Early strength concrete
Our early strength concrete is designed with an innovative quick-drying formula to accelerate your project timelines. The fast-setting properties of our FastTrack concrete product range enable rapid formwork removal, significantly enhancing productivity.
Available from all our static and mobile production plants, this ready-mixed concrete is the perfect solution for fast-paced construction projects, ensuring reliability in demanding environments with tight deadlines.
Contact us today to see how FastTrack early strength concrete could benefit your construction.
What applications can early strength concrete be used for?
The early strength concrete mixes we manufacture can support a wide range of applications, including:
- Buildings: Columns, walls, beams, slabs, panels.
- Civil engineering: High walls, tunnels, roads, airport hard standings, and rail possession.
- Precast facilities: Beams, panels, specific elements.
- Water control structures: Where long term diversion of water is impractical.
- Early trafficking: Ideal for areas where early trafficking is a critical construction issue, such as yards, car parks, access roads, and floor areas.
What projects is fast setting concrete best for?
FastTrack, the rapid strength-gain, quick setting concrete by Heidelberg Materials, is ideal when a quick turnaround is needed. With fast setting times, our early strength concrete boosts project efficiency, making it well-suited to projects like including:
- Carriageway replacements
- Airport hard standings
- Warehouses
- Precast structures
- Thinner sections of a build
- Infrastructure
- Road and rail renovations
Benefits of quick setting concrete
The main draw of early strength concrete is the speed at which it sets. In addition, the concrete:
- Accelerates critical sections of the construction process, reducing overall production time
- Increases productivity
- Reduces the impact of delays, so you can regain time
- Provides cost saving opportunities (through reduced labour and cost for rental construction equipment)
- Ensures production deadlines can be met with confidence
- Reduces the requirement for external heating
- Achieves high early strength and high ultimate strength, giving a very durable concrete
NOTE: Please note, all benefits are subject to good concreting practice (placement, finishing and curing).
Bespoke early strength concrete
Our early strength concrete range can be specifically designed for various levels of compressive strength via our bespoke concrete service.
By engineering the mix to meet your needs, we enable your fast drying concrete to take vast amounts of different loads. For instance, from low compressive strength (when strength properties are not integral), to very high compressive strength (when a high level of strength is imperative to the project's success).
All bespoke early strength concrete from Heidelberg Materials UK:
- Complies with BS EN 206-1 and BS 8500-2
- Is available in a range of compressive strength classes
- Can be designed to meet a wide range of exposure classes
- Is suitable for pumping
Where our FastTrack concrete has been used
One St Peter’s Square, Manchester
The use of our early strength concrete admixtures has played a key role in the construction of the 65-metre-high central concrete lift shaft at One St Peter’s Square, a 270,000-square-foot BREEAM Excellent (sustainability standard) building.
Case study: One St Peter's Square
Our accreditations
Heidelberg Materials is a member of the Quality Scheme for Ready-Mixed Concrete (QSRMC) and all our early strength concrete products carry this certification.
From the experts: Fast drying concrete
“Heidelberg Materials is an excellent supply partner offering high quality engineering solutions and high levels of customer and technical service.”
Jonny Fearon, Senior Project Manager at Story Contracting
Why you can trust Heidelberg Materials
Quality-Assured Underwater Concrete
Our range of quick setting concrete has been tested to the highest standards, with a solution for every project.
Extensive Product Availability
Choose from 178 static and mobile plants across the UK for your concrete supply.
Bespoke Concrete Products
Select your ideal additives, admixtures, cement and aggregates.
Dedicated Sales Support
We integrate sales management with every order for seamless delivery.
National Delivery Fleet
Trust our 1,200 vehicles, 140 rail freight wagons, and 4 locomotives to safely deliver your concrete.
Contact details
Contact the team nearest to you using the details in the table below. Alternatively, please complete the contact form at the bottom of this page.
Early strength concrete FAQs
- What is early strength concrete?
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Early strength concrete is specially formulated to set faster than traditional concrete, speeding up construction schedules. It provides the same durability and performance as standard concrete but reaches critical strength much sooner. It’s also known as ‘quick setting concrete’ or ‘fast drying concrete’.
- How long does early strength concrete take to cure?
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The exact time fast drying concrete takes to cure depends on the specific mix and environmental conditions. Typically, early strength concrete can reach sufficient load-bearing strength within 24 hours or less, letting your team move to the next phase of construction faster.
- What is high early strength concrete?
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High early strength concrete is designed to enhance the early age strength of concrete. It’s best suited to applications where timeframes are tight and rapid turnarounds are necessary, from carriageway replacements to rail renovations.
- How to dry concrete quickly?
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If you need concrete to dry quickly, our range of fast setting concrete could be ideal. Water in concrete is used by the cement to gain strength. In some cases, conventional concrete can take months to fully dry. Our FastTrack range has been developed to optimise the relationship between drying and strength gain.
Please check this product is suitable to meet the needs of your project by reading the information on this page or contacting our team.
