The slipform crew of Absolute Solutions ARS, LLC, faced significant challenges with a 6-foot sidewalk application four blocks from the Gulf Coast in Panama City Beach, FL.

#1: The surface was beach sand, providing little stability for concrete trucks or a slipform machine.

#2: The slope of the sidewalk was extreme and constantly changing.

What they did have going for them… their Power Curber 5700-D, an experienced crew, and quick answers to questions by Power Curbers service technicians.

Rebekah Register, P.E., president of the company, describes working with Power Curbers as “Like calling our family member. Everyone is so helpful.”

Absolute Solutions faced a slope difference on the beach job that required the versatile 5700-D to extend vertically and horizontally to the maximum while maintaining stability. The rear crawlers had to move at different heights, with the outside post extended and the inside post drawn in.

Rebekah said that they worked with an 11-inch range on the slope play. She said neither they nor the prime contractor anticipated the complexity of the 8-mile pour. “Every single area on the project was different because of the slope and beach sand,” said Rebekah. “The surface was so soft it was easy to get trucks stuck. We used composite crane mats for the tracks on the Power Curber and for truck access, and we had the contractor wait to strip all the topsoil and grass from the walking/driving area to keep as much hard ground intact and to only grade for the sidewalk path itself. We needed more grass for the truck and track to walk on.”

“Learning to take care of our machine and things we didn’t know we were supposed to do has been very valuable,” said Armando Felan of HJC Farms in Texas. They typically use their Power Curber 5700-D to pour cable barrier, parapet, and 54-inch barrier wall. 

Absolute Solutions worked on the project for prime contractor Anderson Columbia Co., Inc., a Southeastern U.S. company with plants in Florida and Texas.

Absolute Solutions owns both a 5700-C and a 5700-D and tries to utilize the 5700-C with a mold kit to pour by machine to save time, labor, and lumber costs on formwork.

Rebekah grew up in the construction business, with her dad in business doing private site development construction. She worked at a private engineering firm for eight years before deciding that she preferred the variety of roadway construction over an office job.

She started her company ten years ago with very little knowledge of slipform machines but with a lot of know-how in the industry. A graduate of Florida State University with a degree in Civil Engineering, she also worked for six years as a project manager and estimator for a heavy highway contractor. They subbed out curb and sidewalk work, and Rebekah saw a niche in her area.

She bought a Power Curber 5500-B in 2012 from a city in Virginia that had purchased it for one job. It was almost new, Rebekah said. Still, she made the purchase “sight unseen.” When the new machine arrived, the first thing they had to figure out was how to offload it from the tuck. She said they set up stringline behind their office, bought 4 to 5 yards of concrete, and learned slipforming through many trials and errors.

“The company has come a long way,” said Rebekah, a DBE working primarily on DOT projects and select private work in five counties near Panama City. In the last ten years, she has seen her business triple in size. She is DBE certified in both Florida and Texas and considering opening a division in Texas as well as expanding curb and sidewalk work to slipforming barrier.

Moving from the 5500-B to the 5700-C in 2017 for its size and digital technology was another learning experience. They bought a sidewalk mold kit with counterweight from Power Curbers, and that purchase opened many doors. “We’re the only company with a sidewalk mold around here, and we pour up to 1,000 feet of sidewalk per day, compared to 300 to 400 feet per day by hand.” Rebekah said. “Slipping sidewalk in tight locations and in uncommon conditions is always possible with a Power Curber,” she added.

Absolute Solutions purchased a new 5700-D in 2021. Ordering molds from the factory is seamless, she said, and the Power Curbers Product Support Staff has been known to talk their mechanic through a problem within minutes.

Chase Weber, the “mastermind in the field” for Absolute Solutions, and Gabe Waters, the operator of both machines, can attest to the growth Power Curbers has made from the 2004 machine they initially operated to the 2021 machine Gabe now runs for Rebekah’s company. The “all up” switch makes it faster to get all posts raised and lowered simultaneously, the new screen is sleeker, and of course, the cup holder is a great addition.

Rebekah adds: “Power Curbers is constantly improving, and that’s why we do business with them.”