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Workers at Wieser Concrete, a pre-cast concrete forms manufacturer in Roxana, set up forms to create another pre-cast job. The company creates reinforced sections of walls, box culverts, sewer sections and more. On Friday they joined other pre-cast manufacturers from across the country celebrating Precast Days 2021.

Wieser Concrete workers wire up reinforcing steel bars which will be used to create a pre-cast arch shape for a bridge construction job.

In their large Roxana buidling, Wieser Concrete sets forms which are used to pour a variety of pre-cast concrete products ranging from culverts and cattle feed bunks to tables and burial vaults.

ROXANA — Ever wonder how they make those huge concrete culverts used in construction projects?

On Friday, Wieser Concrete in Roxana hosted its second annual Precast Day with tours, plant personnel meet-and-greets question-and-answer sessions and a chance for people to apply for jobs. Last year’s event was canceled out of COVID-19 precautions.

The event coincided with the 10th anniversary for the business.

“Precast Days is a unique opportunity for people to meet the men and women who work there, learn what happens inside these facilities that employ their neighbors, and see the process that helps build their area’s infrastructure,” National Precast Concrete Association (NPCA) President Fred Grubbe said. “Precast concrete is a time-tested, durable and resilient component of construction.”

Precast concrete is produced by casting concrete in a reusable mold. The concrete is then cured in a controlled environment, transported to a construction site and strategically placed.

Along with culverts, the company creates median barriers, burial vaults, septic and storage tanks, pedestrian tunnels, utility trenches, wastewater and stormwater products, grain storage facilities, cattle feed bunks, water tanks, retaining walls, storm shelters, tables, car stops and boat ramps.

Wieser Concrete owner Mark Wieser said his father, Joseph, formed the company in 1965 in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin. Before starting the business, his dad was a dairy farmer in Minnesota. He sold his cattle and turned his attention to concrete.

“Dad built a couple of septic tank molds and moved his family of, at the time, four kids 100 miles north,” Mark Wieser said. “After that, he started making precast septic tanks out of his garage.”

Since then, Wieser Concrete has expanded to several facilities across Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Ten years ago it opened its site at 4419 Wagon Wheel Road in Roxana. The facility, managed by Drew Wieser, includes 32,000 square feet of production space on 31 acres and produces the entire line of Wieser Concrete’s precast products.

Dylan Suttles joined The Telegraph in Alton in January 2019. He covers Alton, Godfrey, education, health and new businesses in the Alton area.