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Command Center - fast-track-construction2
November 10, 2020

Command Center Blog: Fast-Track Construction Projects Using Concrete Maturity

Use COMMAND Center to determine when new concrete structures and pavements have achieved adequate strength so you can open them to the public sooner.

Use COMMAND Center to determine when new concrete structures and pavements have achieved adequate strength so you can open them to the public sooner.

Time is money during paving and vertical construction—the pavement or structure is opened as soon as concrete meets specified required strengths. To complete jobs as quickly as possible, construction teams can use COMMAND Center maturity and temperature monitoring to track their in-place concrete strength in the field.

The maturity method is an ASTM-standardized, non-destructive test method for estimating concrete strength that provides real-time results. Typically, cylinders and beams are required to be cast and broken for quality control and 28-day acceptance.  It is common practice to simply cast and break additional samples, sometimes referred to as companion samples, for estimating early-age strength of in-place concrete for purposes such as early form removal, post-tensioning of elevated slabs, and fast-track pavement construction and repair. However, the strength gain of these cylinders may not reflect the strength gain of the in-place concrete.

For example, when placing concrete in ideal or hot-weather conditions, strength gain will likely occur faster for in-place concrete than for companion cylinders or beams simply because of the difference in size and heat generation during hydration.  For the same reason in cold weather, it may be that in-place concrete gains strength slower than companion cylinders particularly if companion cylinders are cured at warmer temperatures.  Maturity bridges the gap between what is tested for in companion samples and what field conditions are assumed.

COMMAND Center uses sensor technology to provide real-time updates of in-place temperature and age, allowing users to estimate strength based on their maturity curve and open their pavements or structures as soon as they’re ready.

The Beck Group used COMMAND Center on 2000 McKinney, a high-rise in Dallas, Texas. Before construction began, the project was on the verge of becoming postponed indefinitely. The team had already shed $5 million from the budget with creative product selection and design modifications, but they still needed to cut an additional $3 million before the project could go forward. To bring the project into budget, Beck used COMMAND Center maturity monitoring to accelerate the project schedule. This cut four months from the project schedule and saved $3 million in costs.

Testing firm Ninyo & Moore implemented COMMAND Center on The Grand, a 900,000-square-foot mixed-use development in Denver, Colorado. The firm used COMMAND Center to quickly and reliably determine when concrete achieved the necessary strength to stress post-tension cables on each pour. The project manager estimates COMMAND Center saved the team up to two days per pour.

Fast Track Your Construction Projects