The National Concrete Bridge Council (NCBC) is a council of allied industry organizations, of which NRMCA is a member, that is dedicated to promote quality in concrete bridge construction; gather and disseminate information on design, construction, and condition of concrete bridges; establish communication with federal and state departments of transportation, city and county public works departments, and consulting engineers; and provide information on behalf of the concrete industries to codes and standards groups. Twice a year representatives from NCBC meet with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to discuss a range of concrete bridge related topics consisting of technology deployment, technical assistance, research activities and the long-term bridge program. NRMCA Vice President, Pavement Structures, Brian Killingsworth attends these meetings on behalf of the ready mix industry to highlight our various concrete certification programs, research initiatives and training efforts.

Last month, the NCBC-FHWA joint meeting was held at the Portland Cement Association offices in Skokie, IL. Highlights at this meeting included a discussion regarding how the National Bridge Inspection (NBI) Standard is being revised by FHWA as a result of MAP-21. The FHWA develops and implements procedures to conduct reviews of state compliance with the NBIS. The NBIS was last changed in 2004. Currently, the FHWA is responding to comments from 12 states regarding the proposed procedural changes to the NBIS and should have a final completed by December 2014. Other topics covered at the meeting included a post-tensioned (P-T) grouting guidance and training manual that has been completed and is currently available online at the FHWA site, an updated NBI training inspection course to include P-T delivered by the National Highway Institute (NHI) and a P-T box beam design manual that will be available in August 2014. Other bridge related design topics also included a refined analysis reference manual that will be available in September 2014, the availability of the girder stability during construction class taught by NHI Class, as well as an LRFD superstructure design course.