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project profile:

Medline Warehouse

  • Producer: Hodgson Concrete
  • Location: Prattville, AL
  • Project Type: Warehouse / Distribution
Medline Warehouse

A medical supply warehouse located in Prattville, Alabama was on an accelerated construction schedule and thanks to Hodgson Concrete’s central mix plant, meeting the project’s fast pace was no issue despite the 1000-yard a day delivery schedule.

Medline, the nation’s largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of health care and surgical products, broke ground on their new 350,000 square foot distribution center back in 2010. Looking back on the project, retired Hodgson Concrete General Manager Bill Hodsgon remembers tight delivery requirements that meant “all hands on deck”.

“That was a large warehouse with tilt-up walls,” recalls Hodgson. “The contractor came in on an accelerated schedule. We had to also supply material for some really large floor placements that involved up to one-thousand yards a day.”

Those floor placements required a very specific mix design to ensure a flat surface for the owners of the new facility. “I’m not an engineer and I don’t know how they measure flatness but I do know they employed a very talented placement contractor and they were very specific on the sort of mix design needed.”

High Quality Raw Materials

Hodgson says to give those contractors the very best opportunity to meet the floor specifications, they had to choose high-quality raw materials for the ready mix. “We had to be sure that we bought the very best available,” he says. “Fortunately, we’ve got a good relationship with our aggregate producers. And we certain.ly have the right partner on the cement side considering National Cement is our parent owner.”

Providing Consistency

Hodgson Concrete is the only supplier in the Montgomery region that has a central mix plant. This equipment gives them a competitive advantage over other ready mix producers in the area. “We have the capability of mixing the concrete in a central mixer and having a good look at that load of concrete before you actually put it on a truck and send it to a customer, “ says Hodgson. The Montgomery central mix plant has automatic moisture compensation devices and a slump meter to monitor the consistency of the mix. “It’s really effective,” says Hodgson. “Nobody else in this part of the state has a central mixer.”

With the mix design developed and the ability to produce the ready mix sorted out, it came time to start delivery, and that meant relying on the expertise of Hodgson’s crew. “Once we dialed in the mix design it was all about getting the concrete to the job site in a consistent manner with a consistent slump and a consistent rate,” says Hodgson. “When you start a placement like this the difficulty is continuing without interruptions in the quality of the mix, the consistency of the mix and the rate of delivery. We feel our central mix plant definitely gave us a distinct advantage in this Prattville project,” says Hodgson.

Medline has a total of 33 distribution centers in the U.S., including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The Alabama facility was completed in 2011.