It is no surprise that Theme Parks are an integral part of Edwards Concrete Bomanite portfolio since they are headquartered in Orlando, Florida. However, there is so much more to the story than that. David Edwards started his career as a teenager in 1972 at Buena Vista Construction Co., the in-house construction company at Walt Disney World in Florida. “I ended up on a concrete crew right off the bat,” he says. During his 10 years there, he was able to hone his craft and rise to the position of foreman because, he continues, “Disney poured a lot of colored concrete.”
He started his own business and poured “big floors”, as he called them, with thousands of square feet per job of gray concrete. Bomanite contacted him in 1989. He steered his company towards decorative concrete and opened broad new horizons.
“When we got on board with Bomanite, we had a tool source and resources we’d never had in the past. We had a brand at that point. Prior to that we were just a little company trying to peddle decorative concrete with not a great deal to show.
“Back in the ‘80s when I started doing it, it was very basic. We had to learn from the seat of our pants. It was trial and error, with a lot of scrapped jobs.
“Nowadays, if you and I didn’t know something, we would be overwhelmed with information. Back then very few knew about it, and they weren’t going to share it.
“With Bomanite, they were there to provide technical support and endless resources. And they are always coming up with new lines of products. Now I’m one of the old guys at Bomanite, but they have been very good for me.”
A showcase project is the Caribbean Beach Resort at Lake Buena Vista, a Walt Disney World property. This resort was made to replicate an Old Spanish Fort that existed in the Caribbean Islands during the early 1800’s. It required a complete demolition and reconstruction. 807 cubic yards of concrete, 34 tons of rebar, over 5,000 board feet of lumber, and 6,410 person-hours later, it won The Eagle Award, 2009 with Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Central Florida Chapter.
They tout another fun project because they brought it in on time for the roller-coaster ride Manta in Sea World’s Orlando Theme Park to open on schedule, and Sea World was very happy with the results. This one consisted of an impressive 1,522 cubic yards of concrete, 12,000 board feet of lumber, and 5,565 person hours.
Helping make Theme Park visitors happy by creating spectacular concrete just seems to be part of the fun at Edwards Concrete Bomanite.
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