By Mark Rea

From humble roots as a small Ohio cement business, Baker Concrete Construction Inc. has grown over the last 35 years into one of the nation's leading concrete construction firms, specializing in almost every facet of the concrete industry.

As a result, Baker Concrete Construction finished atop the Texas Construction list of concrete contractors with reported 2002 Texas revenue of $115 million. That total also ranked the privately owned company fifth overall on the magazine's Top 125 Specialty Contractors.

Founded in 1968 in Oxford, Ohio, Daniel L. Baker started his own business with his two brothers as Baker Cement. The Bakers' grandfather, Elmer, had been a cement and stone mason for 60 years.

The company started handling placement and finish work in the local residential market. Residential work was later expanded to include light commercial and light industrial projects, super-flat industrial floors, concrete paving and site concrete.

Today, total concrete packages, including large superstructures, parking garages and heavy industrial projects have become the backbone of the company.

Baker Concrete Construction entered the Texas market in 1981 and quickly established itself as one of the leaders in the concrete industry. From its headquarters in Houston, the company has spent the last 22 years building its reputation as one that can handle projects of any size.

Two recent high-profile projects in the Houston area called upon Baker Concrete Construction's expertise.

The company performed concrete formwork, placement and finishing at Reliant Stadium, the $425 million retractable-roof sports facility that is the new home of the NFL's Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.

Baker Concrete Construction placed the concrete for the stadium's four supercolumns, which rise outside the seating bowl and support the retractable roof.
The supercolumns each rise 150 ft. into the air and contain approximately 2,000 cu. yds. of concrete.

Situated on the largest of the mat footings, each of which contain approximately 4,200 cu. yds. of concrete, each supercolumn is approximately 13 ft. by 75 ft. at the base with 14-in.-thick walls. Inside the perimeter walls are baffle walls, which help to move the conditioned air to the upper levels of the stadium. Each supercolumn tapers as it rises to a size of approximately 13 ft. by 35 ft. at the top. Placement of the supercolumns consisted of 15 lifts of 10 ft. each.

Baker Concrete Construction was also involved in one of the largest continuous mat pours in Texas when more than 12,000 cu. yds. of concrete was poured in just 17 hours for the foundation of the headquarters of energy giant Calpine Corp.

Although the single mat pour lasted 17 hours, Baker Concrete Construction officials said that 90 percent of it was completed in just 13 hours.

Randy Smaltz, project manager for Baker Concrete, said that because of the cramped location, the pour could employ only six pumps. He added that his company poured the same amount of concrete at Republic Bank (a couple of blocks from the Calpine Center) in just 10 hours, but used twice as many pumps.

Baker Concrete also participated in construction of the new $177 million Hilton Austin/Fifth Street Tower project, one of several new high-rise structures in the downtown area of Texas' capital city and the first in proximity to Austin's newly expanded convention center.

The new hotel and condominium tower contains more than 62,000 cu. yds. of concrete.