New Concrete Innovations

High-tech advancements and innovations in the construction industry have made many of our modern buildings possible.  The Conco Companies’ team follows many of these developments and implements advanced methods when applicable to our concrete services.   

For the last several decades, researchers have been interested in discovering ways to extend the life of concrete used in buildings, bridges, and highways and to make it more sustainable.  One of the ways this may be accomplished is to develop self-healing concrete, which is a process to embed concrete with a reactive substance that will begin to fill in cracks as they appear and harden.   

A recent article on the ConstructConnect website reports on efforts from the University of Victoria in British Columbia to develop self-healing concrete and asphalt.  In this particular study, researchers are experimenting with a variety of fibers including fly ash and wood cellulose. 

In another study a group of researchers from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands is using “dormant bacteria spores to create a bioconcrete.”  In this process as the concrete begins to crack and the spores of bacillus bacteria are exposed to water, they are activated and begin “feeding on calcium lactate, consuming oxygen in the process.”  Once the oxygen is gone, the calcium lactate converts to limestone and hardens and seals the cracks.    

The Delft University has another team that has been “adding small steel wool fibers to the porous asphalt concrete mix to make the pavement electrically conductive.”  Once induction heating is applied to the asphalt, it heals the cracks.   

Please visit Conco’s website to learn more about our impressive portfolio of projects.  We offer a wide range of concrete services including pumping, rebar fabrication and installation, shotcrete, formwork, design/build, turnkey and general contracting solutions.  We also provide construction hauling in some of our service areas.   

At The Conco Companies, we are one of the leading concrete contractors in the Western U.S. and offer a wide range of quality services and products.  Our experience includes providing services for commercial, educational, parking and other construction development as well as public works projects.  We serve California, Washington State, Oregon, Colorado and Nevada.

Source:constructconnect.com/blog/construction-technology/future-building-materials-transparent-wood-self-healing-concrete/