Based in St. Louis, Pace Construction is a heavy-construction company with over 60 years of bridge- and highway-construction experience. Pace operates 10 asphalt plants in Missouri and is a progressive firm, and strives to embody the highest industry standards—for example; Pace operates a total of seven fully equipped Superpave labs. The company has also taken the lead in its region in the use of recycled materials, such as recycled asphalt pavement and roofing shingles, and was the first producer of porous asphalt in St. Louis.
On the construction side, Pace has been using adjustable manhole risers during road-paving operations for about 12 years; they were one of the first firms in St. Louis to replace manual “chip-and-rebuild” manhole raising with adjustable risers, and the risers are now accepted by all the agencies Pace contracts with, including the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT).
After milling operations (typically) the new risers are set into old manhole rims and the turnbuckle is tightened with a screwdriver used as a lever to set it firmly in place.
The risers, manufactured by American Highway Products, only take about five minutes to place. After milling, Pace Construction typically assigns a two-man crew to work just ahead of the paver. “That way,” explained Pace construction manager Ryan Casey, “I don’t have to worry about cars bouncing off the risers. So we usually do the risers the same day as the paving. But sometimes, if cars or equipment aren’t a factor, or if we’re installing quite a few, we’ll put them in earlier.”
Pace usually installs at least 150 risers annually, but sometimes the figure is much higher. For example, on just one upcoming MoDOT project—Rte. 100 in downtown St. Louis—Casey expects to install about 300 risers, and most of them will be ¾-in. risers to accommodate the thin NovaChip overlay being used.
Heavy construction firms everywhere are looking for ways to get more done in less time, without sacrificing quality. For Pace Construction, adjustable risers have been an effective way to do just that for more than 10 years.
