Coast-to-Coast Capability Emerges as SmartUP UHPC Expands West

SmartUP UHPC is placed into narrow closure joints on the Red Rock Trail pedestrian bridge in Clark County, Nevada — the first Western U.S. deployment supplied from a domestic West Coast blending operation and the first SmartUp UHPC to be executed using a conventional ready-mix concrete truck.

Project Summary

Location: Clark County, Nevada
Owner: U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Central Federal Lands Highway Division
Contractor: Western Pacific Precast
UHPC Supplier & Technical Support: Smart-Up UHPC
On-Site Leads: Hannah Tzabari, Robert Taylor, PE, MBA
Bridge Type: Two-span 205-foot long and 18-foot-wide pedestrian bridge across the Red Rock Wash, parallel to the existing SR-159 bridge
Closure Pour: January 2026

The pedestrian bridge now spanning Red Rock Wash in Nevada does more than connect neighborhoods to a conservation area. It reflects a national shift in how Ultra High Performance Concrete is blended, transported and deployed in the United States.

The Red Rock Trail pedestrian bridge marks the first SmartUP UHPC placement in the Western United States supplied from a domestic West Coast blending operation. It is also the first SmartUP project executed using a conventional ready-mix concrete truck rather than a mobile high-shear mixer.

The result is visible in the narrow closure joints tying precast girders together — seams filled with a material designed to create structural continuity across spans.

Project Scope

The bridge is part of the NV FLAP 500(1) Red Rock Trail Project 2024, which includes construction of a two-span, 205-foot-long pedestrian bridge parallel to SR-159, along with trail and roadway safety improvements.

Within that scope, UHPC serves a precise structural purpose: closure pours connecting precast box girders and forming the transverse link slab over the center pier.

Hannah Tzabari describes the sequencing.

“This bridge is broken up into three different sections, three different pours,” she says. “Day one is the first span of girders where we’re doing longitudinal joints between each of the box girders. Day two we do the same thing on span two. And then day three is the transverse link slab connecting the two girders in the center pier.”

Approximately nine cubic yards of UHPC are placed across those three days. The longitudinal joints measure only about three inches wide — “a pretty narrow opening for us to aim for,” she notes — requiring the material to flow cleanly into tight geometry while maintaining structural continuity.

From Imported Supply to Domestic Production

The Nevada placement represents the latest stage in SmartUP’s U.S. supply evolution.

Early closure pours in Texas relied on imported material from France. Two subsequent bridge projects in Georgia used U.S. blended material produced at Ragland, Alabama and bagged in Villa Rica, Georgia.

Now, the blending and bagging capability has expanded to Lebec, California, enabling West Coast supply. “We have blending operations in both Georgia and California,” Tzabari says. “Being that we’re in Las Vegas right now, we blend and ship out of our California location.”

The supply chain has matured from international import to bi-coastal domestic production.

Manufacturing a High-Performance Composite

Ultra High Performance Concrete is not a simple material made up of cement, water, admixtures and aggregate. It is a controlled blend of Portland cement, engineered dry powders, admixtures and high-strength steel fibers. Each component contributes to strength, flow and durability.

The precision of proportioning and moisture control is essential. The interaction between powders, admixtures and fibers produces the compressive strength and crack control that define UHPC performance.

A Shift in Mixing Strategy

Historically, SmartUP closure pours use mobile high-shear mixers. The Nevada project introduces a different approach.

“We’re using a ready-mix truck on this project,” Tzabari says. The decision, she explains, is logistical. “We’re a little far away from our home base of Alabama, and transporting our specialty mixers can be quite expensive at that distance. Ready-mix trucks are much more widely available.”

She acknowledges the mechanical difference. “The ready-mix truck has a little bit lower mixing energy behind it, so it takes a little bit longer for the mix to consolidate and reach that fluid state that we’re looking for,” she says.

“The product coming out of a high-shear mixer versus a ready-mix truck is no different,” she notes. “The mixer type is really up to what’s going on on the project site.”

This marks the first SmartUP project to validate ready-mix deployment for closure pours.

Batching at the Precast Yard

Rather than batch at the bridge site, production occurs at Western Pacific Precast’s yard approximately 30 minutes away.

“We batch and mix this product at Western Pacific Precast’s yard… they have more control over the equipment and the water metering there,” Tzabari says.

Plant Manager Ango Li says the yard provides operational advantages.

“If you’re a precaster like us, you have your equipment, tools, manpower — everything you need at the yard,” he says. “At the job site, it’s a lot more logistically difficult.”

Retention time proves reliable. “The UHPC retention time is excellent,” Li notes. “The flow between the yard and the job site is similar.”

Quality control confirms that stability, with consistent flow and temperature measurements at both the yard and the bridge site.

Field Precision and Lessons Learned

UHPC’s near-fluid behavior requires disciplined formwork preparation.

“If there are cracks or gaps in the formwork, it will find them,” Tzabari says. Early placement exposes a vulnerability when backer rod sealing fails under hydrostatic pressure.

The corrective measure is straightforward: replacement backer rod combined with construction-grade sealant to create a watertight barrier. “From then on out, it’s smooth sailing,” she says.

The pedestrian bridge now stands in service, linking precast elements into a unified structural system while improving access and safety along the Red Rock corridor.

Its closure joints, filled with domestically blended UHPC and produced using a ready-mix deployment model, represent more than a construction milestone.

They confirm that SmartUP UHPC has moved from imported specialty material to nationally blended, regionally supplied infrastructure technology.

The Red Rock bridge demonstrates that transition in concrete terms.