By: Pat Austin, Sales Representative - Architectural Products
Have you ever tried to accomplish a task outdoors when its -20 degrees F? How about a task involving earthwork? I never have, but I know one contractor who has: Glen Havelka. Glen is a pretty hardy fellow, a trait common among men calling the upper peninsula of Michigan home. He isn’t intimidated by the cold, and he isn’t intimidated by frozen earthwork either. Glen knows that when the mercury dives into the bottom of the thermometer, he can still build with geofoam.
Last January, in the midst of the coldest stretch of the winter, Glen had a bridge approach to build near Sault Ste Marie. Residents up in those parts had been unable to use a Forest Service road for several months during a late fall reconstruction, and this forced a detour of as much as 20 miles for some of them. Patience was wearing thin, and the thought of a couple more months of inactivity while the weather warmed up was not popular.
Enter Glen and the geofoam, manufactured by ACH Foam Technologies, to the rescue. Working during the coldest weeks, Glen was able to finish the backfill and complete the road bed in a couple weeks. Traffic was restored in three weeks total. Geofoam is a lightweight fill material that offers precise, uniform compressive strength in a density typically around 1% of conventional fills. Building with geofoam requires no compaction, is temperature independent, and transfers no lateral forces when vertically loaded.
