Pervious Concrete, Inc.

Michael Bledsoe (President)
206-940-8900 (Mobile)
425-308-5555 (Office)
206-525-2800 (Fax)
mbledsoe@perviouscrete.com

 Pervious Concrete, Inc.
P.O. Box 1579
Snohomish,
WA 98291-1579

2006 WACA Excellence in Concrete Construction (EIC) Award

Watch the Video Presentation! (Your computer needs Quicktime 7.1 installed to play video)

The annual 2006 Awards for Excellence in Concrete Construction awards banquet for Washington State was held last night.  It is presented each year by the Washington Aggregates and Concrete Association (WACA).  CMI's Stratford Place in Sultan was nominated by Scott Mickels General Manger of Smokey Point Concrete in one of 12 categories of concrete application.  There were some 60+ entries from Technical Merit to Special Applications to Architectural Concrete.  Our plat was nominated in the Sustainable Merit category.  There were 3 finalists in each category presented at the awards ceremony.  Pictures were shown on a large 16" screen and a 3 minute narrative of each project presented.  Then the winner in each category was announced and the entire technical team for that project was invited forward and brief statements were made by one in the group.  I was amazed at the quality of work that was accomplished this year in concrete.  From the ornate restoration of the Monroe Bridge over the Spokane River in Spokane, to a gorgeous, stunning house made completely out of concrete walls over looking the Columbia River, to the Lincoln Tower built in Bellevue (the tallest structure ever built out of concrete--and it only placed third!), to a huge concrete water purification facility.

Stratford Place was the first place winner in the Sustainable Merit Category!  In the concrete world specific to Washington State, this is a huge achievement!  In that we were the last to be presented, we were able to listen to the 200+ gathered respond to each winner; some nominees received spontaneous applause and others received loud applause and buzzing could be heard in the room.  Our category was the last to be presented and Stratford Place was the last of the 3 in our category to be presented.  When the story of Stratford Place was told with pictures Scott had taken a couple of months ago, you could begin hearing some buzz in the room ahead of the announced winner.  I think I was most impressed with the crowd's loud response to us winning the award.  I was able to briefly touch on the Nashville conference and the expected future of pervious concrete and said that it appears this plat is the first in the nation that has managed "ALL" of its stormwater completely using the pervious concept. Many in the room came up afterwards to congratulate us and get further information.  This was clearly one of the most innovative projects of the awards ceremony.

 When nearly all in the room were gone, I went over to the two men that had made the video presentation to see if I could get a copy of their DVD.  They introduced me to their significant others who in turn asked me questions.  These were a couple of women who had no idea of construction, let alone, concrete.  Within a couple of paragraphs both were saying how much sense this product makes in handling stormwater and "that they totally get it!"  And given the response of the various agencies and schools and developers and publications that have been contacting me in recent weeks, I think there is a wave of others that is "getting it too".

I want to thank Scott for nominating us and to Noel (engineering) for suggesting and designing Stratford Place using pervious concept in the first place, and to Rick Cisar and all at the City of Sultan for approving something no one in America had ever done before but reasoned it would work.  And to the installation team of Smokey Point (Scott) and Excell Concrete (Brian) and all at CMI, and our nimble surveying company (Al/Norm).  As our marketing effort takes shape, I am impressed with the quality of our web site (www.perviouscrete.com) designed in less than a week (Janine), and our logo and printed matter (Teri), and to Michael and Phil and Patty and Brian in helping to develop our new company's course.  And to our new marketing group, Authenticity, in getting us focused in our message of what were are about.