Recent Case Study

Project

Sound Wall Panel project for Interstate 95 between Jupiter and Palm Beach, Florida

Client

Precast Concrete Producer – Florida

Challenges

The precast concrete producer was on a tight schedule and only had 120 days to produce and erect the 2.25-mile project. In order to meet the deadline, they had to speed up precast production to allow time for erection to be completed. The project needed 1,200 sound wall panels not including H Posts. The producer needed to pour and strip 20 panels per day to allow time to erect the panels and to account for any add-ons or change orders. The project had to be completed without any overtime. The project was initially quoted based on tying rebar and the rebar needed would cost $80.00 per panel. After doing some time calculations, the producer determined that tying rebar would require three hours per panel. Since they needed to produce 20 sound wall panels per day in order stay on schedule, and each panel would need three hours to tie the rebar, this equated to 60 man hours per day to tie rebar. The producer would need to hire and train six new employees and there was not enough time to hire and train additional employees for this project. Average labor costs including shop floor supervision was $19.66 per hour which totaled $58.98 per panel in labor costs.

Solution

The precast concrete producer selected Ivy Steel & Wire and converted to Welded Wire Reinforcement (WWR) to help speed up production time and save money. The producer realized WWR would cost them more and they wondered how they could make it work. After getting a conversion, the price for a typical panel was $112.00. The producer completed more time study calculations and learned that by using WWR, they could pour and strip 20 panels a day using their existing work force. They calculated time to equal one hour per panel and with average labor costs the project would cost $19.66 per panel.

Benefits

By using welded wire reinforcement from Ivy Steel & Wire, the producer was able to pour and strip 20 panels per day with their existing workforce and did not hire and train additional employees. The Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) completed the inspection and everything was perfect. Using WWR eliminated the fear of a failed DOT inspection because every wire was welded by a state-of-the-art computer controlled machine in a factory setting. Every sheet of WWR was correct. The precast concrete producer met the production schedule and 1,200 sound wall panels were erected along 2.25 miles of Interstate 95 without any overtime.

Savings

With a cost of $80.00 per panel for rebar and a cost of $112.00 per panel for WWR, the differential was $32.00 per panel.

	With a labor cost of $58.98 for rebar and $19.99 for WWR, the labor savings was $39.32 per panel. This equaled a net savings of $7.32 per panel for labor, supervision and material, for a total savings of $8,784.00.
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