California might be the state known for starting trends, but has only recently seen the availability of large concrete pole products based on a decades-old technology that provides best-in-class life cycle and operating cost benefits.

Valmont-Newmark, formerly Newmark International Inc., the leader in large (taller than 30 ft.) centrifugally spun prestressed concrete poles, is developing the market west of the Rockies through a recently opened Mojave River Operation plant in Barstow, Calif. “We didn't come to the West Coast with any long-term contracts or customer supply agreements. The west is not familiar with large utility concrete poles,” notes General Manager Ken Sharpless, P.E. “Customers need to see a plant in the region before they will consider a prestressed concrete alternative to the wood and steel products.”

When West Coast and Intermountain utilities, who are accustomed to wood and steel pole and tower components, hear Newmark's concrete pitch, the most frequently asked question is “What about the weight?” To that, Plant Manager Raymond Navarre replies, “Our spun prestressed high-strength concrete poles are hollow and unsurpassed in strength-to-weight ratio. The fabrication potential and raw material availability we have at Mojave River enable us to quote orders with four to six week lead times versus 20 to 24 weeks or more on competing steel structures.” Beyond lengthy leads, he adds, plate and coil pricing and procurement problems plaguing steel users throughout 2004 have strengthened the case for prestressed concrete. From a construction standpoint, moreover, prestressed poles typically have simpler foundation and backfilling requirements than steel structures, which help reduce construction costs. Due to superior durability compared to other materials — even in the harshest environments — spun concrete poles offer further savings in life-cycle costs.

TIMING AND LOCATION

The Mojave River Operation is geared for utility transmission and distribution, sports lighting, and telecommunications poles. Single piece structures are cast up to 130 ft. long and 5 ft. in diameter, while poles up to 220 ft. high can be erected by splicing multiple components. Electric utility customers specify structures by line voltage. Valmont-Newmark Mojave River's order log so far has included 65-ft., 8,500-lb. pole products with 69 kV capacity through 110-ft., 40,000-lb. poles with 345 kV. Topping the specialty order log have been wind farm-bound 218-ft. meteorological instrumentation structures.

The centrifugal spinning process and end-use engineering yield “extreme” products compared to other plant-fabricated concrete: Poles have spiral reinforcing and 0.5-in.-diameter prestressing strand at combined concentrations near 50 percent, while utility-industry standards call for concrete of minimum 10,000 psi design strength. Spun prestressed poles compete with all wood products, tubular steel and steel lattice-type structures. Since the Mojave River plant's 2002 commissioning, Newmark has shipped concrete poles for major West Coast utilities such as Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, along with Nevada Power, Arizona's Salt River Project, and a host of rural electric utility cooperatives.

The Mojave River Operation is a distant satellite to Valmont-Newmark plants in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Texas that have been built over the past 20 years. Valmont-Newmark was launched in 1983 as Sherman Utility Structures, a joint venture between Sherman Intl. in Birmingham, Ala., and Pfleiderer, a private company based in Neumarkt, Germany. After a flagship plant in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Sherman Utility Structures developed other greenfield sites in Florida, Georgia and Texas, gradually bringing a spun prestressed-concrete alternative to markets traditionally bound by wood and steel structures.

In 1997, Sherman Intl. sold its stake to Pfliederer, which in turn adopted the name Newmark International, Inc. and expanded into steel pole production. This spring, the German parent company sold the U.S. business to Omaha, Neb.-based Valmont Industries, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company that specializes in steel utility poles and tubular irrigation products. “The acquisition has allowed Valmont to increase its business in steel products and round out offerings with prestressed concrete,” says Ken Sharpless. “Some of our larger accounts and prospects want to streamline procurement by working with fewer vendors. Valmont-Newmark can offer those and other customers a solutions approach on each job, specifying prestressed concrete, steel or hybrid concrete-steel structures depending on site conditions and schedules.”