A commercial paving contractor in metro St. Louis, Byrne & Jones Construction Inc., is expanding to offer soil stabilization, asphalt recycling and reclamation services to its clients.

Byrne & Jones Construction of St. Louis has launched Midwest Stabilization and is covering markets in St. Louis, outstate Missouri and Illinois.

div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB"

The firm has launched Midwest Stabilization to fill a void in the improvement of poor sub soil conditions to support buildings and roads.

The new unit, which is targeting markets in St. Louis, outstate Missouri and Illinois, is led by Managing Director Mike Kappel. Kappel worked for Byrne and Jones from 2002-2007, leaving as head of its Illinois Division.

He re-joined the company in January.

Midwest Stabilization opened with five people on staff – a number it is planning to double in the next 12 months.

“The economic downtown forced many companies to put off necessary improvements to their properties,” says Kappel.

“As they emerge from the recession, they are not only looking for cost effective ways to improve their properties, but ways that allow them to be good stewards of the environment.

“Asphalt recycling and reclamation offers both.”

Asphalt recycling and reclamation includes asphalt pulverization, where the existing pavement is ground up and recycled as a new base for a parking lot, tennis court or road.

Kappel says the firm’s soil stabilization services have already taken off, largely due to the sometimes challenging soil conditions found in the St. Louis area.

This process involves modifying the physical and chemical make up of soil to improve its ability to support a built environment.

Chemical additives such as lime, fly-ash and cement, and by products such as lime-kiln dust and cement-kiln dust are used to improve the soil’s load bearing capacity and control the contraction or expansion of a sub-grade.

To date, Midwest Stabilization’s clients have included School of the Osage in Lake Ozark, Mo.; the City of Overland, Mo.; Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Ill.; Lutheran South High School; the Lindbergh School District; the Warrenton School District; Westminster Christian Academy; and Kohlsand St. Luke’s Hospital.