Contractor's Choice Awards
Gold Medal Winner - Concrete Pavers
GOMACO Commander III

A new 2-mile-long, four-lane road is being built in the city of Honolulu on Hawaii’s Oahu island. New roadway construction of this size for the island state is very uncommon. Most road projects are replacement or widenings, simply because there is no room to build new.

Goodfellow Bros. Inc., based out of Wenatchee, Wash., with an office in Kihei, Hawaii, won the bid to build the project. They had no previous slipform experience and no slipforming equipment. When they started the process of looking for a concrete paver, they knew they wanted a machine that was versatile and large enough to pave roadway, but also small enough to work in Hawaii’s confined jobsite areas.

“We went with the Commander III because it will be more versatile on future projects,” Matt Heahlke, project manager for Goodfellow, said. “We can use it for highway slipforming, barrier walls, curb and gutter . . . We won’t have a large quantity job like this again. The projects will be smaller, more chopped up, and the Commander III is much more versatile for that.”

Their new concrete paver is currently slipforming on the new North/South Road, phase 1B, which includes approximately 2,300 cu yd of 10-in.-thick concrete pavement.

“This is virgin construction through old sugar cane fields,” Heahlke explained. “The road is the new corridor servicing the future University of Hawaii West Campus and also the Department of Hawaiian Homelands Housing Development. It’s extremely rare to have brand new road construction, because it’s such a limited area to begin with.”

The Commander III is set up to slipform each lane at 12 ft wide, 10 in. thick. Production on the longer stretches of pavement averages around 120 cu yd per hour during an eight-hour paving shift.

All of their paving is being done at night. It allows Goodfellow complete control of the batch plant to ensure they get the volume of concrete necessary to feed the paving operation. It also creates cooler working conditions for the crew, while eliminating the worry of the concrete curing too fast and cracking because of extreme temperatures.

The Commander III also is being used to slipform the 8.5-ft-wide concrete shoulders.

The state also has smoothness requirements. Hawaii utilizes the California profilograph and two-tenths blanking band to measure their project’s smoothness. A reading of a 10 or less ensures 100% pay on the project. Goodfellow has had no problems achieving good rideability.

“Overall, our rideability is very smooth,” Heahlke said. “This is Goodfellow’s first concrete slipform paving job and we’re very impressed with the equipment. We’re definitely in the concrete paving business for good. We can’t wait to get more projects.”