By Brandon C. Williams
Editor, The Post Newspaper
Roads have been built the same for more than 80 years. Larry Corona is helping to change that.
The League City-based entrepreneur is part of the management team for Lithified Technologies (LT) Texas, which has presented a high-tech solution to the problem of declining roads. Working mostly in the western part of the United States, Corona has been part of the team that has brought LT in focus in the Lone Star State since beginning with the company at the start of the pandemic.
“We’re not new. We’re new in Texas,” said Corona. “We started promoting during the pandemic, which was hindering, but we were out there beating the bush calling on cities and counties, but you don’t get it changed quickly. Nobody wants to be first. Nobody wants to try anything they don’t know about even though we have a lot of testimonials highlighting who we are.”
Corona has established relationships with Hitchcock and League City along with building rapport throughout Galveston, Brazoria and Fort Bend Counties. He is currently working with Union Pacific on rebuilding their laydown yards in Weber County.
“We’ve proved to (Union Pacific) that our product and our system will make it to where their heavy equipment will not perish,” he said.
The opportunity to work with Lithified Technologies is just another chapter in the career of Corona, who has spent more than 35 years in real estate and construction. He is the owner of Oak Realty Broker along with owning his own travel consulting firm.
LithTec, which took more than nine years to perfect, is a high-performance combination of proprietary premium components with traditional cementitious elements that, when mixed in road base soils, create a stronger road foundation. Combining LithTec with onsite roadway materials causes a shift in structural credits from the surface to the foundation.
“What he did was mimic liquefaction in nature,” said Corona of the inventor of LithTec. “He was able to come with the product. It looks like cement, but it’s a proprietary blend he came up with that makes it rock hard.”
Corona and his team offered a free presentation in League City to cities and counties earlier this summer, one that included snow cones. However, Corona’s suggestion of the icy treat was nearly rejected in favor of, of all things, gumbo.
“One of our guys said, ‘let’s do gumbo,’” said Corona. “I said, ‘are you crazy? It’s going to be 100 degrees out there and you’re thinking gumbo? They’re going to have two hands to eat with a drink. They’re not octopus.”
The snowcones — and the presentation — was a hit. Among those in attendance were representatives of Hitchcock, League City and Galveston County.
“This the first time League City has used this technology,” said League City Project Manager Scott Tuma. “One thing that makes this material more unique is that is formulated for each road. Technology is constantly improving, which will allow us to strive to make our investments last longer.”
If you’re thinking all roads are the same, think again. LithTec is not a “one size fits all” blend. The company’s geotechs will do between 8-10 tests in their Santa Fe, NM laboratories before coming up with a formula that fits the particular road.
“We test every road that we do,” said Corona. “Each road has to be tested in order to know what material is down there.”
“When you use the product with our system, you’re going to have a long-lasting, much better road and save you money doing it.” he said.
LithTec has been able to solve the two biggest problems facing roads: water and weight. “Weight doesn’t bother us. Neither does the water,” said Corona.
Explaining the process of road erosion is one that would fascinate even the most scientifically-challenged, but Corona’s laid-back personality allows one to understand the process.
“When water gets in, it will deteriorate the base and then go on down and deteriorate the subbase. So now, there’s nothing holding up that top piece of bread,” he explained.
“When cement cracks, water can seep in from the sides of the road,” he added. It can rain and come down and leave cracks in the road. When it gets into that, it will go wherever it can go. The next thing you know, it starts messing with the base.”
“Give us your worst road, and we will turn it into the best you’ve got” is not the official motto of Lithified Technologies, yet it is the mindset that has allowed the company to make inroads (no pun intended) toward making safer and more efficient roads.
The company is closing in on its biggest client, the Texas Department of Transportation. The eventual connection is in its approval stage; once that is complete, roads throughout the state will begin to receive long-needed revival that will not only save money but, most of all, make the roads and streets of Texas safer.
