Outback Materials tracks carbon factor in 500,000-yd. rail contract

Fresno, Calif.-based Outback Materials has teamed with CarbonCure Technologies, a developer of carbon dioxide-sequestering processes, on one of the initial contracts for the high-speed rail project linking northern and southern California.



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Outback Materials is one of the latest North American ready mixed producers to embrace the CarbonCure method, whose potential to capture carbon dioxide in finished concrete is well received in California.
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The producer is supplying mixes for 25 structures along the first of 24 California High Speed Rail project sections.

“I think it’s important for this industry to align with California’s environmental commitments by adopting greener technologies,” says Outback Materials owner Curtis Lovett, whose six-plant business has served the Central Valley for 50 years. A CarbonCure equipment installation at Fresno headquarters, he adds, will improve the environmental impact and overall integrity of the rail contract concrete. Through an injection process ahead of mixer truck loading, the technology chemically sequesters industrial process-derived CO2 in fresh concrete. The gas contributes to strength development and reduces finished concrete structures’ carbon footprint.

Outback Materials is supplying ready mixed for Construction Package 1 of the California High Speed Rail project; the 29-mile-long segment connecting Madera and Fresno counties calls for 25 major concrete structures requiring nearly 500,000 yd. of ready mixed. The CarbonCure process will offset more than 3,000 tons of CO2 emissions across the Package 1 concrete schedule.