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Pavement

NRMCA’s local paving engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) will present the two-day Design of Concrete Pavements course in Secaucus, NJ, beginning Thursday, August 17. This course will provide instruction on how to design and detail concrete pavements used in highways, streets and parking lots by considering the traffic loads, soil conditions and resulting pavement stresses. In addition to designing conventional concrete pavements, this course will provide introductions to innovative products such as pervious concrete, concrete overlays and roller compacted concrete.

Concrete thickness design will be presented from multiple design methodologies which includes both empirical and mechanistic-empirical procedures. Discussions of subgrade characterization and improvement as well as pavement jointing will also be provided. Concrete materials will be presented, including discussions on strength, workability and durability. Additional detail will be provided on economic life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of concrete pavements. Typical construction techniques for conventional concrete pavements and overlay as well as the unique techniques used for pervious and roller compacted concrete will be reviewed. Development and application of materials and construction specifications and the related quality control and acceptance tests will be highlighted in terms of meeting the design objectives.

This course is intended for civil engineers, geotechnical engineers and public works officials involved in the design and layout of concrete highways, streets and parking areas. Participants will leave the course with a better understanding of the analytical process used to achieve an optimized concrete pavement cross section that will perform as intended over the design life.

Click here to register. For more information, contact Amanda Hult at ahult@nrmca.org for additional information.

Association & Industry News

Nominations Sought for RMC Research & Education Foundation Board of Trustees

Nominations to fill the seats of eight expiring terms of the RMC Research & Education Foundation Board of Trustees are now being accepted. The Board will hold an election to fill the expiring terms at its next meeting, Monday, October 2, 2017. To nominate an individual for the Board, please contact Foundation Executive Director Julie Garbini at jgarbini@rmc-foundation.org or at 240-485-1150. Nominations must be received by Friday, August 18, 2017.

Please click here to view the Board of Trustees Position Description.

RMC Foundation Unveils New Streamlined Web site

The Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) Research & Education Foundation is proud to announce the unveiling of a new, more streamlined Web site that was launched late last week.

"One of the great values found in the Foundation’s work are the many resources made available, for free, to the concrete and construction industries as well as to the communities we serve," said Foundation Chairman Henry Batten of Concrete Supply Co. "The new Web site will make it easier for people to find and download the resources they are seeking and to stay up to date with all of the Foundation’s work."

Added Foundation Executive Director Julie Garbini, "The redesign of the Foundation’s Web site, which offers an easy-to-navigate, more visually-appealing format, is our first step in offering a more robust communications program. We have so many great resources and our new Web site will help us to broaden our reach in getting all of our reports, guides and studies into the hands of those who will use them."

The new site includes links to most of the Foundation’s published work, as well as links to join its mailing list and to make a secure donation online. Be sure to visit the new www.rmc-foundation.org today.

For questions or to provide feedback, please contact the Foundation’s Jennifer LeFevre at 240-485-1151 or at jlefevre@rmc-foundation.org.

Government Affairs

July Proves Busy Month on Capitol Hill for Key Legislative Issues

NRMCA’s Government Affairs team had a busy month on Capitol Hill during the lead-up to August recess. On Friday, July 28, the House of Representatives adjourned for its annual August recess. Also, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced in mid-July that the Senate will remain in session for another two weeks to continue its work on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.

During the last frenzied month of the session, NRMCA’s Government Affairs team was engaged on the Hill on a wide range of issues important to the ready mixed concrete industry, including:

Hosting members for two NRMCA DC Days and storming the Hill in support of resilient construction in several key pieces of legislation; discussing local issues important to their businesses and promoting the two NRMCA-supported congressional caucuses: the Ready Mixed Concrete Caucus and the Resilient Construction Caucus. There were 10 NRMCA members from six states who made more than 20 visits over these two DC Days.
Working to protect important language supporting durable construction in the National Flood Insurance Program reauthorization; helping to craft language in the Federal Emergency Management Agency reauthorization to promote resilient construction, and advocating for more favorable implementation of the 2014 Water Development Reform and Reauthorization Act – a law that impacts many large infrastructure projects that use concrete, and met with the White House regarding these issues as well as its plans for a $1 trillion infrastructure spending plan.

For more information on these and other activities, as well as how you can get involved, please make plans to attend the Government Affairs Committee meeting at ConcreteWorks in suburban Dallas at 11 a.m. on Friday, September 29, 2017.

Click here to register for ConcreteWorks. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.

Buildings

NRMCA EPD Stakeholder Expands Services to Mexico and Latin America

As an important stakeholder in NRMCA’s EPD program, Climate Earth is delivering its Instant On-demand Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to the ready mix industry in Mexico and Latin America. To assist the expansion, Climate Earth has partnered with Revitaliza Consultores, a green building consultant. Instant On-Demand EPDs enable concrete producers to be highly innovative and responsive to demand for mix designs and to easily and cost effectively produce verified EPDs that immediately qualify for LEED points.

As building projects pursue LEED v4 certification, the environmental disclosure credit will drive EPDs in both the U.S., and where countries have adopted LEED. In the United States, Climate Earth’s Instant On-demand EPD Generator is being used by ready mix and concrete block producers across the country (click here to access a two-minute video demonstration).

As part of the Build with Strength campaign, NRMCA promotes Strength Through Transparency for member and industry competitiveness in the green building marketplace and the trends toward product and company transparency.

For more information, contact James Bogdan at jbogdan@nrmca.org or 412-420-4138.

NRMCA Helps Brief Pacific Northwest Officials on Issues Facing Ready Mix Industry

Last week, the Pacific Northwest Economic Region's 27th Annual Summit brought together leaders from Pacific Northwest states and Western Canada to discuss opportunities for growth within the region and address major challenges to the economy and our environment. NRMCA Vice President, Sustainability, Tien Peng was present and supported members and affiliates of the Pacific Northwest Building Resilience Coalition (PNBRC). Along with NRMCA members CalPortland and Knife River, and affiliates Bruce Chattin of WACA and Rich Angstrom of OCAPA, the coalition engaged legislators in an informal environment outside of capital halls on key issues affecting the concrete industry such as cross laminated timber, building codes, energy efficiency and resilience. NRMCA also provided supporting material from the Build with Strength campaign and joined members at hosted receptions for legislators.

Dr. Randolph Kirchain from the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub gave the keynote address on the second day of the summit. He described the Break Even Hazard Mitigation research findings which concluded that quantifying the value of hazard resistance is possible and that hazard repair cost can approach conventional construction costs when looking at the life cycle perspective. Dr. Kirchain encouraged all stakeholders to invest in resilience.

For more information on the PNWER Summit and the Pacific Northwest Building Resilience Coalition, contact Tien Peng at tpeng@nrmca.org or 206-913-8535.

NRMCA, Members Hold Training Session to Place More Concrete at Denver Airport

Dave Gray, GCC of America, Leonard Velasquez, SLV Quality Concrete, and NRMCA Vice President, Local Paving, Don Clem, PE, provided a training session on concrete parking lot overlays for the Landside Engineering Group - Denver International Airport (DIA). Each presenter covered a unique aspect of the overlay design and construction process. The session was organized by Dave Gray, the 2016 NRMCA Promoter of the Year. NRMCA will now work with the American Concrete Pavement Association's Colorado/Wyoming chapter to develop a concrete overlay option for two onsite asphalt parking lots (about 1.8 million square feet) in need of repair.

For more information, contact Don Clem at dclem@nrmca.org.

Education & Training

Concrete Specification Class Offered in Salt Lake City in November 2017

NRMCA is offering its information-packed, one-day course, Handling Concrete Specifications, Low Strength Problems and Mixture Submittals, intended for concrete producers, contractors, engineers and testing labs, on Thursday, November 2, in Salt Lake City in association with the ACI Intermountain Chapter. The course will discuss the latest changes to the code and specification requirements (ACI 318, 301, ASTM C94) governing ready mixed concrete and address many other topics, including answering the following questions:

What are the durability exposure classes in ACI 318?
What are the changes in the new ACI 318, ACI 301, ASTM C94 that are related to ready mixed concrete?
What are some specification revisions that can provide all around benefits in performance and cost?
What are the causes for low strength problems and who is responsible?
What should be on a concrete test report?
How does one improve the quality of acceptance testing
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 NRMCA Vice President, Technical Services, Karthik Obla, Ph.D., P.E. 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.

Click here for more information, staff contact and registration options.

Calendar

A Look Ahead

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

August 15, Jackson, MS

Regional ConcreteWorks, Gulf Coast Region

Email: Tamara Waugh, 240.485.1132

September 18 - 20, Salt Lake City

Concrete Durability Course