By manufacturing its own concrete breakers with continual design improvements Antigo has developed a fleet of several types of concrete breakers uniquely capable of performing the full range of fractured slab techniques in preparation for pavement overlays. These same concrete breakers are optimized for breaking for removal extremely thick airfield pavements and urban pavements in vibration sensitive areas. Of equal importance, the Antigo Construction Family of Companies encompasses a staff of equipment operators, fabricators, mechanics, support personnel and managers with unequaled experience who are dedicated to building and operating the very best concrete breakers and to providing the very best service to its customers.
Antigo Construction, Inc. entered the USA concrete pavement rehabilitation business in 1982 with the purchase of a used Wirtgen CB7000 guillotine-style concrete breaker. Antigo purchased five more Wirtgen concrete breakers over the next several years to keep up with the demand in the dual markets of 1) crack & seat concrete pavement in preparation for an asphalt overlay, and 2) break concrete pavement for removal and recycling.
By 1988 Antigo realized that a more productive, easily maintained and economical concrete breaker was needed. Antigo accomplished this by creating an affiliated company, Badger State Highway Equipment, Inc., to manufacture a new type of guillotine breaker – the Badger Breaker®. Badger has manufactured 23 all-terrain breakers, the 8600 Badger Breaker® and 23 truck-mounted breakers, the T8600 Badger Breaker®, for Antigo’s use and a few early, international customers. The 8600 and T8600 have very similar breaking capabilities. Both incorporate an 8-foot (2.4m) wide, 6 to 7.5-ton (5.5 to 6.8 tonne) drop hammer with a variable drop height of 1 foot (0.3m) to over 8 feet (2.4m) which is ideally suited for a wide range of applications from cracking 12-feet (3.7m) wide pavement lanes to breaking 3-feet (0.9m) thick airfield runways.
In 1995, responding to the transportation industry’s need for more cost-effective, less disruptive concrete pavement breaking techniques, Badger designed and manufactured the first multi-head breaker, the MHB Badger Breaker®. The MHB consists of eight pairs of drop hammers spread across a 12-feet (3.7m) wide frame (the truck-mounted MHBT utilizes 6 pairs of hammer across an 8-feet (2.4m) wide frame). The smaller hammers of the MHB, as compared to the 8600 and T8600, allow the MHB to work in vibration-sensitive areas and to increase its breaking capability to a full lane width in one pass. An added benefit was soon discovered when it was found that the MHB was ideally suited to improve upon a more recent concrete pavement rehabilitation technique – concrete pavement rubblization and asphalt overlay. Antigo quickly became the worldwide leader in rubblization and has rubblized an average of 2.3 million square yards (1.9 million square meters) of concrete pavement annually since 2005.
Badger has manufactured 36 MHB machines to meet the ever increasing demand for rubblization and asphalt overlay, a technique that many pavement engineers have determined is the most cost-effective method of rehabilitating distressed concrete pavements.
The first of Antigo’s hundreds of major airport projects began in the mid-1980s. Antigo has completed 1,300 airport projects totaling 50 million square yards (42 million square meters). Antigo completed 1.3 million square meters of concrete rubblization at the King Abdul-Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 2008 through 2012. This is by far the largest airfield rubblization and asphalt overlay project ever constructed.
Antigo brought its crack & seat expertise to England in 1997 when it was chosen to crack the 227,000 square yards (190,000 square meters) M40 project – the first crack & seat project on a Motorway in the UK. This led to the formation of Antigo Breakers Limited and later Antigo MHB Breakers Ltd, which is still active in the UK and Ireland.
Antigo International Inc. was created in 2012 to concentrate on international markets outside of North America and the UK. Antigo International has completed projects in South Africa, India, Belgium, France, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia, Saudi Arabia and Australia and is actively seeking projects throughout the world.
Since 1982 the Antigo Construction Family of Companies has used its many concrete breakers to complete 7,600 projects including 59 million square yards (49 million square meters) of rubblization, 94 million square yards (79 million square meters) of crack/break & seat, and 181 million square yards (151 million square meters) of break for removal on highways, streets, runways, taxiways, aprons, parking lots, industrial sites and interior building slabs. Antigo’s fleet of Badger Breakers® and its experienced crew of equipment operators and support personnel make it uniquely capable of providing a full range of concrete breaking services worldwide.
Last revised 4 February 2024.