manager for Koss. “It is not

uncommon for us to get single digits.” It is easier to achieve low

smoothness numbers on the thinner 6 inch pavement, because the

paver is not pushing a big head of material. “You can push the small

head of mud and you are not extruding a lot of concrete either,”

says Kennedy.

Kennedy explained how Koss achieves such smooth-riding

pavements. The contractor used dual stringlines. “We pay a lot of

attention to the stringlines to make sure they are set up right. We

make sure our paver is set up right and that our concrete batch plant

is right. Then when we are confi dent that all of those things are set

up, you have to be consistent,” says Kennedy. “The plant has to

give you consistent slump on the concrete in every single batch after

batch. And you have to have consistent delivery so that the paver

never stops. Everything has to be in unison, working together.”

G&Z PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN KOSS’ SUCCESS

We asked Kennedy how he likes the Guntert & Zimmerman paver,

“We own a couple of those, and we like them a lot,” he said. “I don’t

see us as a company buying anything else. They are easy to set up,

and easy to train people on. And Guntert gives us excellent service.

If we need something, they are always available to us for parts or

support. The Guntert paver gives us the smoothness numbers that

you see. It’s a nice-looking fi nished surface.”

On a good day, Kennedy said Koss paved one mile a day, working

30 feet wide. “We averaged about 1,800 square yards per hour,

or maybe a little better,” says Kennedy. Two belt placers spread

concrete in front of the paver, and that helped boost production.

That way, Koss could dump two trucks at once. Each project

last year had its own batch plant, and typically 15 trucks hauled

concrete to the site.

For nearly two miles of pavement last year,

Koss paved with a stringless automated

George W. Koss

control system from Leica Geosystems. The automatic paver

control system bases its guidance on a digital terrain model – a

digitized 3D model of the pavement – that is entered into a computer

onboard the paver. The paver also has two prisms, mounted above

the machine which provide a reference for the machine location for

the two robotic total stations set up on tripods ahead of the paver.

The prisms on the paver have a relation to points on the concrete

paver’s pan.

When setting up the two total stations, a technician back-sights

each of them to known control points. That fi xes the location of

the total stations relative to the runway’s digital model. The total

stations can then “see” two prisms on the paver and communicate

to the paver – by free-wave radio – the paver’s precise location.

The on-board computer then processes the differences between

the actual paver location and the digital terrain model. Knowing

those differences, the computer controls the paver pan location

automatically.

Koss used a total of three robotic total stations, and set two of

them 250 feet in front of the paver. One robotic total station was

set behind. When the paver advanced close to the two forward

stations, a technician would leapfrog the rear total station to a point

up ahead.

“The smoothness was good with the stringless system,” says

Kennedy. “But those weren’t the two smoothest days we had. We

were still learning the equipment. The guys were still on a learning

curve. The crew liked the access to the equipment and they liked

the access to the slab for fi nishing. But some of them have been

paving for 20 years, and to not have that stringline to check grade

was a little concerning for them.”

Kennedy said one advantage to the milling and concrete overlay

process was that Koss could correct roadway slopes and transitions

into and out of curves. With so many asphalt treatments over 40

years, the slopes had gone awry. “We could go in there and pave

back to the exact slope and correct all of those geometric issues,”

Kennedy said.

STRINGLESS CONTROLS SPEED AIRPORT PROJECT

Equipment UpdateStringless Paving

Compared to mainline highway paving, slipforming concrete

taxiways, aprons, and runways at an active airport is a challenging

business. Production is hampered by the many small, irregularly

shaped pieces of pavement that need to be paved one at a time.

That’s the situation faced by MCM at Dallas Love Field Airport, a

heavy civil and building contractor with corporate offi ces in Irving,

Texas. At Dallas Love Field Airport, the city of Dallas and Southwest

Airlines are collaborating to build a $500 Million-plus airport

renovation project. A number of gates must remain open during

four years of construction, which will wind up in 2015.

MCM has a $68 Million contract to remove concrete, grade the

subgrade and base, relocate utilities (including a new aircraft

refueling system), and place 298,000 square yards of new concrete

pavement. Most of that is 17-inch jointed plain concrete with no

steel. There are smaller amounts of 15-inch and 8-inch concrete

pavement.

“The biggest challenges are the small pieces of pavement and

the phasing,” says Luis Munilla, Business Operations Manager for

MCM in Texas. “Our average production days as we get into the

largest segments of work are going to be in the area of 1,200 cubic

yards per day.” To take on the paving project, MCM bought a new

four-track S850 Guntert & Zimmerman slipform paver fi tted with a

stringless control package from Leica Geosystems.

MCM is a 100% Hispanic-owned Minority Business Enterprise,

certifi ed by the North Central Texas Regional Certifi cation Agency

(NCTRCA). MCM’s home offi ce is based in Miami, FL with division

MCM would never have existed if not for the powerful family

bond and the ethics instilled by Fernando Munilla Sr. in the

face of devastating oppression when Cuba fell to communism.

For nearly two decades (1941 to 1960), Mr. Munilla was

the country’s premier builder and a pioneer in construction

methodology. His company included three of the largest

concrete plants in Cuba, and built a great portion of the nation’s

pre-cast and pre-stressed construction projects.

“Our father demanded quality in everything,” says Jorge

Munilla, MCM’s president. “His insistence on quality earned him

a reputation for excellence. As a result, his fi rm was selected

for some of the most important and historical construction

projects in Cuba.”

Then, in 1960, Fidel Castro confi scated the fi rm. Four of the

six Munilla brothers made it to the U.S. through the Pedro Pan

Program just before the Bay of Pigs invasion and were placed

in an orphanage in Ohio.

The two youngest sons stayed with Maria, their mother, till safe

passage was arranged. Fernando stayed behind orchestrating

Covert Operations against the Castro regime, was arrested

three times and fi nally managed to escape by boat, bringing

with him only his credentials and a fi erce determination to

reunite his family. He succeeded within a year

MCM’S ROOTS IN CUBA Fernando Munilla

offi ces in Irving, TX and Panama City, Panama. Established in

1983, MCM ranks as the 6th largest Hispanic-owned construction

company in the U.S., and 48th largest overall Hispanic-owned

fi rm in the nation. With a $1 Billion dollar bonding capacity, MCM

utilizes its solid fi nancial resources to guarantee a timely completion.

MCM’s portfolio of work includes road & bridge, aviation, education,

municipal and building construction for both government and

private clients.

“When we came to Texas we were committed to hire a local

workforce”, Munilla continues, “and we understood that the key

to a successful project was a solid team that would offer the best

possible value to our client, so we strived to fi nd the best concrete

paver on the market. Guntert & Zimmerman is number one and in

spite of the inherent complexities of the job the project is advancing

smoothly”.

“We also purchased the Leica stringless package with the paver, and

we have had some amazing results with that,” Munilla continues.

“Many of our pavements out here are right on plan grade, or within

1/100th of an inch; the results are just amazing. The stringless

controls really help trucking and production.”

“Typically MCM paves either 25 or 30 feet wide, and saws the

pavement into 12.5-foot square panels or 15-foot panels,” explains

Joe Roundtree, General Superintendent for MCM’s Dallas Love

Field Airport. “The Guntert & Zimmerman paver helps with placing

small pieces because the tracks can turn 90 degrees under the

paver at the end of a run”.

We asked if the stringless controls help with small pieces.

“Absolutely!” says Mark Vanness, the paving estimator for MCM

in Texas. “We can set up the machine to do those pieces in the

morning and then we just move from one to the other, with no

stringline. The digital model is already programmed into the

machine. You don’t have to worry about anything being in the way.”

With stringless controls, two robotic total stations utilize two prisms

on the paver to “tell” the paver its precise location. A computer

onboard the paver then computes the difference between the

actual location of the paver pan and the design location in the 3D

digital model. With that information, the onboard computer can

automatically control the paver pan.

MCM actually uses four robotic total stations on the project. “We

have additional total stations out there so that we can check our

depths and our pavement surface right behind the paver,” says

Vanness.“We have a man who stands on the rear catwalk of the

paver when we get to the area where we need to check the height

of the pavement. He uses a Leica rover and data collector to check

the existing slab. That way we can move forward with confi dence

that we don’t have any issues with non-conforming pavement.”

Quality control inspectors on the job “are thrilled,” says Roundtree,

with the pavement edges produced by the Guntert & Zimmerman

S850. “The edges are sharp and clean, and this is a very big point

of contention on airport jobs,” he says.

MCM gains about 15 to 18 percent in production by using the

stringless controls, compared to stringline. The stringless system

eliminates the cost of line setting and the issues that go along

with it.

“One of the biggest advantages to stringless is that you create a 3D

model,” says Munilla. “Many people don’t consider this, but that 3D

model lets you check for fl aws and problems that may not show up

in any other way. When we build this model, we can actually look

at the surface and check drainages and other things that keep us

from running into bottlenecks and problems in the future. So that

model is a neat thing about stringless.”

On behalf of Guntert & Zimmerman, I want to wish you success

in this 2012 paving season. Just recently, I accepted the position

of President responsible for all Guntert & Zimmerman day to day

activities. I am very excited and appreciate the confi dence that

Ron Guntert, our CEO and owner, has given me with this new role.

This change in leadership doesn’t mean Ron Guntert will be any

less involved in the company. On the contrary, Ron will be busy

mentoring the new leadership team, responsible for corporate

risk management, leading the engineering development team in

designing new products and features, and staying involved in the

day-to-day equipment sales activities. So rest assured that Ron is

going nowhere, and like always, Ron is just a phone call away for

our customers.

G&Z ADDS ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL TO PARTS TEAM

Guntert & Zimmerman has always taken great pride in being

responsive towards the spare parts needs of our customers. We

acknowledge that to make our customers profi table we must help

you minimize any down time when unforeseen things occur. The

more days we can keep our customers paving, the more profi table

they will be. Through the leadership of Alessandro Bernacchia, a

seven year G&Z veteran and our recently named Executive VP, we

have embarked upon a cross training exercise within the company

to make more of our people available to quote, enter, and ship

emergency parts orders. The goal is to not only have a person to

answer spare parts calls, but also, in most cases, someone who

can then be able to ship emergency parts that same day or at

the latest within 24 hours. Additionally, we want to introduce Joe

Hartless who has been hired to lead our purchasing department.

Joe’s broad range of talents and experience cover everything

from steel to hydrostatic equipment. Joe’s daily mission is to fi nd

solutions for containing costs on items we buy out which allows us

to stay competitive in the market on machine and parts sales.

SERVICE TEAM CONTINUES TO GROW AS SALES INCREASE

Internally, we all believe that one of the crown jewels within the

company is our Service Department. Under the leadership of

Jerry Dahlinger, VP Engineering and Marco Cantu, Chief Service

Technician, we have continued to bolster our service team by

recently adding Jeff Dahlke based out of Wisconsin. Jeff brings

a wealth of equipment and contractor experience and is a great

addition to our team. With the hiring of Jeff, we continue to expand

our regional service coverage of North America. This winter, we

also had one of our international dealer’s service technician training

with us for two months.

It is a very exciting time at Guntert & Zimmerman, and I am proud

to be a part of this team. I welcome any feedback or input you may

have, and I look forward to your phone call anytime.

RON MESKISPresident

INTERMAT WARMLY RECEIVES THE NEW S600

The S600’s reception at INTERMAT was quite favorable. The

AccuSteer feature received a lot of attention as the tracks were

rotated to the counter rotate position for exhibition. G&Z’s

presence at INTERMAT communicated a clear message to the

market regarding a commitment to growing its market share

internationally. With its productivity gains, the S600 is the perfect

paver to meet the demands of varying markets across the globe.

G&Z DEBUTS S600 TO INTERNATIONAL MARKET

Sharing a booth with its French Dealer, Global Consulting, Guntert &

Zimmerman (G&Z) participated in INTERMAT 2012. G&Z exhibited

its new S600: Multi-Purpose Slipform Paver. The S600 has taken the

US market by storm since its domestic introduction at CONEXPO/

CONAGG 2011. INTERMAT 2012 gave the international market its

fi rst opportunity to see the G&Z S600 in person.

S600 COMES TO INTERNATIONAL MARKET JUST IN TIME

As the market continues to make the shift from large dual lane,

mainline paving jobs to smaller cut-up projects, the S600 is

designed to fulfi ll the need for a small or medium, versatile, multi-

purpose paver that retains the ability to achieve good smoothness

numbers. The S600 has been engineered to make contractors

more productive. Its time saving options provide the contractor

with the opportunity for more paving hours in the day and more

paving days during the season.

Guntert & Zimmerman Const. Div., Inc.222 E. Fourth St. Ripon, CA 95366 U.S.A.Phone +1 209-599-0066 Fax +1 209-599-2021Toll Free 800-733-2912 (USA / Canada)Email: gz@guntert.com Web: www.guntert.com

Construction Profi les is published by Guntert & Zimmerman to inform readers of applied construction technology utilizing Guntert & Zimmerman equipment. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication

may not be reproduced either in whole or in part without the consent of Guntert & Zimmerman. Printed in U.S.A. Manufactured under one or more of the following U.S. or Foreign Patents: 4,433,936; 4,483,584;

0051885; 6,390,727; 6,390,726; 6,176,643B1; 5,135.333 and 117323 and Patents Pending. Some items shown may be optional. G&Z reserves the right to make improvements in design, material, and/or

changes in specifi cations at any time without notice and without incurring any obligation related to such changes. Brochure No. 400P118