May 2013
| Business World Magazine | 189
been critical to Farrar’s strategy for growth.
And that’s not merely paid off for the com-
pany, but their customers as well. The ben-
efits posed through working with Farrar has
been particularly evident in projects that
have included San Francico’s Bay Bridge as
well as the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman
Memorial Bridge, a 1,900 foot bridge span-
ning Hoover Dam (not to mention a 900
foot chasm) making it the seventh highest
bridge in the world. In these projects, post
tensioning systems were used to hold steel
cable within the concrete to keep the struc-
ture compressed. This necessitated the use of
up to 80-pound anchor heads and 40-pound
bearing plates, each with a diameter of 15
inches. The anchor heads and bearing plates
had to be cast in 80-55-06 ductile iron or
Grade 3 ADI, whose properties make it as
strong, or significantly stronger, than com-
parable steel while being easier to manufac-
ture. In this instance, Farrar was not only a
vendor of choice due to its ability to produce
the components, but its ability to produce
the material to the desired elevated specifi-
cations, all tested for soundness and certi-
fied through rigid quality assurance systems.
Also, by being able to machine the castings
