RCC Open House Promotes RCC for Oil Shale Pavements

A 60-acre roller-compacted concrete (RCC) pavement, being built for an oil and gas exploration firm in  Victoria, TX, may prove to be the gateway project for RCC in the booming Eagle Ford Shale region. A June open house at Pioneer Natural Resources, organized by the Cement Council of Texas, attracted 70 attendees representing public agencies, consulting engineers, private facility owners and contractors. Rollcon LLC, the RCC contractor, showcased the pavement process, from pug mill mixing, to high-density paver placement, to compaction and curing.

The Pioneer facility is a pipe fabrication/supply yard servicing the Eagle Ford Shale Play in south Texas. The attendees were principally interested in RCC to build similar private facilities or to remediate state and local roads that have been destroyed by oil and gas activity. The Texas legislature recently appropriated $450 million for reconstruction of these roads and local stakeholders are seeking a durable, long-term pavement solution like RCC.

In a panel discussion, facility owner Pioneer noted that RCC offered lower initial cost and maintenance than the planned unsurfaced aggregate base for material storage/handling areas and asphalt pavement for employee parking. The elimination of dust control was a huge motivator and RCC could also take advantage of local aggregate supplies. The general contractor, Weaver & Jacobs, expressed surprise that construction of the concrete is taking considerably less time than the original pavement choices.