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Speed Fab-Crete Owners with one of the company's new anti-polluting Mack tractor rigs. Left to right, Jim Barton, David Bloxom, Jeff Spedding, Carl Hall, and Ron Hamm.
Speed Fab-Crete Celebrates 12 Years-Plus Under Current Ownership
Speed Fab-Crete Design-Build General Contractors celebrated a 12-year anniversary in 2010 under ownership consisting of five equal "hands on" partners.
Speed Fab-Crete is considered a purist among America's general contractors who specialize in using the design-build contract method for construction. The company has specialized in design-build since 1951. Currently, Speed Fab-Crete has the most number of officially "Designated Design-Build Professionals" in the southwest, awarded by the Design-Build Institute of America.
Design-build has become an increasingly popular contractual method by which architectural, engineering and construction services are performed under a single contract with the building's owner.
Since 1989, Callahan & Freeman Architects, led by Frank Callahan and Charles Freeman, have been the design member of Speed Fab-Crete's team. Together, these firms have accomplished a variety of design-build applications, ensuring that owners get in their buildings on time and in budget.
An employee management group, led by David Bloxom, purchased Speed Fab-Crete in 1998. While Bloxom is President of the firm, the other principals and department vice-presidents are Jim Barton, purchasing, Carl Hall, plant, Ron Hamm, sales director, and Jeff Spedding, operations. At the time of purchase of the firm, each of these individuals had been a supervisor of his department for years.
Collectively, the owners now have more than 150 years of management experience promoting and producing various facilities with the Speed Fab-Crete precast concrete wall building system. The firm also is celebrating almost 60 years as a construction industry leader, based in Fort Worth, and the Speed Fab-Crete plant is considered the oldest, continually operating precast concrete manufacturer in the Southwest.
The firm's 10th anniversary in 2008 also marked Speed Fab-Crete's receiving a major grant to replace five aging diesel vehicles under the Texas Emissions Reduction Program (TERP).
The $388,000 grant, by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, allowed Speed Fab-Crete to acquire four 2008 Mack semi-tractor trucks and a John Deere front wheel loader.
By upgrading to newer, less polluting vehicles, Chief Fleet Mechanic Bud DeRago noted that the state agency said Speed Fab-Crete will prevent 47.4 tons of nitrogen oxides from polluting North Texas skies. The trucks will be used to deliver trailers with precast concrete walls to form a building's exterior. The loader will help to mix raw materials in the company's batch plant for pouring of the wall panels.
Speed Fab-Crete is a Green Advantage LEED Certified Builder with the U.S. Green Building Council. This "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" accreditation allows the company to offer environmentally responsible design and construction to meet and exceed "Green" expectations. Also, Speed Fab-Crete's management and project supervisors include individuals who are Green Advantage Certified Builders or Job Superintendents.
The firm promotes a whole-building approach by offering environmentally friendly facilities in these areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, durable building materials and air quality control. Also, the Speed Fab-Crete concrete wall building system is considered a sustainable product because the components include recyclable materials.
Speed Fab-Crete began in 1951 as the Dave Bloxom Construction Company. It evolved into Speed Fab-Crete, which built its first building in Fort Worth in 1962.
The firm moved to Kennedale, a suburb of Fort Worth, in 1978 and is now one of the city's largest businesses and industrial taxpayers. Presently, the company has a work force of more than 100 team members.
Industry and community affiliations include:
- American Concrete Institute
- Associated General Contractors, TEXO Chapter, DFW
- Design-Build Institute of America
- (Speed Fab-Crete's President, David Bloxom, is a past, two-year term
President of DBIA's Southwest Chapter)
- Architectural Precast Association
- National Precast Concrete Association
- U.S. Green Building Council
- Construction Research Center, University of Texas at Arlington
- Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce
