Palm Bay Showcase Reveals Sizable, Long-term Cost Benefits
Rarely can decision-makers, in the public service arena, make a simple “yes or no” implementa-tion decision when a new product or technology is introduced. This is particularly true when the new tech-nology has a significantly higher startup cost than the currently accepted practice. Typically, man-agement needs to be convinced that a new technology provides enough benefit to the public to warrant the expenditure of funds.
This is exactly the situation Palm Bay’s Public Works Director Jim Proce and his management team found themselves facing when considering reusable plastic sidewalk formboard technology. Like many of America’s communities, the City of Palm Bay is growing and this growth brings increasing “quality of citizen life” issues. With a population of more than 85,000, Palm Bay has an aggressive sidewalk and bike path program with a budget of approximately $100,000 annually, with additional funding provided by grants. Maintaining a growing network of more than 150 miles of walkways, bikeways and sidewalks, pedestrian and bicycle safety is a top priority.
Noticing contractors toss away and repurchase framing lumber after only one or two projects, Crew Leader Gary Vroman decided to look into the sidewalk program costs on his own. Vroman sensed there must be a more cost-effective and environmentally friendly solution to this waste. Generally, the city has used Gary Vroman’s crew for sidewalk construction. The City uses an in-house construction crew because it provides flexibility and cost and scheduling benefits. City staff can be more responsive to citizen requests and emergency situations, while also negotiating favorable material contracts and eliminating costs for sales tax and profit margins.
Vroman discovered the Plasti-form Company and their reusable, flexible plastic formboard system and approached management with his discovery. Although the initial response was cautious, Vroman was persistent and after several more attempts—each time reinforcing his reusable form board solution with additional potential cost saving benefits—his management team ap-proved a pilot project. The pilot project was an over-whelming success. Increases in produc-tivity were significant and numerous other advantages became clear. The plastic form boards are light weight and flexible; are easy to clean and store; are long lasting; provide increased productivity—they reduced crew size by one third, reducing labor costs by more than 50 percent—and reduced total project time since forms are removed as soon as the concrete sets.
In many cases crews can set up in the morning, pour in the early afternoon and strip, clean and store the framing two hours later. Storage and equipment cost savings were realized—a smaller truck reduced main-tenance and mileage costs. All these advantages pro-duced impressive long-term and consistent cost savings. With the flexibility afforded by the plastic form boards, many more aesthetically pleasing, environmentally friendly and user-safe designs can be quickly and easily installed.
While the initial cost of this product can run substantially more than the cost of wood, Palm Bay has found it to be a wise, long-term investment. Much of Palm Bay’s current form board stock has been used more than 100 times, on many projects, and still has plenty of life left. Palm Bay anticipated the material savings (lumber, nails and stakes), but when add-ing the labor savings against wood framing, breakdown and prep time to the equation, they realized another impressive long-term return on their reus-able formboard investment.
