PART FOUR - CONCRETE PRODUCTION 
Diyas Diceeby.ns Giese! 
RESOURCES 
The size and scope of facilities required to produce portland 
cement concrete for mobile ocean based platforms will depend upon (a) 
size and number of platforms to be constructed as well as (b) the 
location selected for construction. 
The production and placing of concrete requires a spectrum of 
operations including (a) mining, crushing, and processing of sand and 
gravel (or crushed rock) to produce aggregate of suitable quality, 
gradation, and quantity, (b) mining of raw materials for the production 
of cement clinker subsequently to be ground into portland cement, (c) 
the location of a suitable and adequate source of water, and (d) the 
combining of sand, gravel, cement, and water into freshly mixed concrete 
ready for emplacement. 
Depending upon the quantity of concrete to be produced and upon 
the location most feasible for its production, new facilities may have 
to be established if not, for all, at least for a part of the operations. 
A floating platform of the scale envisaged will obviously be a 
high cost item. Therefore, it must be assumed that fabrication pro- 
cesses and materials will be of the highest quality attainable on a 
practical working basis. The buoyant components must be of dense, 
well compacted, concrete of low water-cement ratio and high cement 
content in order to be impermeable to water, and to provide utmost 
protection to embedded reinforcing metal or metal fasteners. In fact, 
the metal required might well be made of corrosion-free titanium. Its 
higher cost could be offset to some degree by savings in concrete cover 
that might be as low as 1.5 inches. 
Construction Site 
It is believed at this time that the first decision should be to 
select two or three alternate feasible construction sites from the 
point of view of launching the completed platform. Each site should 
then be considered in relation to availability and economy of labor, 
aggregates, cement, and water. 
Initial consideration of construction sites on the Pacific Coast 
of the U. S. might well include areas close to San Diego, Los Angeles, 
San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. 
Materials of Construction 
Aggregates. High quality aggregates are not to be found everywhere, 
nor generally in great abundance. For each specific possible construction 
site, the location and supply of acceptable aggregates should be considered 
