Centennial's a Green Business Award Finalist!

A couple of months ago, we showed you the world’s first train bridges made from recycled structural composite (RSC) built for the US Army Transportation School at Ft. Eustis. Now, we’re honored that the Washington Business Journal has named Centennial as a finalist in its Green Business Awards- Green Invention category.

Centennial worked with RSC manufacturer, Axion International as well as Parsons Brinckerhoff, Innovative Green Solutions and English Construction Company to complete the project. RSC, which is comprised entirely of post-consumer recycled plastic such as milk jugs, detergent bottles, disposable coffee cups and industrial plastics (car bumpers and computer casings) was invented by scientists at Rutgers University in New Jersey who melted the different types of plastic in a precise formula creating a material stronger and more durable than any recycled plastic.

The material proved to be very similar to working with conventional materials such as wood or steel. It does not leach any toxins into the environment which will also protect the local wildlife and people who come in contact with the bridges. Using RSC on these two bridges kept 334,000 pounds of material out of landfills and saved more than 50,000 gallons of gasoline and 496 metric tons of greenhouse gases.

The Washington Business Journal will announce the category winners at a breakfast honoring the finalists on September 24th.

The Green Bridge to Somewhere

The interest is amazing. Two train bridges made from 100% recycled milk jugs, detergent jugs and tires. They are the first of their kind in the world. It started with the interest by our client at Fort Eustis in the Commonwealth of Virginia wanting to do something green and meaningful. It was accomplished thanks to the ability of Job Order Contracting to allow collaboration and innovation between owners and contractors and the fact that the base has had a long term successful JOC program in place and a team at Centennial aligned with their goals.

Recently ENR ran a story on the bridges at Ft. Eustis. It was exciting to see this project come together and take shape. It is a positive testament to job order contracting, sustainability and creativity.

Yesterday, at media day for the bridges, spokespeople from Centennial, Axion, who manufactures the material and Ft. Eustis described the project and its benefit to the environment to local TV and print media. They noted that the material is just as durable as traditional materials, has the same life expectancy, without the maintanence worries. It also keeps these materials out of landfills.

Phil Reed, Fort Eustis Directorate of Public Works Engineering Division chief, said "Centennial, our go to team, allowed us to use a design-build fast-track process to get into the hands of the new technology and came up with this for a better alternative for the long term and allowed us to complete the process in half the time that we would have using conventional construction."

There is a strong tie in public funded construction and job order contracting for sustainably. We wrote a white paper, Shades Of Green on this topic and it sets the ground work for why JOC and sustainability go hand in hand in a public facilities environment.

RSC materials being delivered to the construction location.

Train bridge was built to sustain a 130-ton load.

Members of Centennial's Ft. Eustis team pose for picture on completed bridge.