A cement company member of NRMCA is following the model created over 15 years ago by the Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete Association to survey parking lot market share in one of its major markets, reports NRMCA Senior Vice President, Local Paving, Jon Hansen.

"When the market share survey was developed in Iowa in 2001, we had to visit each city in the survey area to glean the information we needed from public office records on file. Now, with everything online, we have found we can gather all the information without leaving our computers," said Hansen, who is a former director of marketing with the Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete/Iowa Concrete Paving Associations. "The survey being conducted by the cement company is going back five years, from 2010-2015, and gathers information to show the market share in actual square footage of concrete parking lots compared to asphalt parking lots on commercial projects. Additionally, the information can be used to evaluate which market segments concrete paving succeeds in... and where it doesn’t."

"To my knowledge, this independent company conducted survey is the first time someone other than a state association is taking the data-gathering procedure to gain information about a specific geographical location and use it in its marketing. We know the procedure is the most thorough and delivers undisputed market share information. It is tremendous information to know when developing a smart parking lot marketing strategy for a region," Hansen concluded.

The preliminary estimate of ready mixed concrete produced in May 2016 is 30 million cubic yards, 5% higher than that in May 2015. The production through May is estimated at 127.3 million cubic yards, 8.7% higher than that during the same period in 2015.

NRMCA is looking for good men and women to serve on its Board of Directors. While serving on the Board requires both commitment and energy, it is a rewarding opportunity to give back to the industry. NRMCA represents a broad range of ready mixed concrete companies across the United States and our success is a direct result of the skills and expertise of our professional staff working in conjunction with Board members. Director nominees must be committed to promoting NRMCA programs and working in the best interest of its membership and the industry at large. The Board provides strategic direction, fiduciary oversight and governance of the organization’s operations.

 

Nominees are vetted by the Nominating Committee, which consists of the current chairman of the Board, the immediate past chairman of the Board, and past chairmen of the Board for the previous seven years who are still in an active capacity in the industry. The selected slate of nominees is then presented to and elected by the general membership and will serve three-year terms immediately following the annual NRMCA Convention in Las Vegas in March 2017.

 

NRMCA is seeking Board members with the following attributes: 

• Employed by a current NRMCA Producer member in good standing

• Demonstrates key decision making skills within his or her company

• Inherent leadership, management and interpersonal skills

• Ability to participate in and sustain collaborative group efforts

• Commitment to attend and participate in two Board meetings each year and fulfill all of the duties and responsibilities as referenced in the Board job description 

• Serve on NRMCA committees of his or her choice

• Attend and participate in promotion programs in their region

• Contribute and support annually the association's Political Action Committee (CONCRETEPAC) and the RMC Research & Education Foundation

• Recruit new members and help to retain existing members

 

Any NRMCA member can submit a nomination; individuals are also free to nominate themselves. Click herefor a list of the current NRMCA Board members along with the year that their terms expire (please note that members who have served a three-year term and are going off the Board in 2017 are not eligible for re-election until 2018. The exception to this are Board members who are filling an unexpired vacant seat. Those individuals are highlighted).

 

Help build NRMCA’s future by nominating a strong industry leader today! Nominations are due by Friday, July 22. Click here for the Board of Directors Nomination Form. For more information, contact Heather Houck at hhouck@nrmca.org.

Early bird registration is open for NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks, scheduled for September 18-20, 2016, at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, TN, with Board of Directors’ events and committee meetings preceding the conference on September 16-17. Register now to take advantage of the early bird pricing discount and save more than $100 off the regular registration fees.

 

NRMCA has contracted a block of rooms at the resort at a discounted rate of $209/night plus taxes and an $18/night resort fee. The resort fee will cover several in-room amenities, fitness center access and activity discounts. Hotel reservations can be made by calling the Gaylord Opryland directly at 800-491-7397 and asking for the "National Ready Mixed Concrete Association" rate or we encourage you to make your hotel reservations online. The hotel reservations cut-off date is Wednesday, August 24, or when the block sells out, whichever occurs first. The block of rooms is limited, so we suggest that you make your hotel reservation as soon as possible.

 

This year’s NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks is co-located with the American Concrete Pumping Association’s (ACPA) Education Conference, which will bring more equipment and concrete industry personnel to the show.

 

Media articles on Congress, transportation infrastructure, regulation, taxes and other subjects, each of which relate to the ready mixed concrete industry, are updated each week by NRMCA's Government Affairs staff. To access the most recent compilation of articles for July 11 - 15, 2016, please click here.

On July 14, the House passed the FY 2017 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, marking the first time the House has passed this spending bill since 2009. The $32.2 billion bill was approved by a vote of 231-196 and funds the Department of Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Forest Service, the Indian Health Service, and other related agencies. The legislation contains several policy riders on key Obama Administration agency rules and regulations. In particular, the bill contains a provision to halt implementation of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan which would limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. A provision to slow the implementation of the EPA’s new ozone rules is included as well. The bill also prohibits the administration from implementing the Waters of the US (WOTUS) rule which will significantly expand the jurisdiction of the Army Corps and EPA over waterways. The WOTUS rule has received numerous legal challenges and NRMCA continues to remain opposed to the rule. Specifically, NRMCA is concerned about how the expansion of federal jurisdiction over marginal waters would place an undue burden on ready mixed concrete operations, aggregate operations and new construction starts. The rule is currently under a nationwide stay while legal challenges to the rule are worked out in the court system. 

In total, four Democrats voted in favor of the bill and 15 Republicans opposed it. Currently, the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved its FY 2017 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, but floor time for a full Senate vote has not yet been scheduled.

 

Last week, the House Agriculture Committee introduced HR 5628, the Timber Innovation Act (TIA). The bill is identical to the Senate version (S 2892) which was introduced earlier this year. The TIA bill will fund research and development programs to place cross laminated timber as the material of choice in buildings 10 stories and higher. It will also create federal grants to support state, local and private sector cooperation for education, outreach and research and development, including education and assistance for architects and builders to design and build tall buildings with mass timber. The TIA bill also authorizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct a Tall Wood Building Prize Competition annually for the next five years for promoting and developing tall wood building construction and also allows the USDA, in cooperation with state foresters and local officials, to implement programs for education and technical assistance for mass timber applications. Representative Suzan DelBene (D-WA) is the lead sponsor of the bill; currently there are 13 cosponsors, including seven Democrats and six Republicans.

 

Last week, NRMCA hosted its third quarterly DC Days Fly In for association members to meet with  Members of Congress on Capitol Hill to educate them on the negative impacts of HR 5628 and S 2892. NRMCA’s message stresses that the federal government should not be choosing winners and losers in material specification for tall buildings or in any legislation. The federal government’s role is to promote fair competition in the marketplace. NRMCA is working on a targeted campaign in cooperation with other concrete and building trade organizations to ensure that both House and Senate bills do not become law. NRMCA will continue to update its members on the progress of this legislation.

 

Back in April, NRMCA launched its new Build With Strength brand in San Diego. In the 12 weeks since the launch the NRMCA Buildings Team has been busy reaching out to members, affiliates, industry allies, contractors and designers to identify developers with an interest in taking advantage of the new Design Assistance Program (DAP) for buildings. The results so far have been extremely positive, with four DAPs completed and that many more getting under way, reports NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Gregg Lewis.

Housed virtually in the Concrete Design Center, the DAP for Buildings initiative relies on a small, but growing team of design consultants to review conceptual or schematic level building designs and provide recommendations for converting these projects from wood frame or steel to concrete. The process allows NRMCA personnel to develop relationships with new industry partners. For example, an ICF installer in the Mid-Atlantic region who can point a developer to the Concrete Design Center stands a better chance of converting that 4-story multi-family project. The retailer who is planning to build a number of new outlets across the south will save money by working with the NRMCA team to streamline its designs and more fully integrate ready mixed concrete into its projects. The end result of these new relationships is that NRMCA becomes a valuable and trusted resource to these new industry partners – and results in more concrete buildings.

"We’re very excited about the strong, positive response we have already gotten from the developers and owners we are working with," Lewis said. "This is very likely to snowball as we start to convert some of these current projects."

NRMCA members can help by reaching out to their contacts and pointing them to DAP resources available to developers in their markets. NRMCA now has a Concrete Design Center that can work with developers to provide concrete solutions to building projects.

NRMCA is now producing Version 2 of its industry wide environmental product declaration (IW-EPD) in order to include additional member participants. In addition, at the request of architects and engineers, NRMCA will include 24 lightweight mix designs on top of the 48 normal weight mix designs included in version 1 of the IW-EPD. NRMCA and its consultant, Athena Sustainable Materials Institute (Athena), have successfully received plant operations data from v2 participants and are moving forward with calculating life cycle impacts. Therefore, once the IW-EPD v2 project is complete, there will be a total 88 concrete producers delivering 72 mix designs from approximately 2,650 plants nationally. This represents the majority of concrete production for the building construction industry and continues concrete’s leadership position for product transparency.

Facilitating the IW-EPD v2 and other company-specific EPDs is a member benefit program to prepare the concrete industry in responding to green building standards. It is also as a value-add in NRMCA’s Build with Strength campaign to establish concrete as the material of choice for low and mid-rise construction.  

Over the past decade there has been an exponential increase in human and property loss from natural hazards. Yet it can be difficult for building owners to determine what investment they should make to mitigate property damage from future hazards. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) has developed a new tool, Break Even Mitigation Percent (BEMP), to answer that question. By using a model based on the FEMA Benefit Cost Analysis tool to estimate hurricane damage across the Gulf Coast and East Coast, the researchers at CSHub quantified the investment needed to support decision-making.

In the model, researchers found the break even cost for a mid-rise concrete apartment structure based on a 50-year time period to be a 3.4% initial investment. That is, a wood mid-rise structure is expected to face $0.505M in hazard related damages over 50 years and the engineered concrete building is expected to face only $0.165M in hazard related damages over 50 years given the BEMP.

The MIT CSHub brings together leaders from academia, industry and government to develop breakthroughs using a holistic approach that will achieve durable and sustainable homes, buildings and infrastructure in ever more demanding environments.

 

Registration for NRMCA’s Fall 2016 Safety Course is now open, but note that this course will sell out very soon. It will take place October 11 - 13 in Indianapolis. This 2.5-day course teaches participants about OSHA safety compliance. It begins with why safety is so important and details the reasons why an effective safety program actually saves money through loss prevention and control. Participants learn about electrical safety, machine guarding, fall protection, hazard communication, confined spaces, personal protective equipment, fire fighting and evacuation, maintenance shop safety, chute handling, fleet safety, pre-trip inspection and more.

In mid-May, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) finalized a rule to change the process and timeline for recordkeeping and reporting of annual injuries and illnesses at the workplace. However, there is also a second portion of the new rule that states, "The rule also prohibits employers from discouraging workers from reporting an injury or illness. The final rule requires employers to inform employees of their right to report work-related injuries and illnesses free from retaliation; clarifies the existing implicit requirement that an employer’s procedure for reporting work-related injuries and illnesses must be reasonable and not deter or discourage employees from reporting; and incorporates the existing statutory prohibition on retaliating against employees for reporting work-related injuries or illnesses."

 

This "anti-retaliation" provision, as OSHA has labeled it, was to be effective on August 10. However, in order to coordinate more "outreach to the regulated community" about the provision, it’s effective date has now been pushed back to November 1.

Last week, after having been on hold since last August, the Senate confirmed the nomination of T.F. Scott Darling as administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Darling had been the acting administrator of FMCSA for the last 11 months following the departure of Anne Ferro from the position. Prior to acting administrator, Darling served as the FMCSA chief council, to which he was appointed to by President Obama in 2012.

The Senate last week also confirmed Blair Anderson as the new undersecretary for policy for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Prior to his new position Anderson served as deputy administrator of the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and as deputy assistant secretary for DOT’s office of finance and budget.

NRMCA is offering its information-packed one-day online course, Handling Concrete Specifications, Low Strength Problems and Mixture Submittals, intended for concrete producers, contractors, engineers and testing labs from October 12 - 14 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Eastern time each day. The course will get into code and specification requirements (ACI 318, 301, ASTM C94) governing ready mixed concrete. It will address many topics, including answering the following questions: 

• What are the durability exposure classes in ACI 318 and how should be specified?
• What are the changes in the new ACI 318-14 that are related to ready mixed concrete?
• What are some specification revisions that can provide all around benefits?
• What are the causes for low strength problems and who is responsible?
• What should be on a concrete test report?
• Non-destructive testing, Coring – when and how?
• How to do a proper mixture submittal?

Course instructors are Luke Snell, P.E., FACI, FASCE, Western Technologies and Karthik Obla, Ph.D., P.E., vice president, technical services at NRMCA. Producers, contractors, engineers and testing labs will find the discussions on investigating low strength problems and specifications very helpful to address issues that impact partnering, project cost and schedule. Upon successful completion of the course, attendees will earn 8 professional development hours, a certificate of completion and credits toward NRMCA’s STEPS program.

 

ACI 301-16 is now available from the American Concrete Institute. The ACI reference specification covers general concrete construction and addresses materials and construction provisions of Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete. ACI 318-14 in a specification format. There are several changes in this version of ACI 318. Section 4 covers concrete mixtures. The ACI 318 durability requirements are stated in specification language (note that these are not addressed in AIA Masterspec section 03300. This version eliminates limits on supplementary cementitious materials, includes requirements for alkali silica reactions, permits the contractor to select slump, among other revisions. The core of ACI 301 is covered in sections 1-5 with special applications covered with additional considerations in sections 6-14.

 

*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site.

August 3, Sioux Falls, SD

NRMCA North Central Regional ConcreteWorks

Email: twaugh@nrmca.org, 240-485-1132

 

September 18 - 20, Nashville, TN

NRMCA's ConcreteWorks 2016

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

September 26 - 28, Seattle

Concrete Durability Course

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

October 4 - 7, Silver Spring, MD

CCSP Module I: Concrete 101

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

October 11, Webinar

Recruiting & Hiring Top Performing Ready Mix Sales Reps

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

October 12 - 14, Online Class 

Handling Concrete Specifications, Low Strength Problems and Mixture Submittals

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

November 7 - 11, Silver Spring, MD

Annual "Short Course"

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

November 29 - December 1, Orlando, FL

Environmental Course

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

December 6, Webinar 

Sales Performance Assessments and Reviews...for Ready Mix Sales Managers

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

December 6 - 8, Silver Spring, MD

CCSP Module II: Customer Business Knowledge

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

December 13 - 16, Anaheim, CA

Plant Manager Certification Course

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

 

January 17 - 19, Kissimmee, FL

Effective RMC Supervisor Course

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

January 24 - 26, Silver Spring, MD

CCSP Module III: General Business Knowledge

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

March 21 - 23, Silver Spring, MD

CCSP Module IV: Professional Sales Skills

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

Madison County, VA, officials recently voted to use both conrete and asphalt for six road projects. How and why they came to that decision was examined in a July 13 article in the Norfolk Daily News. Read more.

A ceremony to sign the last bucket of concrete placed at a skyscraper is common, but the event marking the concrete placed at 3 World Trade Center in New York was anything but routine. The New York Times examined the building's rise over New York Harbor in a May 25 article. And by the way, the concrete was provided by NRMCA Producer Member Ferrara Brothers from its nearby plant in Brooklyn. Read more.

In case you haven't recently checked Archinect's Pinterest boards in a while (and we haven't either), it recently posted quite impressive photos of concrete structures throughout Europe. Just another example of the world's most innovative building material at work... and a little play too. View here.

The NRMCA July Internet Spotlight, which will be good through Tuesday, August 3, are all (25) NRMCA Safety Series titles. The Safety Series is a library of publications and training resources to help the ready mixed concrete industry meet their safety needs and comply with regulations on the federal level. The goal of each publication is to increase safety awareness while reducing injuries and violations. Each lesson comes with a prepared PowerPoint presentation, instructor’s guide and student training materials.