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PRECASTEEL MAKES MAIDEN VOYAGE AT LAGUARDIA AIRPORT
By Brian M. Fraley
FRALEY CONSTRUCTION MARKETING
Bringing a new product to market is never an easy task, especially when it is being supplied to a large joint venture working on a high-profile project like the $8-billion Central Terminal Replacement Project at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
Precasteel photo Walsh Construction and Skanska USA, operating as the Design-Build Joint Venture of Skanska-Walsh on this project for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), decided to put Stay-In-PlaceFascia-Forms (SIPFF) to work on two bridges that carry vehicular traffic between terminals.
Addressing ÂRusting of AmericaÊ
This precast fascia form was patented by Precasteel LLC of Skillman, N.J. It is essentially an L-shaped piece of precast concrete designed to stay in place and serve as a form for the bridge deck pour and subsequent barrier pour.
Precasteel is the brainchild of Gary M. Dinmore. It was conceived based on a trend he noticed over the course of 20 years working on numerous New York City bridge projects with bridge bracket and conventional overhang construction issues. looking for another trend, which he discovered while inspecting bridges early in his career.
Recognizing that the seemingly endless inventory of bridges would eventually have to be fixed, especially those built in the post-World War II era, he set out to identify market inefficiencies.
Dinmore found what he was looking for in bridge overhang brackets. During his deployment to Lebanon as a member of a Special Forces ‘A’ Detachment, he saw stone aqueducts dating back to the B.C. era with overhangs reportedly constructed in a similar manner with timber falsework for support. He believed there had to be a better way because of advancements in modern materials where concrete can nearly mimic the strength of mild steel — hence the name PRECASTEEL.
Dinmore recalled learning about the graying of America — caused by the aging of the Baby Boomers — during a Penn State Economics class. He didn’t recognize the significance of this trend at the time and the window of opportunity eventually closed. Despite the missed opportunity it left him Barriers Cleared at LaGuardia Design work at LaGuardia was done in 2018, but construction unfolded in 2019. Precasteel had done research and development and built prototypes and full-scale mock-ups in the past, but this was the first actual job. “This is the first production job on a permanent structure,” said Dinmore. “It was probably the hardest project we could have asked to start with.”
There could be no production mistakes on a project of this magnitude. Precasteel had to
see PRECASTEEL page 96
Precasteel photo Gary M. Dinmore conceived Precasteel based on a trend he noticed over the course of 20 years working on numerous New York City bridge projects with bridge bracket and conventional overhang construction issues.
