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Association & Industry News
NRMCA’s 2020 Annual Convention is right around the corner. Taking place March 7 - 9 at the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas Hotel in Las Vegas, NV, this year’s event will feature keynote speakers Peter Shankman, a bestselling author and entrepreneur focusing on customer service; Jennifer Mitchell, lead of headquarters capital projects at LinkedIn and Dr. Christopher Drew, director of sustainability at Smith-Gill Architecture, who will speak during NRMCA’s Build With Strength general session. You also don’t want to miss Mike Eruzione, the captain who led the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team to its Gold Medal victory in Lake Placid, NY and, finally, Edward Sullivan, chief economist at the Portland Cement Association who will give an update on the economy. You don't want to miss out on this year’s premiere industry event to connect and network with hundreds of other industry personnel. Click here for convention details. For more information, please contact Senior Director of Meetings Jessica Walgenbach at 703-706-4852. NRMCA and Build With Strength are presenting a full complement of educational seminars during next month's CONEXPO-CON/AGG Show in Las Vegas. Each week until the beginning of the show, E-NEWS will highlight a single seminar, which continued last week with Pathway to Resilience: Concrete Solutions to Sustainable Communities scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in South Hall S 232. This week's highlighted seminar is Concrete Mix Design: What to Look For scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in South Hall S 232. Concrete mix design can be as simple as the time-honored 1:2:3 blend of cement, sand and stone or it can be as complicated as 1, 2, 3 or 4 cementitious materials and up to 5 aggregate bins. But there are a few fundamental principles that apply to all concrete mixes and understanding those principles can help you troubleshoot, modify or adjust a mix to produce the results that you need. Click here to to register and here for the full lineup of courses at the show. For more information, contact Tien Peng at tpeng@nrmca.org. The MIT CSHub is hosting its next public webinar, Lowering the Embodied Environmental Impacts of Cement and Concrete, on Thursday, February 27 at 11 a.m. Eastern time. This webinar will be presented by MIT Research Scientist and CSHub Executive Director Jeremy Gregory who states "Concrete is uniquely positioned to contribute to society’s sustainability challenges including durable infrastructure, affordable housing, and resilient buildings. As the most used building material in the world, there are significant opportunities to lower the environmental footprint of concrete and the structures that use them. This presentation will highlight strategies to lower the embodied impacts (of the materials) of cement and concrete, including the use of captured carbon to create concrete with a negative carbon footprint, and performance-based specifications. Combining these strategies with operational reductions in concrete structures will enable concrete to contribute to net-zero goals, along with other sustainability targets." The MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) webinar series offers information of general interest to members of the building, paving and construction communities as well as to educators, students, journalists, and law and policymakers interested in the environmental and economic impacts of decision-making concerning infrastructure. Videos of past webinars are archived to the CSHub YouTube Channel. Webinars are free and geared toward a lay audience. The MIT CSHub is co-funded by the RMC Research & Education Foundation and the Portland Cement Association. You may register here. 
Engineering
 The NRMCA Concrete Technologist Training and Certification (Short Course) held in January in Ontario, CA, was attended by 38 industry personnel (shown here). The following were the number of certifications awarded:
Congratulations to all who attended and to those who received certifications. The following are recognized for achieving highest scores in the relevant exams:
The next Short Course will be offered November 9 - 13 in Maryland (tentative). For more information, contact Karen Bean at kbean@nrmca.org. NRMCA, in conjunction with the Carolinas Ready Mixed Concrete Association, is presenting the one-day course, Improving Concrete Quality, intended for concrete producers, ingredient material suppliers, engineers and testing labs on April 29 in Charlotte, NC. Improved concrete quality can benefit all stakeholders in a concrete construction project. This course will address the following:
Course instructors are Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D., FACI, Beton Consulting Engineers LLC, and Karthik Obla, Ph.D., P.E. at NRMCA. Producers will learn readily implementable steps to manage variability and attain a more consistent product; ingredient suppliers will learn how material variation affects concrete variation; engineers will learn the opportunity for improving quality through specifications and testing lab professionals will learn to measure and improve testing quality. 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, registration links and staff contact. SEO
Earlier this week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) published a final rule for overhauling the “joint-employer” scheme, securing a less stringent application than the previous administration. Prior to the final rule, the joint-employer rule stemmed from an Obama Administration NLRB ruling in a case known as Browning-Ferris, which more closely ties infractions of franchisees to their franchisors. While the current Trump Administration’s NLRB had attempted to overturn Browning-Ferris in a case dubbed Hy-Brand, the NLRB inspector general issued a report noting that NLRB member William J. Emanuel, a Trump Administration appointee, handled related cases at his previous law firm and therefore should have recused himself from the Hy-Brand decision. That development subsequently moved the other Board members to withdraw the ruling in Hy-Brand which overturned the Browning-Ferris ruling; thus reinstating the more stringent Browning-Ferris joint-employer standard. Today’s final rule managed to circumvent the previous contentious issues in favor of loosening the requirements for what constitutes a joint-employer. NRMCA has advocated ardently against the Browning-Ferris ruling and welcomes the NLRB’s new joint-employer final rule. For more on the new joint-employer definition and to review the final rule please click here. The final rule will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), put into law in 1986, requires industries to report on the “storage, use and releases of hazardous chemicals (and materials) to federal, state, and local governments.” This specific reporting requirement under EPCRA is commonly referred to as Community Right-to-Know (CRTK) reporting, Tier II reporting, and/or Section 311/312 reporting. The reporting deadline is March 1. Click here to learn more about EPCRA, chemical/material thresholds and how to report. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. 
Buildings
Build With Strength will host a half-day education program on best practices for reinforced concrete construction in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, March 25, from 7:30 a.m. until noon. The program offers 4 Professional Development Hours (PDH) focused for structural engineers, but architects, contractors and product manufacturers will also benefit. The agenda is as follows: 7:30 - 8 a.m. Continental Breakfast 8 - 8:45 a.m. Constructability Best Practices for RC Structures 8:45 - 9:30 a.m. Detailing Best Practices 9:45 - 10:30 a.m. Economical Design of Insulating Concrete Forms 10:30 - 11:15 a.m. Emerging Trends with Concrete Mix Design 11:15 - noon High-Strength Steel Reinforcement and the new ACI 318-19 The program is sponsored by Concrete Steel Reinforcing Institute and the NRMCA in partnership with the Structural Engineers Association of Metropolitan Washington. The event will take place at 801 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, conference center in Washington, DC. Registration is free at www.nrmca.org/concreteday. Questions? Contact Lionel Lemay at LLemay@nrmca.org. The Arizona Chapter ACI is pleased to announce its 2020 "Exposing the BEST in Concrete" Awards program that honors the visions of some of the most creative projects the concrete industry has to offer in the region. Concrete projects of all types are eligible and, for the first time, ICF buildings will be eligible to receive awards in this competition. Due to the efforts of Build With Strength and Arizona Rock Products Association (ARPA) there are a large number of concrete buildings, including ICF and tilt-up structures, that are eligible. Entries will be juried by an independent panel of industry professionals. There will be an "Overall Excellence Award" selected and this project will move forward into the International competition to be held at the ACI Fall Convention 2020. For more information about Build With Strength in Arizona, contact Chris Dagosta at CDagosta@nrmca.org or 602-930-3793.
Build With Strength (BWS) has partnered with the Kentucky Office of Energy Policy to host an event pertaining to Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF) construction for energy and disaster resilience. Titled A Pathway To Energy & Disaster Resilience: An ICF Symposium And Training Event, the event is aimed for Kentucky-based construction professionals. It will offer a view on building construction risks and opportunities as human and economic losses from disasters increase, with the overarching goal of supporting and advancing resilience in future construction. It will describe why and how innovative concrete systems like ICFs are helping transform the way we can build energy and disaster resistant buildings. The event is scheduled for March 25 in Winchester. Details including an agenda and registration information can be found here. It is free and sponsored by the Commonwealth of Kentucky Office of Energy Policy; registration priority will be given to owners, developers, architects, engineers and construction professionals with a Kentucky mailing address. For more information, contact James Bogdan at jbogdan@nrmca.org or 412-420-4138. Build With Strength is a sponsor of CarbonPositive’20 to be held in Los Angeles from March 2 - 4. The conference provides a “how-to” for planning, designing, building and manufacturing a Carbon Positive future where buildings, developments and entire cities are constructed to use sustainable resources, generate surplus renewable energy and convert atmospheric carbon into durable materials and products. The conference is organized by Architecture 2030. On Valentine’s Day 2011, Architecture 2030 announced the Challenge for Products to reduce carbon footprint by 50% by 2030. NRMCA became one of the first industry groups to adopt the challenge. In 2012, we were one of the first industries to publish a Product Category Rule; in 2014, NRMCA published its first Industry-Wide Environmental Product Declaration and Benchmarks for carbon footprint. And in 2019, NRMCA published the third version of the Industry-Wide EPD and Benchmarks indicating the industry has reduced its carbon footprint by 13% in five years, well on the way toward meeting the 2030 challenge. Build With Strength is sponsoring and exhibiting at CarbonPositive’20 to reinforce the industry’s commitment to meeting the 2030 challenge through transparency, innovation and collaboration. For more details, contact Lionel Lemay at LLemay@nrmca.org.
A new, all concrete Hyatt Place hotel under construction in Altoona, IA, (shown here) was the site of an event hosted last week by the Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete Association (IRMCA), reports NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Donn Thompson. Presentations by representatives from the design/build/developer of the project, Fox Blocks, and Build With Strength showcased various construction and operation benefits of building with Insulating Concrete Forms (ICFs). More than 40 local builders, engineers, architects and NRMCA members attended the event (also shown here is IRMCA Executive Director Greg Mulder who began the event with a discussion of the upcoming agenda). Extreme rainfall delayed the job at the start, but because of the efficiency of the ICFs these delays have been overcome with expected completion well within an originally anticipated 12-month timeframe. Net zero energy strategies with concrete were a special focus of the event to support IRMCA’s commitment to growth of high performance school construction throughout the state, Thompson said. 
Pavement
Over 220 attendees gathered for the opening session of the South Dakota Ready Mix Concrete Association (SDRMCA) convention held earlier this month. During the morning session, NRMCA Senior Vice President, Local Paving, Jon Hansen of the Pave Ahead team spoke to the group about the recently released Guide to Concrete Trails, funded by the RMC Research & Education Foundation. Hansen spoke on the contents of the guide and how using the information will better position the concrete construction industry to take advantage of the emerging recreational trail industry. Hansen’s presentation also recognized South Dakota's award winning Sioux River Red Rock Trail project and BX Civil and Construction project manager AliceAnn Krantz. Krantz is on record saying “that with the challenging site conditions, concrete was the only material to build this trail.” Even though Hansen made the audience aware of the free PDF download of the Guide to Concrete Trails, 65 people requested printed copies from SDRMCA Executive Director Jody Titze. For more information, contact Jon Hansen at jhansen@nrmca.org. The 2020 Fleet Benchmarking Survey is filled out by industry fleet managers and/or financial managers early each year, based on data gathered from the previous calendar year’s performance. This year’s form includes new questions on mixer drum composition, idle time and types of fuel being used. The Fleet Benchmarking Survey is used to establish industry benchmarking norms and procedures. Information gathered from the annual Fleet Benchmarking Survey is published in a full report in Concrete InFocus magazine each autumn. A shorter Executive Summary of the survey is also made available to all. Entries must be e-mailed to fleetbenchmark@nrmca.org by Friday, April 24. Click here for more information, staff contact and to download the entry form. The Safety Contest & Benchmarking Survey has for years been a safety performance and incentive/award program aimed to foster safe practices at ready mixed concrete plants across the nation. The Safety Contest & Benchmarking Survey is a per-plant contest open to facilities operated by NRMCA member companies in good standing in 2019. Companies with more than one division are encouraged to distribute entry blanks to individuals responsible for keeping safety records at each plant location. Entries must be e-mailed to safetycontest@nrmca.org by April 24. Click here for more information, staff contact and to download the entry form. The next NRMCA Concrete Durability Course will be offered on April 15 - 17 in Indianapolis. The course is taught by Michael Thomas, University of New Brunswick, Kevin Folliard, University of Texas at Austin and NRMCA Engineering Staff. The course provides a fundamental understanding of the nature of cement and concrete as they relate to durability of concrete. Topics will cover cracking, alkali aggregate reactions, sulfate attack, corrosion of reinforcing steel, freeze-thaw durability and other aspects. A group exercise will be facilitated to familiarize attendees with the ConcreteWorks software used for mass concrete and service life prediction. The course also discusses the durability provisions in the Building Code - ACI 318-19 and how specifications can be structured to address durability. Comprehensive reference material is provided as course notes that is an excellent resource to concrete producers and associated technical personnel. Those with the NRMCA Level 3 Certification obtain the NRMCA Concrete Technologist Level 4 Certification when passing the exam offered with the course. It is not essential to have attended the NRMCA technical short course to attend the Durability Course. The course provides required learning units toward the technical track of the NRMCA STEPS certification program. Persons interested in attending this course are encouraged to register as soon as possible. Click here to register. Details of the hotel contract are being finalized; registrants will be informed about the contracted room rate when finalized. 
April 15 – 17, Indianapolis (tentative) April 28 – May 1, New Orleans April 29, Charlotte, NC May 13 – 15, Glendora, CA May 20, Nashville, TN September 25 – 29, Denver October 20 – 22, Mendota Heights, MN November 17 – 19, Glendora, CA December 15 – 18, Phoenix *For sold out courses if you wish to be added to the course waitlist, please send your request to meetings@nrmca.org. Calendar
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. March 7 – 9, Las Vegas March 10 – 14, Las Vegas March 17 – 19, Dallas March 24 – 27, Boston March 25, Winchester, KY March 25, Washington, DC 
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