(quoted from post at 11:06:31 03/17/18) The two summers I worked at the readymix company there was an Interstate highway going thru about 15-20 miles away. We made a couple pours a week there. An Inspector was on site at the computer controlled batch plant to record EVERYTHING. moisture of sand, crushed rock, water temp, weights of all materials, and made sure I zeroed out the rev counter on the drum, and the exact time I clicked the auto trans into gear to pull out of the plant. On the pour site were two inspectors. You poured a little concrete into an upside-down traffic cone which measured concrete Slump, they slammed it down right side up on a sheet of pkywood and pulled the cone off. Minute later measured height of concrete cone. Too short the concrete was too wet and your load rejected. Ohhh, they checked turns on the drum, had to be 55 to 70 or something like that, too few and you took the load back to town, too many, same result! Then you filled their steel form with concrete, form was about 5-6 inches square and 24 inches long. They scratched numbers into the wet concrete and set the full form off to the side. You now were able to unload. We unloaded into 1 cubic yard buckets, bottom dumping hoppers hooked to a 50 ton capacity American crane with a very expert operator! You didn't put ANY chutes on, didn't even flip the second chute down, the helper spotted the bucket an inch or two from your truck, you swung the chute over and rotated the drum till the bucket was plumb full and swung the chute back out of the way, the crane operator smoothly raised the bucket to the pour and 20-30 seconds later it was hovering inches above the ground moving slowly towards your truck and at the helpers signal dropped onto the ground within a quarter inch of the last position. Seven buckets and my truck was empty, they sign your delivery ticket and you pull away to the rinse area, clean your chute, and head for the plant for another load. Not unusual to have 3-4-5 trucks at the pour. One unloading, one pouring test bars & cones, one washing up, and one just getting on site. Very well run operation. 15 minutes was typical time on pour site, never over 20 minutes.
Wisconsin DOT put a steel walkway bridge across the Beltline highway on the south side of Madison, Wi. 3 years ago. Road is 2 lanes each way, narrow center median with center bridge support, and the approaches to the bridge are set back close to the edge of the right of way, plus the bridge sits at an angle, so longer than it would have had to be. It hasn't collapsed. Maybe Florida U should have the next bridge be made of steel? Or have a Tunnel built!