 |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Engineering
NRMCA has announced the winners of its 2020 NRMCA Excellence in Quality Awards. Winning producers have demonstrated that they followed and exceeded quality management principles over a broad range of activities from commitment to quality, materials management, managing production facilities, product quality control while maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction. The winners below will be honored during NRMCA’s virtual RES meeting on October 12 and at the NRMCA website. Category A (annual production exceeding 1 million cubic yards): Argos USA LLC - Carolinas Division Category B (annual production from 250,000 to 1 million cubic yards): Anderson Concrete Corp. Category C (annual production less than 250,000 cubic yards): Conewago Ready Mix The criteria for this award were established by NRMCA’s Research Engineering and Standards Committee to recognize the commitment to quality of NRMCA member companies. Companies applied either as a single entity or a division within a company and responded to a multiple-choice type application form that generated their scores; a minimum score of 75% with supporting validation qualified a company to receive an award. For more information, contact Karthik Obla at kobla@nrmca.org. SEO
Registration is still open for NRMCA’s Online Safety Course taking place October 19-23. The course teaches participants about OSHA safety compliance, beginning 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 the new silica rule, electrical safety, machine guarding, fall protection, hazard communication, confined spaces, personal protective equipment, firefighting and evacuation, maintenance shop safety, chute handling, fleet safety, pre-trip inspections and much more. Click here to register. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. Registration is still open for this year’s Online Environmental Certification Course taking place November 16-20. Attendees will be educated on industry-specific environmental issues that affect ready mixed concrete production, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, Discharge Permits, Stormwater Management, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Solids Management, Hazardous Materials, Dust Control, Recycling, Spill Prevention Plans, Air Quality Management, Noise Management, Environmental Auditing and much more. Those who should attend include plant managers, environmental managers, compliance managers, executives or anyone with fiscal and/or environmental responsibilities that need to know the details concerning a company’s responsibilities when it comes to EPA regulations, including the Clean Water Act, discharge permits, stormwater management and numerous other critical environmental matters. Click here to register. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. 
NRMCA and PCA will host a joint government affairs meeting on Tuesday, October 13, at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Make plans to attend this meeting for an update on what’s going on in Washington along with NRMCA and PCA’s advocacy priorities. This year’s ConcreteWorks will have a strong focus on government affairs; the opening general session will be an election and political update with Charlie Cook and the second general session will be a presentation on how the election could impact the cement and ready mixed concrete industries. We strongly encourage members of the NRMCA Government Affairs Committee to attend this important industry event. Also, please make plans to attend NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks 2020. This year’s event will be held virtually October 7-8. Click here for registration and agenda information. Click here to register for the NRMCA, PCA Government Affairs meeting. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. Last week, NRMCA joined a broad coalition of business interests, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which called on Congress to pass H.R. 7894, the Paycheck Protection Program Small Business Enhancement Act. This legislation contains many of NRMCA’s priorities in reforming the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), including allowing 501(c)6 non-profit organizations to apply for PPP loans and protecting the tax-deductibility of expenses. Click here to read the coalition letter. Unfortunately, with the defeat of Senate Republicans’ COVID-19 package earlier this month and the rejection of moderate proposals like those put forward by the Problem Solvers’ Caucus it is increasingly unlikely that any COVID-19 relief package will pass before the election. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. 
Buildings
Build With Strength in partnership with NRMCA and the California Nevada Cement Association, invites you to attend a free webinar titled The Balanced Design Approach to Fire Safety on Tuesday September 29, at noon Pacific time. NRMCA’s Shamim Rashid-Sumar, PE, FSFPE, vice president, fire codes and standards, will present. Hosted by AIA California, this popular webinar discusses how structure fires and wildfires result in significant loss of life and property in the United States each year. In addition to the direct losses of fighting fires, relocating residents and rebuilding, large fire events can cause substantial indirect losses to communities. There has been an increase in single family and multifamily structure fire losses, partly due to increased use of combustible construction methods. The presentation investigates the causes of these fires and provides balanced design recommendations using both active and passive fire protection strategies. Register now to secure your place for the webinar, which provides American Institute of Architects (AIA) Elective Learning Units and/or Professional Development Hours (PDH) for continuing education requirements. Build with Strength is a coalition led by NRMCA that promotes standards advocacy to leverage policies promoting safety and resiliency and help place more concrete. For more information, contact Lionel Lemay at llemay@nrmca.org.
According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), concrete-framed homes experienced accelerated growth over the last five years. NAHB analyzed Census Bureau data that showed total concrete-framed construction was up 46%, increasing from 59,000 completions in 2018 to 86,000 in 2019. The gains over the last five years has been impressive. From 2015 to 2019, the concrete-framed total increased by 105% from 42,000 completions in 2015 to 86,000 completions in 2019. With lumber prices up more than 170% from mid-April through mid-September, now is a better time than ever to consider concrete for housing. Concrete is also being used more often in multi-family construction such as apartments, hotels and dormitories. Although single-family housing is not the focus of Build With Strength, many multi-family builders are also in the business of building single-family. NRMCA’s Concrete Design Center has worked on many single-family subdivisions and townhome projects to successfully convert them from stick frame to concrete. Click here for more details on the Concrete Design Center or contact Lionel Lemay at LLemay@nrmca.org. This course covers the Building Code requirements for concrete materials (ACI 318) and the specifications for concrete as addressed in ACI 301, Specification for Structural Concrete. The presentation covers strength and durability requirements for concrete as addressed in these industry standards. The second session is an overview of the Specification for Ready Mixed Concrete, ASTM C94 and discusses the aspects of ordering concrete, production, delivery and testing. The third session covers tips for improving project specifications, including how to reference national consensus standards and present performance criteria for concrete. Total running time is 3 hours. Cost is $100.00.
Click here for a complete list of NRMCA on-demand courses. For more information, contact Lionel Lemay at LLemay@nrmca.org.
Products & Services
Join NRMCA and Grey Matters for the first ever Global Concrete Summit from November 30 - December 10. This first-of-a-kind virtual conference and expo, attended by top professionals from around the world, promises to attract more attendees than ever before, providing outstanding opportunities to promote your products and services. The Global Concrete Summit is designed to bring practitioners, researchers and policy makers together to exchange the latest ideas, knowledge and tools to build the future of concrete construction. The conference provides learning and networking opportunities on the latest innovations, technical knowledge, continuing research, tools and solutions for sustainable concrete design, construction and manufacturing. Reserve your sponsorship today to ensure your organization’s participation in the first ever Global Concrete Summit. Click here for sponsorship opportunities or contact Jacques Jenkins at jjenkins@nrmca.org or 703-706-4865. 
Pavement
The Carolinas Ready Mixed Concrete Association (CRMCA) recently hosted a virtual seminar for the Charlotte, NC, office of ESP Associates, Inc. NRMCA Senior Vice President, Local Paving, Phil Kresge presented Designing Concrete Parking Lots with ACI 330. The program was facilitated by CRMCA Director of Business Development and Education Jessica Palmer. Kresge’s presentation highlighted both ACI 330R-08: Guide for Design and Construction of Concrete Parking Lots and ACI 330.2R-17: Guide for Design and Construction of Concrete Paving for Industrial and Trucking Facilities. Attendees were also introduced to NRMCA’s Design Assistance Program (DAP). Palmer reports that the presentation was well received. In fact, she adds that almost immediately following the program, she received a DAP request from one of the attendees. For more information, contact Phil Kresge at pkresge@nrmca.org. Government Affairs
NRMCA Champion Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) spearheaded a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee urging the committee to reject an increase in minimum liability insurance for commercial motor vehicles (CMV) in a surface reauthorization. This letter was the result of work done by NRMCA, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association and a broad coalition of transportation interests. H.R. 2 is the Moving America Forward Act in which House Democratic leadership wrapped the INVEST Act. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s surface reauthorization included a provision increasing the minimum liability insurance for each CMV from $750,000 to $2 million. After H.R. 2 passed the House, NRMCA, NSSGA and others met with Senate offices expressing concerns about this and other provisions in the bill. The letter was led by Sen. Daines and signed by Sens. Martha McSally (R-AZ), Mike Braun (R-IN), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Deb Fischer (R-NE) and David Perdue (R-GA). NRMCA applauds Sen. Daines’ efforts and extends our appreciation to him and each of the senators who supported this pro-business, pro-ready mixed concrete letter. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. Late Tuesday, the House passed a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government through December 11 and extend several critical federal programs, including the FAST Act and the National Flood Insurance Program, for one year. Initially introduced and passed by the House Rules Committee on Monday, opposition from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Republicans and some Democrats over lack of aid to the farm credit program led to last minute negotiations and final passage of a slightly modified bill that includes additional funding for child and nutrition programs as well as funding for the farm credit program. The legislation now moves to the Senate. Despite the House passage of H.R. 8337, without action from the Senate and the signature of the President, the FAST Act will expire on September 30 and the nation’s federal transportation programs will lapse. NRMCA and our allied associations are continuing to advocate in Washington for Congress and the president to come together and pass a one-year extension of America’s highway programs. NRMCA has joined our allied associations in sending a letter to Congress and has set up a grassroots action alert for members of the industry to send Congress and the White House a message. If you have not yet acted to send your representative, senators and the president a message, please click here to do so today. We are asking Congress to extend the FAST Act for one year, ensure that the Highway Trust Fund has adequate funding, and provide emergency relief for state departments of transportation (DOT) to reinstate canceled and delayed projects. H.R. 8337 does two of these three things: it extends the FAST Act for one year and also protects the solvency of the Highway Trust Fund, but the bill does not include the additional stimulus funding that stakeholders had been petitioning Congress to include in a FAST Act extension or COVID-19 relief package. The House bill’s one-year extension of the FAST Act includes a $13.6 billion transfer from the general fund into the Highway Trust Fund to keep the trust fund solvent and provide $10.2 billion to the Highway Account and $3.2 billion to the Mass Transit Account. There is still time to urge Congress and the President to include additional relief for state DOTs in the final package. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. 
_Sept13.jpg)
Learning & Development
NRMCA's 2020 Mixer Driver Recruitment and Retention Survey report is available only through download on NRMCA’s website. The full 97-page report includes comprehensive breakdowns for each question for just 2019 as well as its corresponding five-year trend. The information is further delineated nationally, regionally and by company size. The succinct Executive Summary can also be found using the same link. For more information, contact Eileen Dickson at edickson@nrmca.org. Calendar
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. October 5 - 6, Online Course October 5 - 9 October 7 - 8, Online October 19 - 23, Online Course October 21-23, 28-30 Online Course November 2-3, 5-6, 9-10, 13, Online Course November 16 – 20, Online Course November 16 – 17, Online Course November 30 - December 10, Online Conference and Expo December 11 – 18, Online Course December 14 – 18, Online Course 2021 January 12 - 14, San Antonio, TX January 26 – 29, Charlotte, NC February 10 – 12, Dallas March 23 – 26, Boston 
|
||||||||||||
|
