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Association & Industry News
Spring has arrived in the United States. With the freshness of air comes plants blooming, rain and active animals. To welcome spring and bring freshness into your marketing dollars, NRMCA still has a host of sponsorship opportunities available. The RMC Research & Education Foundation announces the availability of deliverables from the Factually Analyzing Integrated Layers of Safety Against Fire’s Effects (FAIL-SAFE) project, spearheaded by the National Association of State Fire Marshals’ (NASFM) Fire Research & Education Foundation with financial support from the RMC Research & Education Foundation and the Portland Cement Association. The project, which took place at the Worcester (MA) Polytechnic Institute, studied the interaction between active and passive fire protection systems. A main concern inspiring this project surrounded the increased reliance on the use of sprinkler systems as a trade-off in foregoing other fire safety protection measures. The preliminary data indicate that such trades-offs have indeed led to a decline in building fire safety scores since the trade-offs were implemented in building codes starting in 2000. Deliverables include literature reviews, a Research Summary Infographic, a Risk Evaluation MATRIX Report, training and education PowerPoints and other materials. You can also view the recent Build With Strength video that references this research. The deliverables are available here and are also linked from the Foundation’s Web site. For more information on the work of the RMC Research & Education Foundation, please contact Julie Garbini or Jennifer LeFevre. 
Last week, NRMCA spearheaded a grassroots effort to support an industry exemption to the Electronic Logging Device (ELD) mandate. Using NRMCA’s grassroots advocacy platform, more than 500 letters were sent to Republican Senators supporting a provision submitted by Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) to exempt ready mixed concrete delivery vehicles from the ELD mandate in the upcoming spending bill. NRMCA has long opposed the ELD mandate for ready mixed concrete trucks and has made the case to both Congress and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that ELDs are not required for ready mixed concrete delivery vehicles because of the Hours of Service (HOS) victories NRMCA achieved in the 2015 Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Sen. Heller is a strong champion of the ready mixed concrete industry and was instrumental in achieving NRMCA’s HOS victories in the FAST Act. Click here to view the Action Alert on ELD exemption. Click here to visit NRMCA’s advocacy page with other action alerts. 
Buildings
There are tremendous public benefits for promoting resilient construction techniques. Resilient construction makes buildings more adaptable to extreme weather events and saves public funds in rebuilding. With names like Katrina, Sandy and Harvey, the federal government has spent billions in unfunded disaster relief in recent decades. Yet, resilient policies are still hindered in the state and federal governments. This summer, as Florida neared the 25th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, Governor Rick Scott signed House Bill 1021 into law, which dropped the requirement that the Florida Building Commission update the state code every three years in conjunction with the regular updates to the International Codes. Critics of the bill, which included NRMCA, AIA, FLASH and the Building Officials Association of Florida, lamented that it would ultimately erase the progress that the state has made in creating one of the nation’s most robust building codes. Due to continued market demand, Granite Rock recently received verification for supplemental environmental product declarations (EPDs). Eighteen additional mixes from each of three plants were submitted and verified under NRMCA’s supplemental EPD program. Granite Rock now has over 200 mix designs with EPDs.
Pavement
NRMCA was well represented at the 2018 Mid-Atlantic Quality Assurance Workshop (QAW) in Dover Downs, DE, reports Senior Director, Local Paving, Ken Justice. Hosted this year by the Delaware Department of Transportation, QAW is a three-day annual event that has been held each year since 1967 and is dedicated to highway materials and quality control/assurance of highway materials. Recently, NRMCA Local Paving engineer Amanda Hult met with a local engineering firm in Covington, LA, to present concrete pavement design to company employees. The firm was interested in learning more about the design and construction of pervious concrete since many of its projects in the New Orleans area are required to have pervious pavements for stormwater reasons. “We know that pervious concrete is more of a specialty product so we want to know how to design, specify and construct the material to ensure the best results,” one engineer stated. Government Affairs
The NRMCA Government Affairs team joined fellow members of the North American Concrete Alliance (NACA) in meetings at congressional offices to advocate for an infrastructure bill. For the past four months, NACA has been active on Capitol Hill meeting with congressional staff and lobbying for federal infrastructure investment. While an infrastructure bill may not materialize before November or may move in smaller bits and pieces, these meetings serve to make NACA members a meaningful part of the conversation and a resource to congressional offices. 
May 10, Webinar May 22 – 24, Dallas May 23, Bozeman, MT December 11 – 14, Austin, TX Learning & Development
NRMCA invites you and/or your company’s HR and talent/training executives to participate on the new Workforce Development Committee. It is time our industry seriously address hiring - and keeping - the right staff throughout our ranks so business remains healthy and robust. Additionally, health care, worker’s comp, family medical leave, benefit packages, diversity, discrimination, harassment, and a host of other labor, employment and compliance hot buttons substantially impact our strategic planning, competitiveness and bottom lines. Join us to get our working priorities aligned and set our tasks to move forward. Calendar
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. March 27 – 29, Silver Spring, MD March 29, Webinar April 10 – 12, Orlando, FL April 12, Webinar April 18, Silver Spring, MD April 26, Webinar
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