No Ordinary Pad as Heritage Thermal Invests $1.4 M

EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio – The brand-new concrete rectangle presented Tuesday afternoon by Heritage Thermal Services officials looks like most other large concrete slabs, which is to say gray, flat, smooth and big.

This is no ordinary concrete slab, however, as evidenced by the presence of Mayor Jim Swogger, who wielded oversized scissors to cut a broad blue ribbon as Winde Hamrick, chairwoman of Heritage, stood beside him. They were flanked by 13 people, Heritage managers and representatives of eight of the nine vendors who planned and laid the 12-inch thick pad.

Hamrick had flown in from Heritage headquarters in Indianapolis to attend.

The company paid $1.4 million to build the 220-by-140-foot concrete pad, Heritage President John Avdellas said, $1.1 million of which was spent locally. Swogger, who supported the project, applauded Heritage for hiring nearby vendors as much as possible.

Five construction workers excavated 5,000 cubic yards of backfill to prepare the site, then two workers installed 7,000 cubic yards of limestone, two feet thick compacted, before 15 more workers installed 120 tons of rebar and poured 1,400 cubic yards of concrete delivered by D.W. Dickey and Son Inc. trucks in 300 loads.

Dickey is a half-mile away.

Its quality control manager, Rick Pittenger, couldn’t help but quip, “It’s the closest job we’ve ever had.”

Total labor payroll: $612,500, a Heritage spokesman said.

Heritage, which treats hazardous and nonhazardous industrial waste, built the storage pad as a site to accept, unload and store wastes away from the structures on the 21½-acre site where those wastes are treated.

While actual work began in August, the planning and obtaining the permits needed began long before, Avdellas said.

The new pad is capable of holding 60 27-cubic-yard intermodal containers. While the Heritage complex is close to the Ohio River, trucks deliver and unload the waste to be treated. Building the pad will allow for quicker and more efficient delivery, Avdellas said, the truck drivers to have shorter waiting times before unloading.

As the spokesman put it, “With the storage pad, the facility will not be bound to tight delivery schedules, allowing for reduced congestion of bulk solid-waste trucks.”

As he cited the safety efforts Heritage took, Avdellas noted both the 417 rammed aggregate piers, (supplied by Geopier Foundation Co.) and the Xypex crystalant sealant used to enhance the concrete.

The Xypex sealant covers the concrete to prevent the chemicals delivered from permeating the surface and entering below. “It increases the density of the concrete,” Avdellas explained, and means the pad should have useful life of more than 20 years.

The rammed aggregate piers were drilled to ensure the solidity of the foundation where the pad sits. “You’d think it would be simple to pour a concrete pad,” the Heritage president said. “Our goal first and foremost was [environmental] safety.”

The complex undertaking involved Cintar Inc., Engineers and Consultants, Glenshaw, Pa.; Yarian Brothers Construction, New Waterford; Dickey; Lee Cain Fencing & Construction Co., Negley; Xypex Chemical Corp., Australia; Cadillac Fabrication/Yard King Inc., Cadillac, Mich.’ Bowser Morner, Dayton; Geopier, Saline, Mich.; Peterson Contractors Inc., Reinbeck, Iowa; and Cox-Colvin & Associates, Plain City.

The pad should allow Heritage to increase its workforce of 174 here. “We want to continue to expand,” Avdellas said.

Pictured: Heritage Thermal’s new concrete pad is capable of holding 60 27-cubic-yard intermodal containers of waste to be treated at the incinerator.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.