Tuesday, July 9, 2013

AXION International Holdings, Inc. (AXIH) Dean Road Bridge in Up-State New York Upgraded with AXION’s 100% Recycled STRUXURE Boards

AXION, which has established a clear lead in composite structural materials technology using 100% recycled plastics, was pleased to report today that the Dean Road Bridge decking in Clare, New York, has been fully repaired (original purchase order announced March 19) using the company’s extremely robust 6″ x 24″ tongue & groove boards.

The industrial grade, RSC (Recycled Structural Composite) from which AXIH’s products are comprised is based on a patented formulation that renders the final product both highly resilient to wear, as well as inert, meaning the material won’t absorb moisture, rot, or become infested with bugs (including marine borers and other marine parasites). Not only is this incredibly hearty material perfect for the 60-ton logging trucks that routinely must pass over the span, it was maneuverable enough for the Lawrence County Department of Highways engineering team to put in using just an excavator and a few guys (typically this job requires a crane, which takes longer and is difficult to position).

AXIH has a nice lineup of cheap, easy-to-implement solutions for aging U.S. infrastructure that is badly in need of immediate upgrade or renewal and STRUXURE is made out of plastic that would otherwise end up polluting the oceans or in some landfill. You look at something like the company’s pre-fab bridge units for instance and it becomes readily apparent that these guys have developed the right mix of technology and engineering proficiency needed to radically shift expectations about material performance across multiple industries. The ability to drop in a long-lasting but relatively inexpensive bridge that can take the punishment of mining equipment for instance, something that won’t crumble, rust, or splinter, and can stand up to the punishment of severe weather conditions, is like a godsend for operators in difficult environments and you can throw one of these babies up without any special tools or training (plug and play bridges).

It is hard to really appreciate how much of a game-changer such a simple concept can be, but as Plastics Engineering pointed out in their Innovating 21st-Century Infrastructure with Plastics publication, infrastructure building and plastics have a bright, shared future. That future is here now with STRUXURE products and this latest announcement by AXIH is further evidence of how rapidly municipal engineers are moving to take advantage of the superior long-term economics, structural properties, and environmental benefits made possible by the company’s innovation.

In fact, this latest job is the second project for St. Lawrence County and the county’s Senior Civil Engineer, Andrew Willard, went on record to not only praise the benefits of STRUXURE for this job over concrete or steel, he also pledged that the county fully intends to use more AXIH products on other infrastructure renewal jobs they have planned. Willard was keen to point out how much easier the STRUXURE product was to get situated in place than other choices available for the re-decking job, noting that the cure time on concrete alone would’ve prevented the bridgeway from being used for another four weeks.

Exec. VP of Building Materials for AXIH, Dave Crane, identified bridge re-decking as a vital target area for the company’s product portfolio moving forward and underscored the significant advantages in terms of design flexibility, installation, and overall robustness/lack of maintenance provided, calling STRUXURE products an optimal turn-key solution for municipal infrastructure maintenance and building needs. A beautiful piece with this particular deal was how pleased the Adirondack Park Agency was with the re-decking job. These tongue & groove boards fully cover the surface and prevent debris from falling into what is a designated “wild and scenic waterway” of beautiful up-state New York, eminently preferable to the previous surface, an open steel grate.

This STRUXURE bridge re-decking model in particular is a cost-effective solution which is also a serious upgrade for the given project in many respects. You can certainly expect more news out of AXIH in the very near future, as what is already well-known to The American Society of Civil Engineers and Federal Highway Administration becomes readily apparent to all of us, namely that our bridges are in major need of upgrade and maintenance. In 2011 alone we had nearly 144k bridges classified as either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, a whopping 958M square feet of surface area and the budget two years prior to this was $10.5B for overall construction and maintenance. The kicker is that the same 2009 data from the American Society of Civil Engineers indicates at least $17B is really needed annually to substantially improve current bridge conditions. Needless to say, this is an opportunity to address that shortfall and also a huge market for AXIH, one that hopefully will not take center stage as the result of structural collapse or failure incidents.

To learn more about AXION International Holdings, visit www.AXIONintl.com

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