The Big Drive goes green

Project staying as eco-friendly as possible

ORLANDO, Fla. – A year after it began, the Big Drive is adding going green to its goals, along with remaining on time and on budget.

There are components of the Big Drive all over the project. A sand pit at the Apopka Recreation Center is providing high-grade sand that is trucked to construction sites all over the corridor.

Trucks come in and out of sites along the corridor known as borrow pits.

"They're going to I-4,l so they're basically making round trips to I-4 wherever they're needed for the day," borrow pit manager Glenn Shilling said.

The  sand is a fundamental building block of construction work.

"This is all the information as to where they're going," said Shilling. "(It shows) where the dirt is being hauled to. Area 4 is the dump site."

The sand is referred to as A-1 select. It can be used to backfill walls, around structures or as general embankment.

A newer, more eco-friendly technology has been integrated into I-4 Ultimate process.

"Basically we scan the trucks, it tracks their loads, it's scanned on this end and it's scanned on the other end," said Shilling.

The system is more streamlined, and has almost eliminated paper waste. 

"We can create different hauls by just creating a bar code that we scan. They scan it on this end that this material is going to this location," said Shilling. "And then when it gets there, we can scan that it arrived at the location as well, so we know how much is there."

The site will be used until the sand runs out, then the company will put in a liner and turn the pit into a pond filled with reclaimed water that will be sold for irrigation.

The pit in Apopka has been used since February and will likely stay in production unitl the end of the year before the crew moves on to the next location. 

 

 

 


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