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Concrete in La Crosse

Concrete in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Dumpster pads, dock aprons, curb and gutter for commercial properties in La Crosse. Poured at 4,500 PSI with tied rebar, and the asphalt around it tied back in.

4.7 from 21 Google reviews

About two hours southeast of Eau Claire on I-94 and I-90. The estimate is free.

A poured concrete apron running from a parking lot up to a loading dock door on a metal industrial building, with the asphalt tied in along its edge.
4.7 Google ratingFrom 21 reviews
4,500 PSI Exterior mixTied rebar where it carries trucks
3 days Back in serviceOn a dock apron we poured

Working in La Crosse

The concrete on these properties is ambulance bays, dock aprons, curb and gutter, and the walks and ramps at every entrance. A dock apron carries the landing gear of a parked trailer, which is a standing point load, so it gets poured thicker and reinforced for that instead of matched to the walk beside it. Curb ramps and crossings on a hospital or campus lot are ADA work and get built to the federal dimensions. The asphalt around a pour gets keyed back in so the joint doesn't open the first winter.

From our jobs

Job Photos

A fresh asphalt drive lane running up to a loading dock door at an industrial building, new yellow lines beside it
The approach paved up to the dock
A freshly poured concrete walk across the front of a commercial building, coned off, with the bollards set
A storefront walk poured and coned off
Two crew working a curb and gutter pour, radius forms and rebar in place
Curb and gutter: radius forms and rebar, on a Best Buy storefront
A freshly poured concrete walk running past steel bollards at a commercial storefront, coned off
A storefront walk poured around the bollards
A new concrete driveway running to a single garage at a blue house, caution tape across the street end
A driveway replaced, start to finish
A new concrete driveway poured down the side of a house, crossing the public sidewalk, cones at the street end
A driveway poured down the side of the house

All job photos

The joint between concrete and asphalt

Concrete and asphalt move differently. Concrete is rigid and moves at its joints; asphalt is flexible and moves everywhere. Where they meet, that difference has to be absorbed, and if it's not, the joint opens. Once it's open, water goes straight into the base under both of them. This is why so many lots fail first at the dock apron, the dumpster pad and the garage apron. Not because those slabs were bad, but because two different the line where they met was nobody's. We pour the concrete and lay the asphalt against it, so that joint belongs to the job.

What Decides the Price in La Crosse

Flatwork prices per square foot and is easy to quote from measurements. Structural work like curb or a dock apron is quoted per project, because the forming is most of the labor and it doesn't scale with area.

Garage or dock apron

Per project

Measured on site

  • Thicker slab, tied rebar, asphalt tied back in

Dumpster pad

Per pad

Measured on site

  • Heavy slab, because a loaded truck on a hot day is the worst case
  • Sized to the truck, not to the dumpster

Curb and gutter

Per linear foot

Measured on site

  • Straight run at the low end, radius work at the high end

What moves it: thickness, reinforcement, how much has to come out first, access for a truck, and whether the asphalt around it needs tying back in. Removal and haulaway is a real line and gets quoted rather than buried.

How the Work Goes in La Crosse

Base, forms, steel, pour, finish, and the asphalt tied back in against it.

Take out what's there

Broken slab out and hauled away, down to whatever the new pour needs to sit on.

Prepare and compact the base

Graded and compacted. Concrete poured on soft ground cracks on a schedule set by the ground, not by the concrete.

Form and reinforce

Formed to grade so water runs where it should, and reinforced where the span and the loading call for it. Radius forms for curb work.

Pour and finish

Placed, screeded, floated and broom finished. Control joints cut where the slab is going to crack, so that it cracks there instead of somewhere visible.

Tie the asphalt back in

The step most concrete contractors leave to somebody else. Asphalt cut tight to the new edge, compacted, joint sealed.

Questions We Get in La Crosse

What La Crosse calls us about, answered straight.

More questions answered
That's two hours from Eau Claire. Do you actually come this far?
For commercial lots, yes. It's about 87 miles and right around two hours, down I-94 and then I-90. Send the address and what the lot needs and we'll set up a time to walk it. The estimate is free.
We manage several properties around town. Can they be looked at together?
Yes. Send the addresses and what you're seeing at each one, and they get walked and measured together. You get quantities and a number per property rather than a lump, so you can decide which ones go this year and which ones wait.
Do you do curb and gutter?
Yes, including radius work, formed and poured to spec. It is priced by the linear foot, and a curve costs more than a straight run because the forms have to be built to the radius.
Why do dumpster pads fail so often?
Because they're usually sized to the dumpster instead of to the truck. The worst loading a pad ever sees is the front axle of a loaded refuse truck on a hot day, and a slab poured for the container alone isn't built for that.
How long before we can use new concrete?
It depends on the mix, and that is worth asking about rather than assuming. On a standard pour: foot traffic in 24 to 48 hours, vehicles after about seven days, heavy trucks at 28 days for a full-strength cure. Where the schedule will not take seven days, we spec a 4,500 PSI exterior mix instead. One of those is a loading dock apron we poured with tied rebar in a working parking lot: customers were driving on it three days later. Whichever mix your job gets, the window goes in the scope up front so you can plan around it before the pour.
Do you subcontract the concrete out?
The concrete and the asphalt around it are priced and sequenced together, so the joint between them is somebody's responsibility rather than nobody's.

The Lots and Surfaces in La Crosse

La Crosse is the seat of La Crosse County and the biggest city on this end of the road, about 51,000 people on the Mississippi where the bluffs come down to the river. It's roughly 87 miles from Eau Claire, right around two hours, off Exit 3 or Exit 2 on I-90. US 14, 53 and 61 and Highways 16, 33 and 35 all run through, and the regional airport sits on French Island at the north end of the city.

Health care and distribution hold the biggest lots. Gundersen Health System is on South Avenue with 325 beds and a 500,000 square foot critical care building, and Mayo Clinic Health System is on West Avenue South with a new six-level, 96-bed hospital and its center for advanced medicine. Kwik Trip's distribution center on Kwik Trip Way runs more than 360,000 square feet on a campus of about 90 acres, has been expanded five times since 1996, works around the clock and moves 33,000 pallets a day out to more than 566 stores. Trane was founded here in 1913.

The industrial ground is out at the interstate. Airport Industrial Park sits next to La Crosse Regional Airport at Exit 2, 21 filled lots over roughly 95 acres with warehouse and manufacturing users around it, and La Crosse International Business Park is north of I-90 off Highway 16 with five lots left between 1.15 and 3.4 acres. On the institutional side there are two public high schools, Central on Losey Boulevard South and Logan on Ranger Drive, plus UW-La Crosse on 128 acres, Viterbo on about 21, and Western Technical College's main campus on 7th Street North with four more buildings in the city. The city is promoting the River Point District, a mixed-use redevelopment on the waterfront.

Where we work in La Crosse

  • Airport Industrial Park
  • La Crosse International Business Park
  • Kwik Trip Way
  • South Avenue
  • French Island

Around La Crosse: Grandad Bluff, Riverside Park, The La Crosse Center, La Crosse Regional Airport on French Island, The Cathedral of Saint Joseph the Workman.

51,049 people, 2024 Census estimate.

La Crosse is the biggest city sitting entirely inside the Driftless Area. The ice never got here, so there's no glacial drift, the bluffs run up close to 600 feet, bedrock is at or near the surface, and the valley walls are colluvium.

Get a Free Estimate in La Crosse

Tell us what it looks like and we'll come measure it. You get a written price before anything starts.

(715) 450-9897
  • Free on commercial lots and properties in La Crosse
  • A photo of the problem helps, and it can go in the message
  • Surfaces that are not ready yet get told so at the estimate

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