Skateparks have soared in popularity as public facili- ties. Globally, cities are embracing the once-deemed risky activity and shedding any previous notions of skateparks being mere passing trends. As many municipali- ties embark on constructing their first—and possibly only— skatepark, city staff members find themselves in a position where they must rapidly acquire knowledge about what constitutes a skatepark and how to successfully develop one.
ASA Outstanding Shotcrete Awards Program
The ASA Outstanding Shotcrete Project Awards Program exists to recognize excellence and innovation on projects in which the application of shotcrete has played a significant role.
ASA’s Annual Outstanding Shotcrete Project Awards Program provides an exciting real-world demonstration of the exceptional advantages of placing concrete via the shotcrete process. Many sustainability advantages are also inherent in the shotcrete process and play a significant role in winning projects as well as the project owner’s ultimate decision to use shotcrete as the method of concrete placement. Projects must be completed between January 1, 2022, through September 1, 2024, and can be submitted in the following areas: Architecture │ New Construction, Infrastructure, International Projects, Pool & Recreational, Rehabilitation & Repair, and Underground.
To assist in your submission, we have provided submission resources to inform you of the submission guidelines, a list of questions, and a copy of the owner release form. Please email any questions to [email protected].
Award Archive
2023 – Nineteenth Annual Outstanding Shotcrete Project Awardees
Sorry, we don't have any articles to show you. We will add relevant articles as they become available.
Robust Contentment
This beautiful project, nestled on the Connecticut shores of the Long Island Sound, required a careful balance of robust construction and design, and careful adherence to environmental codes protecting the adjacent oceanic rock formations and biologically sensitive tide pools. “It was a steep challenge,” explains Bill Drakeley, but he and his company welcomed the opportunity. This project started with a spectacular setting. It’s located in Connecticut in an area known as the Gulf Coast on the Long Island Sound. It’s in an exclusive, private community where people both enjoy the outdoor lifestyle but are also mostly very private. It’s not a place where they have neighborhood block parties.
The Jetcreter – The First Continuous-Feed, Dry-Mix Gun
During the summer of 1970, on my 18th birthday, my father woke me up and told me they needed me on a job. I drove out that morning in July to the Crucible Specialty Steel plant in Midland, PA. It was my first experience working on a Gunite job. We were gunning refractory in a vessel, and I was throwing 100 lb (46 kg) bags of pre-packaged refractory into a paddle mixer to pre-dampen the material. We emptied the paddle mixer on sheets of plywood and shoveled the pre-dampened refractory material into the dry-mix shotcrete gun’s hopper. The Jetcreter was a continuous-feed gun, and it was tough for us to keep up with it. It was a very long day for me because it took 15 hours to complete the gunning. I left the house that morning in the dark and returned home in the dark. That was my introduction to “Gunite” (now referred to as dry-mix shotcrete).
Sobre Productividad, Cálculo de Costos de Trabajo y Éxito en el Shotcrete
Como miembro de la Sociedad de Honor Internacional en Economía y con una doble licenciatura en Finanzas y Banca, ingresé al mundo del shotcrete preparado de manera un poco diferente que la mayoría de los que ingresan a esta industria. Eso fue hace más de 20 años, pero los principios de comprender el tiempo, el valor del dinero y los costos de oportunidad están indeleblemente grabados en mi psique. En la actualidad, junto con mi socio comercial, quien también proviene de un entorno de fabricación y negocios en un campo internacional, dirigimos una empresa de transporte, una empresa de concreto lanzado vía seca, una empresa de PebbleTec y una empresa de diseño, todo bajo un mismo techo. En conjunto, tenemos entre 55 y 60 empleados en cualquier día dado. En un negocio de este tamaño, la productividad y la comprensión de los costos laborales son clave para sobrevivir.
On Productivity, Job Costing, and Successful Shotcreting
As a member of the International Honor Society in Economics and with a double BS in Finance and Banking, I came into the world of shotcrete prepared a little differently than most entrants to the field. That was over 20 years ago, but the principles of understanding Time, the Value of Money, and Opportunity Costs are indelibly ingrained into my psyche.
Skateparks, sculptures, zooscapes, aquarium exhibits, amusement parks, and museums are just some of the recreational projects which have found shotcrete’s flexibility, adaptability, and durability a great fit for their designer’s creativity. Shotcrete allows the many favorable construction characteristics of concrete to give expression to the increasingly innovative designs being built today.
The ASA Technical Questions and Answers is a free service offered to all users, but primarily intended for engineers, architects, owners and anyone else who may be specifying the shotcrete process and/or has need for a possible answer to a technical question.
User agreement: The answers provided to submitted questions are intended for guidance in planning and executing shotcrete applications. This information is intended only for the use of individuals who are competent to evaluate the significance and limitations of its content and recommendations, and who will accept responsibility for the application of the material it contains. The American Shotcrete Association provides this information based on the best knowledge available to them and disclaims any and all responsibility for the information provided. The American Shotcrete Association will not be liable for any loss or damage arising therefrom.
If you are unable to find what you are looking for in the archive, then submit a new technical question.