PCiRoads LLC: Celebrating a Tradition of Staying Busy

PCiRoads LLC (PCi) has been operating since 2008, carrying on a tradition of doing what it does best: working hard. It’s this reputation for consistency that assured the PCi team remained in high demand throughout 2011 and 2012.

Led by Tom Sloan, PCi president, along with partners Steve Gerster and Ted Durkee, the Minnesota contractor pulls together longtime assets and experience personnel that specialize in supporting clients with a range of civil contracting expertise balanced by a high bonding capacity and industry-leading safety training, rules and protocols. Combined, these capabilities ensure projects with technical and logistical complications move forward smoothly. Above all, the PCi team positions itself to support the client at any stage of a project’s life cycle with a fully loaded emergency response team and an ingrained hard-work ethic to prevent minor problems from becoming full-blown disasters.

The company maintains headquarters just outside of the Twin Cities in St. Michael, Minn., which enables the company to work with clients across the Midwest. PCi employs roughly 500 professionals and maintains close ties with the local trade halls to ensure the company can strategically scale up its union labor forces as needed. The union affiliation also allows PCi to provide a broad spectrum of civil construction services, which includes everything from concrete construction to structural steel fabrication for heavy highway, bridge and tunnel construction and repair delivered at the highest efficiency.

PCi operates a fully equipped fabrication shop called IronWorks (located in Becker, Minn.) to supply custom structural steel components for both PCi projects and for outside clients looking for top-notch steel fabrication services. The crew provides an extra layer of service to PCi’s industrial and transportation clients by maintaining the talent and equipment to fabricate a variety of material handling equipment, ductwork, concrete equipment or asphalt plant equipment. The IronWorks team can further assemble these pieces, cutting down on transportation costs and installation time.

PCi will capitalize on these resources by performing on-site surface preparation on concrete, aluminum and metals to ensure the performance coatings applied to the metal storage tank, cooling tower or structural steel performs as promised for years to come. PCi can clean the surface of debris, residue or chipping paint through ultra-high-pressure water blasting, dry abrasive blasting or wet abrasive blasting depending on the needs of the client, the materials at play and any other outlying factors like site limitations and safety requirements unique to the facility. This assures millions of safe working hours for employees and significant savings for customers.

Casting a Wide Net

Clients can also look to PCi for the company’s extensive experience working with concrete and shotcrete, as well as PCi’s experience in highly specialized activities like waterproofing, fireproofing and void grouting, which repairs the effects of long-term erosion to tunnels, abutments, spillways, dams and retaining walls among other structures. Combined, PCi’s total spectrum of services ensures that client can rely on the PCi team to support a structure throughout its life cycle, no matter the nature of the surprise. “We’re known for being a very well-organized company and one that has the experience and staff to completed fast-tracked projects on time,” asserts David Graham, manager at PCi.

As a result, PCi often finds itself at the top of the list of qualified contractors for heavy-duty projects of an industrial nature. Such was the case in late June 2012, when PCi found itself needed to help complete emergency bridge repairs to a bridge crossing the Knife River in Duluth, Minn. A summer storm left much of the area flooded and sent waves of debris, logs and water rushing downstream for the better part of 12 hours. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) contacted PCi, which swiftly arrived on site shortly after the flash flood warning was lifted.

Back in Service

PCi helped repair the bridge along Highway 61 crossing the Knife River, mobilizing crews to clear felled trees and dislodge debris stuck underneath the roadway. Structural damages were reported directly to MNDOT and crews managed to secure the area sufficiently to reopen the bridge to traffic within five days.

Meanwhile, PCi also mobilized crews to complete repairs to a stretch of Highway 2 in Proctor, Minn., where the team arrived within 36 hours of the storm to repair any washouts and secure the roadbeds. The crews worked quickly to open the roadways back up as surrounding and adjoining roads were deemed too hazardous for traffic. PCi also installed a concrete barrier in Duluth immediately following the storm to limit traffic flow and prevent further slope destabilization and damage along Glenwood Street.

At least part of PCi’s swift response stems from the fact that PCi crews were already in the area performing work on MNDOT’s I-35 Duluth Mega Project and Blatnik Bridge project. The I-35 Mega Project represents three years of continual repair and upgrades performed on I-35 near Duluth. Crews repaired 37 existing bridges, replaced four, and installed fiber-optic cabling for enhanced emergency communications and responses. Crews also replaced concrete pavement and barriers, as well as expanding shoulders and improving drainage systems to ensure a safe commute.

The I-35 Duluth Mega Project wrapped up in 2012, just as PCi began work on the Blatnik Bridge project, which consists of structural steel repairs, joint repairs and partial painting of the Blatnik Bridge that connects Duluth to Superior, Wis. The project is scheduled to complete in 2014, and the PCi team will stay busy in the next few years. By relying on the extensive expertise of employees and a reputation for completing complex projects on time, PCiRoads LLC will continue to set the standard for diversified civil contracting service.