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Association & Industry News
NRMCA Senior Vice President, Operations and Compliance, Kevin Walgenbach has been named executive vice president, operations and compliance, effective January 1, 2024. Mr. Walgenbach has been with the Association for 17 years and has done an outstanding job advising the ready mixed concrete industry on compliance with safety, labor, operations and environmental regulations. He has also led the Association’s efforts to monitor and advocate on key regulatory issues of importance to the industry before Federal executive branch agencies.
NRMCA’s Concrete Cares Award celebrates Producer members’ dedication to supporting their local communities through a wide range of charitable endeavors. If your ready mix company gives back to your community, please let us know. Winning companies receive a donation to the nonprofit organization of their choice and NRMCA will also feature your work on NRMCA social media outlets throughout 2024. Click here for the nomination form; you may nominate your own or another company - the deadline for submittals is January 12, 2024. For more information, contact Amanda Muller at amuller@nrmca.org. 
Buildings
Habitat for Humanity's chapter in Butte County CA, recently held its 30th Anniversary celebration in Chico, CA, reports NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Patrick Matsche who attended the event. Many large donors who contributed to the chapter over the years attended the event, he said, also noting that Habitat chapter Executive Director Nicole Bateman (seen here along with Patrick Matsche) recognized the Build With Strength team of NRMCA's Mike Philipps, Gregg Lewis and Patrick Matsche. They along with Mike Dalzell of NRMCA Associate member Fox Blocks provide in-in-kind labor, building two Habitat homes in Paradise, CA, which were the first homes donated by NRMCA members in 2021. The November 2018 Camp Fire destroyed over 95% of the structures in Paradise and the surrounding communities. Since then, about 25 multifamily and single family homes have been constructed utilizing Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs). For more information, contact Patrick Matsche at pmatsche@nrmca.org or 415-672-5275.
The American Institute of Architects Rhode Island Chapter has awarded the 2023 Morse Stone Fellowship/Medal to NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Frank Mruk, FAIA. The fellowship, named after the chapter’s first two presidents, Alpheus C. Morse and Alfred E. Stone, celebrates contributions to the profession and invaluable service in the spirit of fellowship. The ceremony took place last week at the AIA Rhode Island 2023 Honor and Design Awards Celebration at the Dye House in Providence. Over 150 people attended the event. The Build With Strength program is a leader in supporting architects at the cutting edge of industry best practices. For more information, contact Frank Mruk at fmruk@nrmca.org. 
NRMCA Director, Building Innovations, Brandon Wray, organized a half day low carbon concrete event in San Francisco last week. The event was structured to pull in experts and stakeholders from various aspects of the built environment to discuss successes, strategies and next steps pertinent to the implementation, growth and acceptance of low carbon concrete. Attendees highlighted the ability of concrete to adapt to the climate demands of owners and designers while still excelling at being a high performance and resilient material.
NRMCA Director, Sustainability, Codes and Standards, Tiffany Reed-Villareal moderated a panel on Embodied Carbon and Sustainable Materials at the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) Inspire Conference in Arlington, VA, in mid-November. Panelists included her NRMCA colleague Brian Killingsworth, materials producers and structural engineers. Topics covered buy-clean legislation, recycling of materials, green procurement and low-carbon concrete. Killingsworth stressed the whole system approach to decision-making, considering multiple factors beyond Global Warming Potential (GWP) for making sustainable procurement decisions. Reed-Villareal emphasized the importance of considering a whole building lifecycle assessment when making choices on materials rather than just focusing solely at EPDs. The panel agreed there is a need for stakeholder education across the project lifecycle.
SEO
Last week, the White House Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) published its updated Fall Unified Regulatory Agenda. The Unified Agenda is the clearinghouse for public access to federal regulatory agencies’ respective regulatory actions, covering 60 departments, agencies and commissions. The agenda includes new timelines and updates on issues such as OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention and Union Walkaround rules; DOL’s Overtime rule; DOT’s Automatic Braking Systems and Side Underride Guards proposals; FMCSA’s Safety Fitness Procedures, Electronic IDs and Speed Limiters; EPA’s Heavy-Duty Truck Emissions and Fly Ash updates; and NLRB’s Election Procedures revision, to name a few. Click here to view the updated regulatory proposals/rules and their timelines. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org.
Pavement
While they have been common in Europe since the 1960’s, roundabouts have been gaining popularity in the U.S. since the late 90’s, reports NRMCA Senior Vice President, Local Paving, Phil Kresge. The Federal Highway Administration estimates that there are over 8,000 roundabouts currently in the service, with the potential for more than 500 new per year. With over 400 roundabouts in the state, Ohio ranks 10th among the 50 states in most roundabouts.
Engineering
Earlier this month, NRMCA Engineering Staff Attended the ASTM meeting Committees C09 on Concrete, C01 on Cement and E05 on Fire held in Washington, DC, and filed the following report on committee activity relevant to the ready mixed concrete industry.
C09.20 Aggregates - Minor revisions were approved to ASTM C29 to measure bulk density of aggregate; to C117 to measure material finer than the No. 200 sieve and to C88 on measuring soundness of aggregate. An attempt to reference a new AASHTO volumetric method, T 354, for measuring specific gravity and absorption of fine and coarse aggregate as an alternate in ASTM C127 (coarse) and C128 (fine) was not successful.
Calendar
Please note that e-mail and direct registration links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's website. 2024 January 16 - 19, Los Angeles *Sold Out January 16 - 19, Nashville, TN February 5 - 9, Oklahoma City *Limited Seats Left February 13 - 15, Denver *Limited Seats Left February 20 - 22, Nashville, TN February 27 - 29, Orlando, FL *Sold Out March 5 - 7, Nashville, TN March 18 - 21, Tampa, FL March 26 - 28, Denver April 16 - 18, Nashville, TN October 10 - 14, Aurora, CO 
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