Seven years ago, Chelcia and Jerod Lawrimore founded their paving business in Cocoa, Florida, about halfway down its Atlantic coastline. They named it Brevard Concrete Paving, after their home county, and they pride themselves on serving people and companies throughout Brevard County.
They started small, with one truck and trailer, and their initial projects were residential curbs, sidewalks, driveways, and the like. Soon, they were doing gas stations, commercial buildings, and work for the Florida Department of Transportation.
As their reputation grew, the projects they were asked to complete continued to grow in size and complexity, which meant the types of equipment to build them also needed to expand. Power Curbers has been on the Lawrimore’s paving team since day one.
“From the beginning, Power Curbers was very responsive,” said Jerod, “even when we had very little. [Power Curbers’ President] Stephen Bullock always took our calls if he was available. When he wasn’t available, he always called back.”
Brevard Concrete poured curb for a few years with two Power Curber 150 Extruders they bought in 2017 and 2019. Then, as needs grew, they ordered a 5700-D curb and gutter machine that was delivered in 2020. It was immediately put into service, and in 2021, they slipformed 80,000 linear feet of curb with it. As the work expanded even further and they realized they needed an additional tool, they ordered a Power Curber 7700 Multipurpose Machine. Brevard appreciates the new 7700 for its versatility, reflected in three recently completed projects.
The firm was chosen to expand an aircraft taxiway at what used to be Patrick Air Force Base. Located just a little south of Cape Canaveral, the base is now Patrick Space Force Base, one of six active installations of the new service branch. Patrick was originally a Naval Air Station, opened in 1940, and then turned over to the Air Force in 1948. The recent change in status for the installation meant there would be a lot of new physical requirements to handle its new mission.
Brevard’s work on the taxiway called for 3,000 cubic yards of concrete, poured 23” thick. The extreme paving depth required careful planning and preparation, including steel forms.
“We had two months to complete the project,” said Jerod. “This was in June and July of 2021. We’d pave about two times a week, a total of ten pours. We’d pave twenty-foot sections, pour twenty feet, skip twenty, and then pave the next twenty feet. We’d start pouring around six a.m., finishing by ten a.m. ”
The next Brevard project for their 7700 was another airport facility, Vero Beach Regional Airport, about seventy miles south of Cocoa. A few years earlier, Brevard had completed a ramp for the airport, and the new job was phase two of that project. Some 6,000 cubic yards of concrete were slipformed in 15’ wide sections. They had a total of eighteen pours, each 675 feet long. Ultimately, the new ramp will have hangars built around it, and planes will use the ramp to access the taxiway to runways.
Getting the ramp finished and in operation quickly was critical for the client, so the construction contract included a penalty of ten thousand dollars per day in liquidated damages for each day the project was late. Brevard completed around 300 yards a day, starting at 4 a.m. and finishing around 10 a.m., with machine pours every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with Saturday as a backup. And they completed the project on time.
Even as that project was ongoing, other customers were lining up for Brevard’s 7700. Another Florida concrete contractor had a complex project in the area with two types of heavy-duty barrier sections. But they lacked the right equipment to handle the task. They contacted Power Curbers and learned only one company in the area had a big enough machine for the job: Brevard Concrete Paving. They called the Cocoa firm, picked up Jerod at the Vero Beach construction site, and drove him over to look at the new project.
The overall job was a regional stormwater treatment facility. Brevard’s part involved constructing a triangular-shaped concrete barrier, three to four feet tall and seven feet wide at the base. They slipformed 1,600 feet of the seven-foot profile barrier and 4,000 feet of a half-width profile.
In describing the three projects, Jerod noted the importance of the 7700’s adaptability to various types of work. “You can do paving or barrier wall. You can transition quickly. That machine is big enough and versatile enough for just about any type of job. You could compare it with a Swiss Army knife because it can do so many different things so well.”
“We’ve owned a couple of [slipform] machines from other manufacturers,” he says. The significant advantage is the knowledge and service you get with Power Curbers. “If you chose to go with some of the other companies,” he said, “you have to go through a dealer. And too often, the people you talk to at the dealership don’t know the machines all that well.”
A critical aspect for Brevard was training its staff on the machine to benefit from its full potential. Power Curbers’ support team traveled to Cocoa for all three projects to provide such guidance.