ICPI Interlock Design Issue 1 2019

2 David R. Smith interlockutor We’ve Only Just Begun  Continues on page 3 W ith due respect to the title of Karen Carpenter’s 1970 classic song, the segmental concrete paver industry is still nascent in 2019. The song’s timing coincides with the first concrete paver project in North America, about one million sf installed on Roosevelt Island, a two-mile long rock situated in the East River next to Manhattan. The project used concrete pavers in a street designed for mostly pedestrian use and electric buses. The z-paver was used, manufactured in New Jersey by a German entrepreneur named Josef Peitz. His effort didn’t result in a permanent concrete paver plant there. The paver production machine was sold after the pavers were shipped to New York City. In the meantime, the first permanent concrete paver plants were emerging in Ontario, Canada. From 1973 to 1990, the U.S. and Canadian paver industry grew to a few dozen manufacturers selling landmark municipal, commercial, industrial and port projects. Their documentation was mostly missed by this magazine because its inaugural issue was February 1994. Some compensation is presented via a partial list of projects built during those twenty-plus years. A project on Roosevelt Island in New York City used concrete pavers in a street designed for mostly pedestrian use and electric buses. Street Z-pavers on Roosevelt Island, New York in 1969