Roanoke Valley - Tinker Creek Transfer Station

Residents and businesses in the City of Roanoke, County of Roanoke and the Town of Vinton generate 700 tons of waste every day. These valley localities have created the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority (RVRA) and joined forces with Norfolk Southern in an innovative public-private partnership to manage their trash. The Tinker Creek Transfer Station was designed by citizens and planners to resemble a Norfolk Southern shop or office building – adding beauty to the neighborhood.

At the transfer station, waste is loaded into specially-designed rail cars and covered with watertight lock-down lids. Each rail car holds 65 tons of waste, making them among the largest on the railroad. At the end of the day, all waste that has been collected and loaded into the 10 to 12 rail cars are transported 33 miles on the Waste Line Express by Norfolk Southern to the landfill.

The state-of-the-art facility lacked only one thing – a flooring system that could withstand the abrasion and chemical attack inherent to transfer stations. Because of their excellent reputation, Delta Pacific Builders (DPB) was contacted by RVRA to assess their facility and provide a long-tem, cost-effective solution. A major concern for the owner was the desire to avoid costly downtime, so RVRA and DPB factored shut-down costs into the overall flooring repair costs. After analyzing shutdown costs, the volume of material the facility processed in a 24-hour period, as well as other factors leading to deterioration (i.e., impact, abrasion, chemicals, etc.), the owner and Delta Pacific realized that a one-time installation of an iron topping would significantly strengthen the concrete floor. In addition, the short cure time and no installation downtime would increase overall profitability.

Since Tinker Creek operates six days a week, Delta Pacific Builders was scheduled to complete the job in 24 hours. On Sunday morning, a 15-member crew arrived to repair and install the iron floor topping. Operations resumed Monday morning, as scheduled.