Does half of a barrier mold pour half of a barrier wall? Not when W.O.E. Construction uses their Power Curber 5700-CMAX and custom mold to pour adjacent to an existing wall. For General Superintendent Joe Roundtree and his crew, the expansion of Texas 183 eastbound in Irving was not a straightforward barrier job. The outdated highway, which hadn’t changed much since 1973, was struggling to handle the daily 150,000+ vehicles traveling between Dallas and Fort Worth. The $897 million job required barrier to be poured right up to retaining walls beneath bridges and then adjacent to the walls for the entire width of the bridge. Because the barrier was poured against a surface, there was no clearance for a typical barrier mold. The half mold pours were only one aspect of the job, which required a total of seven different molds.

The W.O.E. team, based out of Grand Prairie Texas, has a lot of experience in its ranks. In addition to the support of the entire Power Curber team, Roundtree has been “slipping concrete since the early seventies.” Using his decades of experience, he built the versatile mold that has a removable back plate to help WOE tackle these challenging pours.

The adaptable mold was so important for W.O.E. due to the frequency of changeovers. The 300,000 linear-foot job had about 7,000 feet of open-backed slip work. Overall, there were about twenty-five transitions, each taking twenty minutes. With so many conversions, even shaving off a few minutes from the process meant far less total downtime. Without this mold, the crew would have had to maneuver their 5700-C-MAX off the wall, swap to a completely different mold, then get the Power Curber back into position. W.O.E.’s method allowed them to bolt and unbolt the back of the mold in place, streamlining the process.

The rear plate of the custom mold has been bolted back on and is being used for typical barrier wall.

W.O.E. was responsible for pouring multiple, long stretches of barrier against an existing retaining wall.

The custom W.O.E. mold in position with the back removed to overcome a no-clearance situation.

A Power Curber 5700-C-MAX using W.O.E.’s custom mold to pour against a retaining wall.

The rear plate staged to reattach as soon as the barrier wall transitions.

Their mold with the removable back worked very well for W.O.E. Roundtree explained that it was “100% easier than hand forming and 95% faster.” For anyone else facing similar challenges, Power Curbers machines can be equipped with a variety of tools to make the lives of operators easier. The quick connect mold mount can make changing molds take as little as five minutes. With hydraulic mold adjustment, and barrier mold lift, getting on and off a rebar cage is no obstacle. Those, coupled with Roundtree’s favorite feature, all crawler steering, vastly improve the maneuverability of the machine. Reliability is never a question either, Caleb Chalmers, W.O.E. Vice President describes “Power Curbers produce a machine that can stand 10-hour days, 5 days a week, even on our 100-degree days and the machines never miss a beat.”

Further challenging W.O.E. was the two-foot superelevation between the east and westbound lanes. That required a Power Curbers’ variable height barrier mold to compensate for the 25,000 feet of meandering grade changes. What mattered most was doing a quality job within the specifications. Roundtree, was thrilled with the 5700-C-MAX, expressing that “the Power Curber is a great machine and has great people behind it working really hard to make it that way.”

Because of W.O.E.’s experience and hard work, they have grown to become one of the largest slipform barrier subcontractors in Texas. “Power Curbers has played a pivotal role in W.O.E.’s success in the barrier market with dependable machines, mold versatility, and the people behind the Power Curber brand” praises Chalmers, who concludes “As long as Power Curbers is making slip form barrier machines, W.O.E. will exclusively use their products.”