Clean Above, Clean Below

National Precast Concrete Assn.

For restaurants, there is nothing more important than giving customers a good experience. The experience is made up of many components, such as food quality, service and ambiance. One of restaurant operators’ top priorities is good sanitation, which is more than wiping down the counters, scrubbing dishes, properly storing food or cleaning the kitchen—it is also about controlling the quality of water leaving the restaurant.

Solution

In Durham, N.C., the owner of a new Japanese restaurant was promised its water would not be an issue with a trusted and approved system. Fortiline Waterworks hired Lindsay Precast in Franklinton, N.C., to manufacture two 10-ft-by-20-ft sand filter precast concrete structures to capture and clean runoff from the parking lot. The unit, installed underneath the establishment’s parking lot, runs the water through a sand filter to absorb pollutants and prevent large debris from entering local streams and rivers. According to Lindsay Precast Sales Manager Henry Faison, the structure was specified precast concrete from the onset after the product consistently met municipal requirements and gained approval from engineers in the area.

“Precast was selected for its structural integrity and performance on numerous other projects,” Faison said. “The unit is used rather than a detention pond and saves space that the pond would likely occupy.”

The structures are comprised of two sections and two cast-in baffles. The cast-in baffles have weir openings that required additional quality control to maintain consistent placement. Since the baffles were manufactured at Lindsay Precast, Red Hawk Contracting quickly installed the unit within the client’s requested 60-day timeframe.

Result

Standard tooling was used to ensure watertight joints. Due to the extra watertight requirements, quality control carefully checked that pre-pour and post-pour procedures and strength requirements consistently met high quality standards at every stage of the project.

“The client was very pleased with the estimated time of arrival, cast-in baffles that eliminated a great deal of labor on their part and the fast delivery and installation of the unit,” Faison said.

Now the Japanese restaurant can take the needed steps to ensure good sanitation practices are enforced inside while the precast concrete system takes care of the water outside.