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Association & Industry News
NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks 2021 will take place September 30 – October 4 at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, FL (metro Orlando). The event will be co-located with the Portland Cement Association's (PCA) Fall Conference, taking place September 30 – October 1. Early bird registration is now open; please register now to take advantage of the 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 $189/night plus applicable taxes and a $30/night resort fee. The resort fee will cover several in-room amenities. Hotel reservations can be made by calling the Gaylord Palms directly at 877-491-0442 and asking for the NRMCA or National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, but we encourage you to make your hotel reservations online. The hotel reservations cut-off date is Tuesday, September 7, or when the block sells out, whichever occurs first. The Exhibitor Prospectus for this year’s event is also available. Exhibit space costs can be found in the prospectus and on the registration website. Reserve your space in the expo hall by completing the application and returning it to NRMCA along with the required payment. Please note that the cost of the exhibit space does NOT include attendee registration. Exhibitor attendees can register online. Keep an eye on your e-mail for more information about the perks of registering early! The earlier you register, the greater the reward! For more information, please contact Senior Director of Meetings Jessica Walgenbach. Click here to access registration, hotel reservation information, the exhibitor prospectus and more. A webinar titled The Road Ahead for Infrastructure: Expert Insight from Latest Civil Quarterly and Dodge Economic Outlook will be held Thursday, June 24, at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Dr. Donna Laquidara-Carr, Industry Insights research director and senior economist for Dodge Data & Analytics, and Kim Kennedy, also from Dodge, will discuss the current and future state of the U.S. civil construction industry. Dr. Laquidara-Carr will share what contractors have identified as headwinds and tailwinds impacting their industry this year and Ms. Kennedy will explore the current expectations for an infrastructure stimulus package. The webinar is free and will be followed by a question-and-answer session. Click here to register. 
Engineering
NRMCA has worked with the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC) and the American Concrete Pumping Association (ACPA) over several years to develop and update checklists to address various details at preconstruction meetings. These checklists are important to ensure project details are discussed and lines of communication are established for approvals, contingencies and changes. Some of these are comprehensive that cover many aspects and may not be needed on all projects. The content is not considered to be all inclusive, as other project-specific details may not be covered in these documents. The following are available on the NRMCA website.
NRMCA will consider revisions to these documents as needed. Suggested revisions can be sent to Colin Lobo or Karthik Obla. SEO
Earlier this week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally denied a petition from 2011 for rulemaking that sought to “revise the regulatory threshold for defining waste as corrosive from the current value of pH 12.5, to pH 11.5; and expand the scope of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) corrosivity definition to include non-aqueous wastes in addition to the aqueous wastes currently regulated.” The group petitioning EPA, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and Dr. Cate Jenkins, PhD, erroneously claimed that had the RCRA standard included the above requested language in 2001 there would have been fewer injuries to first responders on September 11, 2001 and the years following. NRMCA, along with industry partners, advocated against such changes to the RCRA standard and correctly argued that such changes would not have had an impact on the 9/11 first responders as their injuries were conclusively not related to corrosivity issues. After fielding public comments in 2016, EPA moved to deny the rulemaking petition but failed to formalize the denial. While better late than never, the EPA has now formally denied PEER’s petition on the basis of many industry arguments from 2016. NRMCA applauds EPA’s actions to deny movement on PEER’s petition. Amending the RCRA standard as the petition aimed to do would have caused unnecessary and burdensome changes to how concrete operations are conducted and ready mixed concrete is manufactured. NRMCA will continue to monitor the issue for any following petitions. Click here to review EPA’s Denial of Petition published in the Federal Register. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor released its anticipated COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). However, as NRMCA had advocated for, the ETS only covers the healthcare sector while issuing only new voluntary updated guidance for other industries such as ready mixed concrete. The updated guidance for all other, non-healthcare, industries focuses on protections for unvaccinated and other at-risk workers, encourages vaccination and streamlines access to updated guidance and content. This development comes as very welcome news to the industry. Back in May, NRMCA’s SEO team met with OIRA and DOL to relay that such a standard is not only not necessary, but that the current COVID-19 cases, deaths and vaccination data don’t support mandating new measures. NRMCA outlined the specifics of the ready mixed concrete industry, its workforce, when, where and how employees work as well as how the industry has kept its workforce safe since the inception of the pandemic. NRMCA also conveyed the work it has done with industry partners on workplace safety and what an ETS should encompass if finalized, which specifically focused on an ETS only covering high risk industries such as healthcare. Click here to review the healthcare industry-only ETS and here to review the updated OSHA COVID-19 guidance. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. NRMCA joins its industry partners to highlight June as Safety Month. In furthering safety, please review and utilize a joint industry safety poster and particiate in a special presentation by Brandon Schroeder called Believe in Safety; you can learn more on his website. The free presentation will take place Wednesday, June 30, at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Mr. Schroeder is a safety speaker, electrician and a survivor of an arc flash explosion. Everyone has decisions to make about safety and many of them happen in an instant. Having the wrong safety habits make it much easier to make the wrong decisions. Brandon’s story is sure to touch us all by bringing to life the potential outcomes of a simple shortcut and why safe practices are so important. Click here to register. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corp. of Engineers (Corp) announced their intention to “revise the definition of 'waters of the United States' (WOTUS) to better protect our nation’s vital water resources that support public health, environmental protection, agricultural activity, and economic growth.” The agencies' release stated their intention for revisiting the current WOTUS rule is due to a “broad array of stakeholders… seeing destructive impacts to critical water bodies under the 2020 rule.” The agencies’ actions also follows President Biden’s Executive Order 13990 from this past January, outlining requirements for agencies to review regulations from the previous Administration. This action marks the latest development, and just one of many attempts, to rewrite the definition of WOTUS. Most recently, the Trump Administration attempted a revision of the Obama Administration’s attempt. Both faced litigation upon being finalized; however, the Trump Administration version was supported by NRMCA. While the Biden Administration in its release was very light on details about what actions it plans to take, when and what changes may be taken, it is likely that a Biden WOTUS rule may look very similar to the more burdensome Obama Administration rule from 2015. NRMCA will both monitor the agencies’ actions on WOTUS and advocate for an outcome similar to the current 2020 WOTUS rule. Click here to review the agencies’ WOTUS revision press release. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. NRMCA is pleased to announce that not only will NRMCA’s National Mixer Driver Championship be held in-person this year, but driver registration is now open. The 15th Annual National Mixer Driver Championship will be conducted on Saturday, October 2, at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, FL. However, driver championship activities will also take place over October 1-3. We encourage companies to register drivers and register them early. Click here to access the driver registration form, the official Driver Rules & Procedures and Driver Schedule of Events. The deadline for registering drivers is Friday, August 13. Finally, in helping to ensure a successful event this year, we encourage everyone to please review this year’s opportunities for sponsorship of the National Mixer Driver Championship. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Jessica Walgenbach at jwalgenbach@nrmca.org. The Financial Performance Improvement (FPI) Group last week announced the release of the 2021 Performance Benchmarking Survey (PBS). The PBS reports on an array of financial and operational metrics, providing participating companies with national, regional and, where available, state data to measure their performance. Distribution of the survey is limited to participating companies; participants received the survey beginning last week. This marks one of the earliest release dates of the survey, a priority of the FPI Group, which seeks to empower NRMCA members to review their operations and benchmark their progress throughout the year. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. 
Sponsorship opportunities are now available for the Global Concrete Summit, online conference and expo scheduled for August 1 – December 31, 2021. This year’s conference will take place over five months, with live webinars taking place each day. The conference will feature speakers and product manufacturers from all over the world to discuss the latest innovations in concrete technology and construction. Architects, engineers, contractors and product manufactures are invited to attend. Benefits of sponsorship include brand recognition on the conference website, virtual exhibit and product spotlights (special presentations during the technical sessions). Representation from Europe, Middle East and Central, South and North America are featured. NRMCA, Grey Matters and Build With Strength, the principal sponsors for the event, are seeking sponsors from around the world. There are corporate sponsorships at three different levels (Platinum, Gold and Silver) and a partner sponsorship for non-profit organizations. Click here to learn more about sponsorship opportunities or contact Lionel Lemay at LLemay@nrmca.org or +1-847-922-7995. 
Buildings
Build With Strength (BWS) is partnering with the Commonwealth of Kentucky – Energy & Environment Cabinet, Office of Energy Policy to host a virtual training event pertaining to Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF) construction titled A Pathway To Energy & Disaster Resilience: An ICF Symposium And Training Event. The event will offer a view on advancing resilience in future construction and will describe why and how innovative concrete systems like ICFs are helping transform the way we can build energy and disaster-resistant buildings. The training will consist of two hours per day over four days, June 21 through 24. On days 1 and 2 of the event, learning sessions are targeted toward architects and engineers and will include design and benefits of operating ICF buildings presented by architects from NRMCA and Sherman Carter Barnhart. Event days 3 and 4 will provide ICF installation training for contractors (although design professionals are welcomed). This portion of the training will be led by the Insulated Concrete Forms Manufacturers Association (ICFMA) and provide the specifics for constructing with ICFs. Up to 8 hours of AIA learning units are available for this event. The is a free event 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. Click here to access the agenda, registration information and other details. For more information, contact Derek Torres at dtorres@nrmca.org or 973-876-0938 or James Bogdan jbogdan@nrmca.org or 412-420-4138.
Pavement
The ACI 330 Committee has recently published a new guide for the design and construction of parking lots. Along with ACI PRC-330.2R-17, Guide for the Design and Construction of Concrete Site Paving for Industrial and Trucking Facilities, the newly-issued Commercial Concrete Parking Lots and Site Paving Design and Construction – Guide (ACI PRC-330-21) will replace the ACI 330R-08 design guide. This new parking lot guide focuses on the light and medium duty developments whereas the industrial guide focuses in greater detail on heavy duty sites. Both documents incorporate pavementdesigner.org for the thickness design tables. Click here to order your copies of the ACI PCR-330 guides and visit pavementdesigner.org for concrete pavement calculations. For more information, contact Amanda Hult at ahult@nrmca.org. NRMCA Vice President, Local Paving, Don Clem, PE provided a presentation on Concrete Overlays over Asphalt Pavements during a 4-day virtual annual conference sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) Southern Idaho Section. The webinar was attended by over 40 civil engineering members of the society; it was based on the Guide to Concrete Overlays of Asphalt Parking Lots prepared by the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center with funding for the guide provided by the RMC Research & Education Foundation. For more information, contact Don Clem at dclem@nrmca.org or 303-881-5009. On Wednesday June 9, Jon Hansen, senior vice president on NRMCA’s Pave Ahead team, was one of four panelists at a slab on grade luncheon held during the rescheduled 2021 World of Concrete at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The panel consisted of Bryan Birdwell with Structural Service Inc., Chris Tull with CRT Concrete Consulting, Jim Klinger representing the American Society of Concrete Contractors and Hansen representing the NRMCA Pave Ahead team and its current efforts with industrial parking lots. Brian Killingsworth, executive vice president and Pave Ahead team leader, was also present as the pair rolled out the National Concrete Parking Lot Contractors Coalition. At the conclusion of the luncheon, several contractors in the audience stayed late with questions about the coalition and how NRMCA can help capturing this market. To find out more, contact Jon Hansen at jhansen@nrmca.org or Brian Killingsworth at bkillingsworth@nrmca.org. 
August 3 - 5, Smyrna, TN September 29 - October 3, Kissimmee, FL October 18 - 20, Orlando, FL November 9 – 11, Dallas November 30 – December 2, Orlando, FL December 7 - 10, Orlando, FL Calendar
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. Thursday, June 17, Free Online Webinar June 21 - 24, Online Course June 24, Free Online Webinar June 30 Free Online Webinar 
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