St. Petersburg, FL – CSDA is pleased to announce the opening of its new and improved concrete training structure, ready for the association’s latest series of advanced certification courses.Located on St. Petersburg College’s (SPC) Clearwater campus in Florida, the new 50-foot-long, 37-foot-wide CSDA concrete training structure features a series of horizontal and vertical surfaces, 2-foot-diameter cylindrical columns and a concrete masonry unit block wall. The structure contains a high volume of steel rebar and hidden objects, included to test the skills of experienced sawing and drilling operators and trained ground penetrating radar technicians.
The next set of CSDA training courses at SPC Clearwater is scheduled for October 31 to November 5, 2016, when contractors from across the U.S. and beyond will send their best and most experienced employees to become CSDA Certified Operators in the disciplines of concrete slab sawing, core drilling, wall sawing and wire sawing.
“In 2001, CSDA entered into a training partnership with SPC’s Corporate Training program and the first training structure was erected on the school’s campus. The following year, we held our first set of CSDA Operator Certification courses in Clearwater. The whole setup was a great success for the association,” said Patrick O’Brien, CSDA Executive Director. “However, after almost 15 years of performing advanced training exercises on the structure, there wasn’t much of it left! Therefore, it was time for a new and improved structure.”
As the original concrete structure also contained large amounts of rebar, the demolition phase required advanced planning. The November 2015 class of CSDA Certified Operators had the opportunity to saw and core drill away a good portion of the structure before all remaining concrete was broken down by the association’s inaugural Robotic Demolition course in January 2016. Now, with all the work completed, the new structure is ready for use.
Since its inception in 1993, CSDA Training Programs have grown to over 30 hands-on, classroom and online courses. To date, over 5,000 industry professionals have graduated from one or more of the association’s courses.
For more information or photos of the CSDA training structure, Operator Certification courses or the association’s Training Program, call 727-577-5004 or email info@csda.org.
The Concrete Sawing & Drilling Association is a nonprofit trade association of contractors, manufacturers and affiliated members from the construction and renovation industry. Diamond tools for projects requiring sawing, drilling, selective demolition, cutting and polishing offers the construction industry many benefits including lower total project costs, precision cutting, maintenance of structural integrity, reduced downtime, reduced noise, dust and debris, limited access cutting and the ability to cut heavily-reinforced concrete. Founded in 1972, CSDA has 500 member companies worldwide.