Concrete flows, footings take shape at First Wausau Tower -- County Materials: Manufacturer of Concrete Landscape and Architectural Masonry Products, Ready-Mix, Prestress, Precast

Concrete flows, footings take shape at First Wausau Tower

Dudley Tower Image 2

Ready-mix trucks from County Materials file into the building site where the First Wausau Tower is beginning to take shape. County Materials will supply more than 5,000 cubic yards of concrete for the 11-story structure, including the footings that were poured this week, and the I-shaped sheer wall (center) that will serve as the backbone of the office facility.

Dudley Tower Image 1

A worker oversees the offloading of concrete from a County Materials ready-mix truck into a bucket that will carry 3 cubic yards of concrete at a time, courtesy of a 250-foot crane, to the footings (left) of the First Wausau Tower taking shape at First and Scott streets in downtown Wausau.

WAUSAU, Wis. – ( April 21, 2006) The cranes and crews have begun breathing life into the rising structure that will alter the Wausau skyline. Workers from Miron Construction are pouring concrete for the initial phases of the First Wausau Tower at First and Scott streets in downtown Wausau.

Most of the work is being done below street level. A 250-foot crane at the south end of the property transfers concrete from County Materials ready-mix trucks to the footings for the 11-story building. County Materials will provide more than 5,000 cubic yards of concrete for the $20 million office building. As the overall complex takes shape, that number figures to run closer to the 6,000 cubic yards that County Materials provided for the McCleary Bridge, which won an award from the Wisconsin Ready Mix Concrete Association after opening in October 2004, connecting Wausau with the Town of Rib Mountain.

"We're taking everything down to the bedrock," said Dan Carl, project superintendent for Miron Construction, pointing to the jagged stone that sits solidly at the base of the building. "It's a pretty good representation of what you'll find in this area in the soil."

The concrete will sit directly atop that bedrock, and the footings serve as the base for poured walls that will house a subterranean parking structure and will reach up to the first floor of offices. The footings also bend out in a radius at the west end of the property, to serve as an outdoor veranda facing the Wisconsin River.

In coming days, crews will begin pouring the sheer wall, a large I-shaped form in the middle of the site that eventually will reach all 11 stories as the backbone of the structure. The project broke ground Feb. 23 and is scheduled for completion next January.

Those interested in the progress of First Wausau Tower can check in on it via Web cam at http://mironconst.oxblue.com/cam1. Curious residents stopped behind the chain-link fence, spending part of their lunch hours or a little retirement time to watch the downtown cityscape evolve before their eyes.

"I suppose, it's good for the city," said Rick Kasten, a retiree from Weston. "It's nice to see people investing money in the city."

County Materials operates 30 locations serving the Midwest. The family-owned, American-based company is an industry leader in the manufacture and distribution of concrete block, brick, ready-mix, hollowcore, pipe, pavers, retaining walls and Aggregate finish products for residential, commercial and municipal construction and landscaping.

For more information, call us at 1-800-289-2569 and ask for a product guide.