Florida, known for its heat, is a getaway destination. For those calling it home, however, the tropical climate can present challenges of its own.
“We have a lot of ‘red tide’ as they call it down here, with algae blooms and things like that being discharged,” says Bobby Carroll, president of Gulf Atlantic Industrial Equipment, which is based in Homosassa, Florida.
“The ecosystem and the Everglades has been the cause of a lot of that discharge. When they let that water from Lake Okeechobee, there’s some contaminants within that water that are causing those algae blooms.”
To solve a problem that afflicted Florida for years, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) initiated its Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in 2000. Part of that plan is the construction of the C-44 Reservoir in Indiantown, Florida. Construction began in 2007.
The reservoir project, which is scheduled to be completed this year, will span 3,400 acres and run 15 ft. deep when finished. It will prevent the southern Indian River Lagoon region from being inundated with freshwater and pollutants.
“This particular project is a large water reservoir that’s going to contain and naturally filter that water discharge from Lake Okeechobee to help clean that water before it’s discharged out to the Everglades,” Carroll says. “That should help the ecosystem and clean the water up.”
Proven partnership
When the USACE reached out to Barnard Construction for assistance with the project, Barnard sought an equipment supplier capable of meeting its needs. That’s where Gulf Atlantic entered the picture.
According to Carroll, the two companies partnered on a number of projects over the years.
“Barnard Construction had reached out to us for some equipment supply to meet the production and design
of the concrete needed for that project,” Carroll says. “We had worked with Barnard Construction before on some other projects, so they knew we had done similar projects before and had the right equipment to meet the production they needed.
“We reviewed the project specs with Barnard and worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to make sure wemet all of their requirements with production, with mixing capabilities and also with recordkeeping of the plant to ensure that we’re producing everything that was being asked in the project,” he adds.
Having worked with Barnard on a range of environmental and remediation projects, the two companies worked together seamlessly. Throughout the C-44 Reservoir project, Gulf Atlantic supplied Barnard with two Rapidmix 400CW continuous mixing plants, as well as a full spectrum of portable material handling equipment to produce nearly 400,000 cu. yd. of soil cement to construct the reservoir’s embankment.
According to Gulf Atlantic, the Rapidmix 400CW plants run 24/7 while producing at a rate of 800 tph – enough to load 20 haul trucks per hour.
“[The plants] packed the punch for how small the plant was,” says Steve Kidd, project manager at Barnard Construction. “It’s a lot of moving parts in a small package, but it works very efficiently. We had to have weigh scales on the belt making sure you were able to track the accuracy of the plant. That was a huge thing. [With] a lot of the plants that don’t have weigh scales, you kind of set it and hope everything goes right. [With] this one, you could know in real time if there’s an issue with the plant and address it before the material gets out to the placement area.”
The plants’ portability was one deciding factor for Barnard Construction.
“Portability was a huge thing, but production was a big thing, too,” Kidd says. “We were looking for something that was in a small portable package but still able to produce high volumes like the larger plants. We’ve used some of these before, but they’re all typically large and require one or two cranes to set up and tear down. This plant was able to max production, but you didn’t need a crane and you were able to move it around. That helped out on some of the larger projects like this one. That one was a big selling point for us.”
Gulf Atlantic also supplied Barnard with six cement storage pigs and a few Masaba portable radial stacking conveyors.
Nearing completion
The C-44 Reservoir project was familiar territory for Gulf Atlantic, which has supplied equipment for projects such as dams, levees, environmental projects, remediation and more.
“We do a lot of old military test sites where they’ve tested weapons and now have to decontaminate the soil and remove leads from old ammunitions – things like that,” Carroll says. “So our plants are involved in those types of projects, as well. We’re pretty proud to be involved in a lot of those environmental cleanup and remediation projects.”
While balancing projects and tasks is part of the everyday job, there’s something unique about the C-44 Reservoir project that’s taken nearly 15 years to complete. Still, through planning, effort and teamwork, Gulf Atlantic was able to successfully meet the equipment demands of Barnard Construction and the USACE.
“It’s a pretty proud project to be part of and a tremendous amount of material put down,” Carroll says. “It’s been a very successful, very reliable project for us, and it’s been with a great partner. We’ve had very little downtime with the equipment. Everybody has performed quite well, and the equipment has certainly met the expectations of everybody involved.”