It’s another early morning gearing up for the day’s job for M.R. Tanner Construction’s pavement maintenance crew. After prepping the jobsite, marking their lines, calibrating the grade control system, and heating the screed, the first trucks begin to roll onto the jobsite even before the sun comes up. With efficiency, precision, and care, the crew sets to work laying 325 tons of material for a full parking lot replacement, giving the Southwestern Eye Care Center in Mesa, Arizona, a new look.
Nearly every day, thanks to the year-round paving in the hot desert climate of Phoenix, the pavement maintenance crew of M.R. Tanner sets to work repairing, replacing, or repaving parking lots, HOA’s (homeowner’s associations), and developments across the region. Known for their exceptional attention to detail and top-quality results, the company continues to be one of the area’s most respected municipality and development paving contractors.
PROVIDING GREATER SERVICE
For M.R. Tanner, the pavement maintenance side of the company is relatively new. Founded 23 years ago with a focus on milling and overlays for municipalities, as well as fine grading and paving for the metro area’s fast-growing home developments, the company has only recently expanded into pavement maintenance.
“Over time we saw the opportunity for the need to expand to provide an even greater service for our existing clients and to gain a whole new set of cliental with HOA’s and commercial developers,” explains Eric Marsh, division manager for M.R. Tanner. This opportunity manifested itself in the vast amount of established developments, HOA’s, and commercial properties in need of pavement maintenance or replacement in the Greater Phoenix area.
Drawing on their wealth of experience and the high-quality results that have become synonymous with M.R. Tanner, the company has expanded substantially and grown to meet the ever-increasing demand for their services. “Within the past 4 years,” Marsh continues, ”we have grown the pavement maintenance division, expanding to provide sealcoating, crack sealing, striping, and complete reconstruction of parking lots and private HOA’s.”
FITTING A CRUCIAL NEED
M.R. Tanner’s parking lot replacement at the Mesa eye care center is just one of the many maintenance jobs that the company has taken on in recent years. To meet the consistently growing demand of customers for the high-quality projects M.R. Tanner is known for, the company saw the need for a commercial paver platform. For that they looked to the name they had known for years: Carlson.
“We’ve run Carlson highway-class screeds and have had great success with them,” notes Marsh. Knowing the quality, reliability, and performance of the Carlson front-mount screeds used on their larger tractors, M.R. Tanner saw the potential in having such a platform in a commercial class machine for their pavement maintenance crew.
Delivered in January 2016, M.R. Tanner quickly set their newest platform to work. “The first day we used [the CP100] we placed 1,200 tons with the machine—no problem,” shares Marsh. This, considering the average job completed by M.R. Tanner is around 1,000 tons of asphalt.
Not only delivering impressive performance and mat quality, the CP100 has also helped M.R. Tanner meet the challenges of commercial jobsites in the Greater Phoenix region. Like many parking lots and developments in the area, the Mesa eye care center parking lot consists of many tight spaces, islands, wide open areas and, most challengingly, covered parking to shield cars from the intense desert sun. With a larger paver, substantial hand work would be required to complete the job. But with the CP100, “the machine is perfect for low clearance jobs and helps in tighter areas” while still being able to easily pave at 15 feet on the longer straight pulls.
VERSATILITY TO MEET DEMAND
While the size, efficiency, and mat quality from the CP100 excels on pavement maintenance sites for the company, M.R. Tanner has also found their new platform to be versatile to meet the changing demands of municipalities and new developments. The region continues to see an influx of new residents year after year, leading to a continued boom in housing developments.
“The CP100 allows us to fit with the times as many new home developers are shifting out towards motor-court style subdivisions, which becomes challenging with our large fleet,” states Marsh. While developments tended to be more open and wider, enabling easy paving for the company’s highway-class pavers, the compact designs of the newer developments have led M.R. Tanner to use the more compact CP100 for new pavement applications and overlays.
With the addition of a Topcon grade control system, the CP100 has also found use in the tighter jobsites in the hills surrounding Paradise Valley, north of Scottsdale. Able to meet the specifications required by the developers and municipalities, M.R. Tanner sees increased opportunity to serve a wider range of cliental in the Greater Phoenix region with the CP100’s compact size and high output.
Back on the jobsite, the work is nearly finished with the last truck arriving on the site. In less than half a day, the crew has transformed the look of the Mesa Eye Care Center with a new parking lot. It is through team work, experience, and the right equipment that M.R. Tanner is able to be one of the top contractors in the region, providing exceptional service to their customers on a wide array of jobsites. ■
For More Information:  For more information about Carlson Paving, visit www.carlsonpavingproducts.com.
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Modern Contractor Solutions – May 2016
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