Northeast Ohio Precast Expands to Supply Highway Work
GREENFORD Township, Ohio – An 8,400-square-foot expansion project here will help Northeast Ohio Precast fulfill a contact to provide nose walls for the Akron Interchange project and position the company to secure other highway work in the region.
Company officials broke ground Friday afternoon joined by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. The expansion, to be constructed on the company’s six-acre site at 6705 W. South Range Road, will include machinery for in-house concrete production and a 10-ton crane, as well as a 30-ton mobile gantry crane.
Northeast Ohio Precast, founded in 2017, produces concrete structures used in highway, sanitation and stormwater applications. The addition will cost more than $1 million, Tony McCoy, company president, said.
The project is intended to supply sound walls for various departments of transportation in the region, “wherever is within striking distance cost-wise for transportation,” said Daniel Lundeen, vice president of operations.
The company was certified to do work for the Ohio Department of Transportation about two years ago, according to Lundeen.
“We will have the capacity to build a million square feet of sound wall with this 8,400-square-foot building. And the equipment gantry crane, a pretty cool crane, is capable of carrying 30 tons of precast product,” he said. “Then we also will have an indoor crane and be able to batch our own concrete, which is a very important thing to be competitive in the precast marketplace.”
The expansion will permit the company to fulfill a $5 million contract to produce 250,000 square feet of sound wall for the Akron Interchange Project at the junction of I-76, I-77 and State Route 8. The walls will feature embedded images of famous athletes including Akron native LeBron James and other images reflective of the region.
“It’s pretty amazing to see what we’ve pulled off in the past five years, from starting from scratch as a manufacturing company, to where we are now and where we’re heading,” McCoy said. He added that he expects to add two to three more production workers and up to two in office, including a project management position. The company has eight employees.
Ruhlin Construction Co. in Sharon Center and Shelly & Sands Inc. in Zanesville are partnering on the $162 million interchange project through a joint venture. The walls that Northeast Ohio Precast produces will be used to reduce noise, said Pete Kinzer, Shelly & Sands project manager.
Construction will begin soon on the Northeast Ohio precast addition, said Brian Horne, project manager with Hively Construction, based in Canfield. His company is working through final approvals for permits before the building components arrive in June. Hively will grade the site and set the foundations for the building and equipment, he said.
“It’ll definitely do the job for what Tony [McCoy] needs,” Horne said. “We’re looking forward to being involved with the project and it’s going a be a great asset for this business. He’s got a couple of big contracts this project is going to help them fulfill orders for.”
The $1 million expansion project was funded with help from Wayne Savings Community Bank.
Pictured at top: Ready to break ground are Dave Martin, Mike Kerr, Daniel Lundeen, Tony McCoy, Lisa Martin, Brian Horne, Ray McCoy and Dale Armstrong.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
