Fort Recovery, OH

Cooper Farms Slip Form Silo

The continuous pour of the 175 foot high slip form silo at Cooper Farms in Fort Recovery, OH began on Monday morning March 26th 2008 at 10:00 AM. Five days later and 2 days ahead of schedule the Silo was completed.

The project consisted of three mix designs, the footer, walls and top. Premiere Concrete Admixture’s OptiFlo® MR was utilized in all the mixes for its excellent water reduction but more importantly as an extrusion aid. Many slip form contractors whether curb and gutter, parapet walls or silos utilize this product in order to increase production and eliminate rework. Not unlike the two days Portland Systems saved many contractors have discovered the benefits of using OptiFlo® MR over conventional water reducers.

The silo consisted of 713 cubic yards of concrete. The engineer opted to incorporate PCA–SRA (Shrinkage Reducing Admixture) on the top of the silo in order to reduce potential cracking. There were 16 compartments inside the silo that were all slip formed simultaneously. All the concrete supplied by St. Henry Ready Mix was transported by crane and bucket, six hours passed from the time that the concrete left the truck before it cleared the form.

“Premiere made themselves available for the meetings & test mix trials. Premiere prepared mix design with input from the contractors; they were always ready to do what we needed to make this job a success. Their knowledge of concrete mixes and admixtures was the key to our company maintaining our quality through out this project. The products from Premiere were cost effective and gave us the wall cream we needed for a smooth slip. Port-Land Systems were very happy with the wall finish and the consistency of the mix. The preparation and planning of all involved turned this into a money making project with a happy customer.”
– Dave Westgerdes, Operations Manager St. Henry Ready Mix