Smith-Midland Receives Prestigious Award for Beach Prisms
March 9, 2007 | Beach Prisms
MIDLAND, Va. – Officials at Smith-Midland Corporation recently received a prestigious award for a new product designed to reduce or reverse the effects of shoreline erosion.
The company’s submission, for its Beach Prisms , garnered a judges’ award in the National Precast Concrete Association’s Creative Use of Precast (CUP) awards program.
The CUP awards program is an annual competition for NPCA Members, recognizing projects promoting innovative and cost-saving advantages of precast concrete over competing materials. This year’s winners were announced at the Salute to Excellence Awards Dinner during the Manufactured Concrete Products Expo, MCPX, and Annual Convention on Feb. 24 in Orlando, Fla.
“Our experience has proven that Beach Prisms either slow the rate of shore erosion, stop erosion or reverse erosion by replenishing sand in front of and behind the Prisms,” says Ashley Smith, Smith-Midland’s vice president for sales and marketing.
Beach Prisms are permeable, precast concrete products that work by reducing the amount of energy in incoming waves before the waves reach the shoreline. Waves pass through the specially designed slots in the triangular 3- or 4- foot tall, 10-foot long Beach Prisms. An engineering study by Lane Engineering Inc., of Centreville, Md., was conducted at the Terrapin Nature Area on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, located about one-half mile north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Queen Anne’s County. Approximately 7,465 tons of sand were replenished along the shoreline as a result of the Beach Prisms installation there, according to the study.
Beach Prisms are for river- and bay-front property owners who want an alternative to traditional armor stone, or groins and jetties. They are jointly permitted by state and federal agencies, including the Department of Natural Resources and the Army Corps of Engineers. After 18 years of product testing at more than 20 sites on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers, Smith-Midland began offering Beach Prisms for sale and installation during the summer of 2006.
Smith-Midland Corporation is a publicly traded company (OTC BB: SMID, SMIWC; Boston Stock Exchange: SMM, SMM/W). Smith-Midland develops, manufactures and sells a broad array of precast concrete products for use primarily in the construction, transportation and utilities Industries. Smith-Midland has two manufacturing facilities located in Midland, Va., Reidsville, N.C. Easi-Set Industries, a wholly owned subsidiary of Smith-Midland Corporation, licenses the production of Smith-Midland developed products around the world. For more information please call (540) 439-3266 or visit www.BeachPrisms.com.