THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 13, 1995 TAG: 9510130663
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
No one can accuse Mike Agnew of being stuck in his ways, even if he does work with concrete.
The thirtysomething concrete subcontractor, founder and president of AGM Development Corp. of Virginia Beach, watched proudly Thursday as his firm orchestrated what was said to be the biggest single continuous concrete pour in the entire country.
What is that, you ask?
AGM, working with Capital Concrete Inc. of Norfolk, poured concrete consecutively for 12 long hours. Crews poured 1,100 yards of concrete. It formed a 70,000-square-foot floor for what will be part of a factory operated by General Foam Plastics Corp. of Virginia Beach.
The big, gray slab looked like an open-air ice rink. Under Thursday's sunny skies, pierced by the glint of F-14s flying from nearby Oceana Naval Air Station, the allusion of ice rinks and aircraft seemed like an appropriate backdrop. Anyone can see that technology is changing the face of entire industries like construction.
What made the huge pour all the more remarkable was the use of a machine that works like a Zamboni, the vehicle that skating rinks use to smooth the ice.
Double trowels, single-rider bumper car contraptions used to flatten bumps, whizzed around in short, jerky movements. The laser screed, the Zamboni-like machine with a retractable arm, smoothed gray lumps into a flat concrete surface.
Thursday's pour would have taken AGM two weeks with a straight edge had it not had the laser screed. AGM invested $200,000 in the machine, which enables concrete companies to set a grade to maintain the same elevation for the concrete being poured. Of the 150 or so laser screeds in the nation, AGM is the only Virginia company to own one.
``It's the only way you move forward in any business,'' Agnew said about the use of technology.
After leaving school, Agnew worked at Century Concrete, where he learned the trade for six years. He ventured out on his own in 1987, forming AGM - Agnew's initials backwards - with four people.
Since then, the company has grown to about 250 employees. Revenues rose from $2 million to $18 million in four years, he said.
Right now, AGM is riding the construction boom. It's doing commercial and industrial work in North Carolina, Hampton Roads and Richmond.
Agnew, sporting the customary construction site hardhat and goggles, believes in making technology work for you. To lower costs. To work more efficiently.
In addition to buying the laser screed, he outfits his general superintendents' trucks with faxes and cellular phones. If they're not in the field, they're not doing their jobs, he says. Hand-held radios are also standard for the superintendents. ``I'd just as soon never have them come into the office,'' Agnew said.
AGM also owns a satellite dish that picks up weather updates every five minutes.
``Technology takes a lot of money but in the end it saves you a lot of money,'' Agnew said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by BILL TIERNAN\ The Virginian-Pilot
Workers for AGM Development Corp. smooth the newly poured
70,000-square-foot floor Thursday for what will be part of a factory
operated by General Foam Plastics Corp. of Virginia Beach.
A laser screed, one of about 150 in the country, is used to level
the concrete.
by CNB