In 2016, Capital Ready Mix Concrete sought to expand their operations by converting an existing chicken processing plant into a concrete plant. WithersRavenel provided the environmental due diligence, permitting, and stormwater management services necessary to convert the Brownfield site into an efficient and environmentally conscious ready mix concrete facility.
WithersRavenel environmental staff performed a Brownfields assessment of the site to thoroughly investigate the potential presence of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants left behind by the chicken processing operations. Once the Brownfield assessment was completed, WithersRavenel provided a grading plan to prepare the site for construction. The grading plan used a cut-and-fill approach, which relies on moving dirt from one part of the site to another rather than trucking in fresh dirt from another source. Cut-and-fill is more economical from both labor and materials standpoints, and it was possible due to the lack of contamination at the site.
The site plan involved the evaluation of multiple existing buildings for use or reuse. One building was unsalvageable and was therefore demolished, but another building was rehabilitated. Existing water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure was also reused where feasible. WithersRavenel is actively designing a site plan for the area of the demolished building to provide parking and access for a facility that Capital plans to lease to others.
Because of the substantial changes to the grading and vertical structures, WithersRavenel rewrote the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan for the site. A new dry detention pond was added to the property to supplement the existing stormwater infrastructure and improve runoff quantity and quality.
The new ready mix concrete facility will include a concrete truck washout pit with a special treatment and disposal process for used water. The treatment process uses a settling pit to remove solid particles from the wash water and a pH monitoring system to regulate water released into sensitive wetland areas.
In addition to the washout pit, WithersRavenel designed site ingress and egress, reconfigured the existing parking, and converted an irregularly shaped area of the property into overflow parking. The overflow parking was a balance between Capital’s desire for no unused space and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers riparian buffer, which regulates the usage and stormwater treatment next to wetland areas.
WithersRavenel obtained approval for all of these developments from the Town of Pittsboro and Chatham County. The plant became an active concrete facility in 2019.