Robert Barkley
Construction & Materials Consultant
Robert Barkley is a Construction & Materials Consultant and has been a member of the SSI team since September 2022. Robert has over 41 years of experience in construction materials testing, observation, troubleshooting, and quality oversight. He has maintained significant affiliation with local industry associations, including ACI local Board Membership, Supplementary Examiner and Coordinator of ACI Field and Laboratory Certification programs in Houston and Phoenix, and the Arizona Rock Products Association (Technical Advisory Committee).
Prior to joining SSI, Robert started his career as a lab/field technician in Houston, Texas serving in technical roles for concrete and soils, as well as performing inspections for reinforcement, post-tensioning, precast, and non-destructive concrete testing. During this time, Robert worked with a wide range of projects, from house slabs to airport paving, and high-density concrete shielding applications to lightweight roofing systems and spent a significant amount of time training and developing in-house QC programs.
After more than a decade spent in the Construction Materials Engineering (CME) sector, Robert migrated to the ready mix concrete (RMC) production sector. Robert was responsible for the quality production of up to 500k cubic yards of annual RMC production. In the late 90’s, Robert successfully introduced Slag Cement into the Houston market, and implemented the use of calorimetry and the heat signature of concrete for modeling heat evolution in structures and to troubleshoot mix performance. Robert was responsible for proportioning mixtures with strength ranges from 50 PSI Flowable Fills to 10,000 PSI structural concrete.
Moving to the Southwestern US, Robert replicated his previous successes, being highly sought after as the premier supplier for challenging high-performance, architectural, and critical RMC applications. Robert was responsible for the quality oversight of up 1.3 million cubic yards of annual production. Robert also offered his technical expertise to sister divisions in California and Nevada.
Responsible for 7 portable batch plants, Robert assisted in troubleshooting equipment, manpower, logistic, and materials challenges over a large geographical area. The coverage area included the eastern seaboard (from Florida to Pennsylvania) and as far west as Missouri. With up to 250k CY of annual on-site RMC production, his group successfully met the challenges of wide-ranging material types, managing the very fine sands of Florida as well successfully implementing a 100% manufactured sands SOG mixture in Southern PA.
Robert has also worked as a Technical Sales Representative for fibers and concrete admixtures, where he leveraged his experiences to assist clients in selecting the right products for their needs.