NRMCA Celebrates 100 Years of Ready Mixed Concrete in the U.S.

NRMCA's celebration of the 100th anniversary of ready mixed concrete in the U.S. continues in July with the histories of two more Producer and Associate members - See below for their respective Web site links. This week's industry milestone: The "first" student concrete canoe was built in 1970 by the civil engineering honors class at the University of Illinois. By 1974-1975, an estimated 100 schools were designing, constructing and racing concrete canoes. While most of the races took place on relatively quiet lakes or rivers, in 1975, the University of Maine sponsored the first whitewater canoe race on the Kenduskeag Stream.

Producer - Founded in 1948 by the Oremus family, Prairie Material has grown along with the communities it has helped build. From its first yards in Bridgeview, IL, Prairie has expanded into one of the Chicago region's most well known providers of concrete, ready mix and aggregate construction materials. Prairie Material owns and operates batch plants and aggregate facilities in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. Read more.

An NRMCA Producer member since 1971

Associate - One of NRMCA's newest Associate members, Advance Testing Company, is a consulting construction materials testing laboratory that provides both field inspection and laboratory analysis of construction materials for commercial, private and public organizations. Advance Testing currently manages its work out of three primary offices located in New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Advance Testing was founded by James P. Smith, Jr., in 1984. Read more.

An NRMCA Associate member since 2012