Pictured here in 1912 are two steam powered dry batch concrete pavers at work in the Town of Oakville, Ontario.
The department of highways had initiated several road improvement projects to deal with increasing vehicular traffic including this section of Highway 2 from Toronto to Hamilton.
Aggregate, along with cement were added to the mixer skip manually prior to the introduction of dedicated batch trucks. Earlier version mixers were equipped with chutes to deliver the mixed concrete while these units have the boom and bucket setup.
In succeeding decades improvements included crawler tracks, gas and diesel power units along with improved mixing drum designs.
The dry batch concrete paver had a 50-year run through to the early 1960s with innovations from several manufacturers, including Koehring, Blaw Knox and Rex Manufacturing to name a few. By then, concrete batch plants, mixer trucks and slip form pavers had supplanted the dry batch paver.
HCEA Canada recently acquired a Construction Machinery Company (CMC) towable mixer from the 1950s. The parent company based in Waterloo, Iowa also had a Waterloo, Ontario sales and service location that’s still going strong. Our volunteers are preparing the unit for events in 2020.
To see more than 60 restored pieces of vintage construction equipment in action, be sure to attend Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA) Canada’s two events coming up. Our two-day show, Wheels & Tracks in Motion takes place June 13 to 14, along with the October event, ‘Last Blast’ on October 17. Both events are held at the Simcoe County Museum near Barrie, Ontario.
HCEA Canada is a Proud Community Heritage Partner of the Simcoe County Museum.
