1. 
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Not only is concrete cost competitive in today's market, but 
current trends are indicative of its retaining a favorable position. It 
is postulated that automation in the cement industry has brought about 
a tremendous gain in manufacturing output. The output index shows the 
cement industry below steel in 1950, catching up in the late '50's, and 
surpassing in the 60's with a significant margin. Cement prices during 
all of the 60's did not exceed the 1960 cost. The wholesale price cost 
index shows that not only is cement in a favorable competitive position, 
but also reinforcing steel and concrete products. (See Figure 1.2). 
Mass production of concrete products is demonstrated daily. Some 
395 firms in the United States and Canada produce precast, repetitive 
elements for custom design. And recently, a new and daring modular 
construction was demonstrated with the completion of the 21l-story Hilton 
Palacio Del Rio Hotel in San Antonio. Completely precast concrete boxes 
(room-size modules) together with all necessary service accessories and 
furnishings were moved to the construction site for erection. The 
reported cost of the structure was $10 per square foot (Architectural 
Records, 1968). 
The feasibility and practicability of establishing aggregate plants 
at remote sites was demonstrated by a British Columbia project (Western 
Construction, 1967). Routledge Gravel Contractors of Vancouver, British 
Columbia, were faced with producing one million tons of concrete aggre- 
gates for Arrow Dam on the Columbia River, some 400 miles inland from 
Routledge's stationary plants on the coast. Since the dam could not be 
brought to Vancouver, it was necessary to bring the production and 
quality to the dam site, which Routledge did, assemblying the plant 
component by component inland. Routledge operations not only met an 
ambitious 3,000 ton per day schedule, but handled stepped-up demands. 
In 5% months the plant produced nearly half of its million-ton commitment. 
Concrete is an exotic material, not by itself, but through applica- 
tions that have evolved as a result of recent developments . . . improve- 
ments in handling and placing, and in the design and control of concrete 
mixtures .. . higher strengths with improved cement formulations and 
reinforcing techniques . . . innovations in thin-shell construction, 
longer spans, and not entirely precast systems. These developments are 
leading not only to improvements in quality, but also to techniques 
that are ever broadening the applications, enabling an efficiency in 
modern concrete structures never before realized. 
SCOPE OF INVESTIGATION 
The investigation documented in this report was sponsored jointly 
by the Office of Naval Research and the Naval Facilities Engineering 
Command. It dealt with one of the technological areas requiring an 
early investigation, that of construction - materials, fabrication and 
assembly. The practicability of constructing large platforms depends 
on the availability of a suitable site, while the configuration and 
nw 
Construction cost estimates are presented in Part Five. 
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