With the election over, much of President Obama and Congress's attention will focus on the $600 billion package of automatic tax increases and spending cuts, scheduled to take effect at the end of 2012, that could severely strain economic growth. Perhaps it rings a bell when referred to as its other name: the fiscal cliff. Obama is expected to demand tax increases for the wealthy as part of a deal to reduce spending to tackle the nation's deficit. Many investors thought that Romney as president-elect would have had a smoother time in negotiations.

Last week's signing of an Agreement on Standards between ASTM International and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is good news for the ready mix industry. ASTM International President James A. Thomas and AASHTO Executive Director John Horsley signed the agreement at AASHTO headquarters in Washington, DC. The document is an outgrowth of the ongoing relationship between the two groups and serves as a future basis for continued mutual cooperation on the development and publication of standards related to highway construction.

While the metallurgical and semiconductor industries have benefited from a deeper understanding of chemical processes that underlie productivity improvements, the concrete industry is falling behind, states a Texas university professor. In large part, that can be attributed to a lack of thorough understanding of the chemical processes involved in the hydration of portland cement, says Maria Juenger, associate professor, University of Texas at Austin. Juenger says that miracle metals, polymers, pharmaceuticals and semi-conductors were developed through an understanding of chemical kinetics - the study of rates and mechanisms of chemical reactions and of the factors on which they depend. By mastering kinetics, concrete producers can also maximize sustainability.

What is autoclaved aerated concrete and why is a New Jersey university professor describing it as an excellent material for rebuilding the hard-hit New York metropolitan region from Super Storm Sandy? The material, best known as AAC, has been heralded as the building material of the new millennium. It's a lightweight, easily-crafted manufactured stone, strong enough to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes when reinforced with steel.

    

An industry luncheon hosted by the Concrete Promotion Council (CPC) of the Ozarks late last month drew a large, diverse cross section of people who are charged with facility maintenance. Representatives from cities, counties, school districts, contractors, civil engineers, and architectural firms in and around the Springfield, MO, region attended, reports NRMCA Senior National Resource Director Jon Hansen who spoke to the group on proven, cost effective methods for pavement rehabilitation utilizing concrete overlays.

"The CPC of the Ozarks said this was one of the largest groups to attend a luncheon meeting," Hansen said. "I believe every company represented had put construction spending on hold to the point that the backlog of maintenance and repair that has accumulated has created awareness for investigating the best possible solutions moving forward. One organization attending has over 50 pending parking lots projects and it is very interested in looking at all options."

As the meeting ended, one firm attending requested a similar luncheon seminar in Joplin, MO, which is still rebuilding from an EF-5 tornado that struck in May 2011, Hansen added.

recently released www.concretepinboard.com as a repository for industry projects, reports NRMCA Senior National Resource Director Amy Miller. The Web site gives anyone the ability to upload concrete projects to be shared with others and organizes projects in several ways.

There is one NRMCA promotion-focused Webinar on tap for November. Effectively Communicating Sustainability is an hour-long program that takes what we already know about concrete’s sustainability along with the recently released MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub research results and incorporates that information with a Communications 101 course, geared toward helping attendees understand what it takes to improve our communication skills. Click on the link below to learn more or contact NRMCA's Jacques Jenkins at jjenkins@nrmca.org.

• Friday, November 16 - Effectively Communicating Sustainability

The Manufacturers, Products & Services (MPS) Division of NRMCA is pleased to announce that nominations for the 2013 Concrete Cares Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in community service by an NRMCA producer member company, are now being accepted. With ready mixed concrete plants in almost every community in America, NRMCA member companies are making a real difference. From Earth Day celebrations, to organized volunteering for Boys & Girls Clubs, local schools and recreation departments, to raising awareness for breast cancer screenings, ready mix producers are at work every day in their communities. 

The Concrete Cares Award aims to recognize these efforts and shine a national spotlight on the positive impact ready mixed concrete companies have in hometowns across the nation. A donation, in the name of the selected honoree, will be made to the charity of the company's choice. The award will be presented at NRMCA’s Annual Convention to be held in March 2013 in San Antonio, TX, during the Association’s annual awards breakfast. All ready mixed concrete producers who are members of NRMCA are eligible for nomination. 

Is your company celebrating a milestone anniversary in 2013? As NRMCA gears up to celebrate 100 years of ready mixed concrete in the U.S. in 2013, we want to highlight our members’ achievements as well. You can submit your 2013 milestone anniversaries to Kathleen Carr-Smith, senior vice president, membership & communications at kcarrsmith@nrmca.org. We’ll highlight our members in E-NEWS throughout next year.

"Contrary to election-year rhetoric, the economy is inching its way to improvement, and the construction industry has not stopped working," according to the third quarter 2012 Construction Outlook report by FMI, the largest provider of management consulting and investment banking to the engineering and construction industry. The industry forecast is calling for an 8 percent increase in total construction put in place for 2013. Contributing to this positive forecast is more robust growth in residential construction as well as a few strong markets in nonresidential and non-building construction.

Total construction put in place for 2013 is forecast to be $892 billion, a solid improvement over the last few years, but still just edging out 2003 levels of construction activity. Residential Construction Housing starts rose to 603,000 units a year as of September 2012. Single-family permits also rose to a 545,000-unit pace, or 6.7 percent, returning to levels not seen since July 2008.

Nonresidential Construction Trends and Forecasts by Sector:

• Lodging — Hotel developers will renovate before building new properties. Bank loans will be hard to justify until occupancy and room rates remain consistently high. 

• Office — Through the first two quarters of 2012, the U.S. office sector has now absorbed 10.4 million square feet, 100,000 square feet less of net absorption than was generated over the first six months of 2011. (Jones Lang LaSalle, "Office Outlook United States, Q2 2012). This is not yet enough activity to compare with prerecession highs, but we expect CPIP to improve 4 percent in 2013.

• Commercial — Expect more rethinking of commercial construction space to accommodate smaller stores and combining in-store sales with online shopping. Look for increasing multiuse projects.

• Health care — New health care construction will include a growing number of renovation projects to update current facilities for modern hospital design, using more technology in the rooms as well as for improving air quality and reducing energy usage.

• Education — Significantly less funding from states for K-12 schools.

• Religious — The lending environment continues to be a challenge for many congregations.

• Public safety — Despite overcrowding in prisons, we expect public safety construction to remain slow for the next couple of years, at least with only 1 percent growth in 2013 to $10.2 billion.

• Amusement and recreation — Money for sports stadiums will be hard to find from local government investment, and banks will be reluctant to lend to anyone who couldn’t already pay for the project from cash flow. 

• Transportation — This remains a strong sector for construction. CPIP is expected to grow 6 percent in 2013 to a total of $38.2 billion for the year. This is due in part to the FAA Modernization and Reform Act will provide $63.6 billion for the agency’s programs between 2012-2015.

• Communications — Growth in communication construction is being powered by an insatiable need for speed and to send and store large amounts of multimedia files over the Internet. One trend that might slow the growth in construction dollars is the trend to use mini cell "towers," which are small, easily installed boxes that help to maximize spectrum.

• Manufacturing — Manufacturing construction is starting to make a comeback with both new growth in manufacturing output and with some companies repatriating their manufacturing capacity.

• Power-related — Power construction will continue to be one of the strongest growth sectors for construction. Worthy to note is U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a proposal out for $7 billion in locally generated renewable energy through power purchase agreements. 

• Highway — State budgets will continue to be strained and it will be difficult to get larger projects off the ground. Therefore, funds from the MAP-21 and TIGER grants make up a large percentage of construction put in place included in FMI’s 2013 forecast of $84.7 billion for highways and streets.

• Sewage and waste disposal — Waste-to-energy may be one of the best bets for future work in this sector if more municipalities can find ways to work with private investors.

• Water supply — Expect this sector to struggle to find funds for necessary remediation and construction. Strength in water supply construction will be found in pockets for industrial projects like the mining sector, power and industrial plants.

• Conservation and Development — The 2012 annual budget for the Department of Agriculture eliminates funding for the Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) and Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations programs. New projects in this sector, like water system projects, will more likely come from cleanup for the mining and energy sector to comply with regulations.

Last week, the RMC Research & Education Foundation formally kicked off an effort to help "Bridge the Gap" between program funding commitments, such as the work taking place at the Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSH) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other projects, and the required use of endowment funds to fund these programs. Although the Foundation’s Board of Trustees recognizes the time is not right for embarking on a major capital campaign, they chose to move forward with a more modest campaign to "Bridge the Gap" to continue to fund these important programs without continued erosion to the endowment. The concept is to raise at least enough money to meet the annual commitment to fund the MIT CSH and the other foundation programs in 2013 and 2014 without using principal funds.

In just the quiet phase before the official launch of the "Bridge the Gap" campaign, the Foundation has raised $990,000 toward its roughly $2.3 million goal, including 18 companies contributing at the leadership level of $50,000 over two years. Most payments are occurring in 2013 and 2014 to support the effort.

The December 11-14 NRMCA Plant Manager Certification class being held in Denver is now sold out. Because there is a waiting list, NRMCA will hold an extra class the week of March 18, 2013 - the exact location has not been determined, but it will be in the center of the country, hopefully away from possible spring snow.

NRMCA’s seminars, training and educational programs recently achieved Educational Provider Status with the International Code Council (ICC).  Earning ICC Education Provider Partner status allows collaboration of training delivery and provides the industry an avenue to promote concrete’s excellence in sustainable construction, safety and environmental stewardship with ICC CEU benefits.

NRMCA’s educational programs have always supported the needs of the design and construction industry with a comprehensive set of learning opportunities. Continually updated to meet the changing needs of a dynamic industry, these information-packed programs use the latest teaching techniques to deliver maximum learning. Now these educational programs offer ICC-certified professionals the ability to receive 0.1 approved ICC CEU credits for course participation for each clock hour of instruction that is completed.

The first course to be offered as a partner with ICC is "Adopting Disaster Resilient Construction at the Local Level Workshop" with 0.6 approved ICC CEU credits. More ICC educational programs will follow. In addition, NRMCA is registered as a provider under the American Institute of Architects, Green Building Certification Institute and American Society of Landscape Architects. 

NRMCA Producer Member Central Concrete Supply Co., a U.S. Concrete Company that serves the San Francisco metropolitan area, is the first ready mix supplier in the U.S. to sign on to the 2030 Challenge for Products, an initiative to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the Building Sector through low-carbon building products. Central Concrete has already achieved the first Challenge target set for 2014: delivering low-CO2 concrete mixes that reduce the overall carbon footprint, on average, by more than 30% as compared to traditional portland cement concrete.

In addition, Central Concrete has become the first concrete company in the United States to initiate the development of environmental product declarations (EPDs). EPDs are third-party verified (certified) reports published by product manufacturers that provide quality assured and comparable information regarding environmental performance of their products. They provide environmental impact information such as global warming potential, ozone depletion and water use.

The 2030 Challenge for Products, issued by Architecture 2030, calls on architecture, planning and building industries worldwide to specify, design and manufacture products that meet specific carbon reduction targets between now and the year 2030. These targets increase incrementally every five years. For example, the 2014 target achieves a carbon-equivalent footprint of 30% below the current product average. The 2030 target calls for a 50% reduction. 

NRMCA recently announced that it has signed on to the Architecture 2030 Challenge and has become an EPD Program Operator in order to help concrete producers and concrete product suppliers meet the targets set by the 2030 Challenge for Products. In addition, LEED, International Green Construction Code (IgCC) and several other sustainability standards will require EPDs as a way to measure environmental footprint of building products.

The recording of an NRMCA Webinar titled Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) presented earlier this week is now available for viewing at www.nrmca.org/sustainability. Well established in other parts of the world, EPDs are starting to appear in the U.S. as the common methodology for assessing the environmental performance of products. The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED v4 Rating System and Architecture 2030 for Products are starting the demand for EPDs. 

This 1-1/2 hour Webinar offers a brief overview of EPDs, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that supports them and the Product Category Rules (PCRs) that sets the ground rules. In addition, the Webinar discusses NRMCA’s EPD Program, which enables concrete producers to meet the new requirements for EPDs.

A host of publications have reported on the election, transportation, infrastructure, regulation, heath care, taxes and other subjects, each of which relate to the ready mixed concrete industry. To access these articles for the week of November 5 - 9, please click here.

NRMCA's November Internet Spotlight, good through Tuesday, December 4, is the complete four part driver training set of the It's Up to Us DVD series (Parts 1-4). While supplies last only, prepare your drivers for the winter training season by purchasing the complete driver training DVD series for half price.

This four part DVD series guides ready mix drivers on best management practices for safeguarding the environment. Part 1 explains what environmental regulations are and how following the rules impacts your business. Part 2 covers water and waste concrete: compliance procedures, how they affect the environment, alternative methods and an important definition of pH. Part 3 examines admixtures, chemicals and fuel, including identifying chemicals, the need to check for leaks, three simple fueling rules and who to call in the event of a spill. Part 4 examines how to minimize air pollution, dust and noise.

November 16, Webinar

Effectively Communicating Sustainability

Email: Jacques Jenkins, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

 

November 19, Webinar

Biodiveristy at Ready Mixed Concrete Plants

Email: Tien Peng, 206-913-8535

 

November 27, Wilmington, NC

Adopting Disaster Resilient Construction at the Local Level

Email: Tien Peng, 206-913-8535

 

December 4-6, Silver Spring, MD

CCSP Module II: Customer Business Knowledge

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

December 4-6, Orlando, FL

Environmental Professional Certification Course for the Ready Mixed Concrete Industry

Email: Nicole Maher, 888-84-NRMCA, x1158

 

December 6, Las Vegas

Rocky Mountain Regional Work Plan Meeting

Email: Nicole Maher, 888-84-NRMCA, x1158

 

December 7, Webinar

ACI 330 R-08 - The Gold Standard of Concrete Parking Lot Design

Email: Jacques Jenkins, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

 

December 11-14, Denver

Plant Manager Certification Course *Sold Out

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

December 12, Silver Spring, MD

Atlantic Regional Work Plan Meeting

Email: Nicole Maher, 888-84-NRMCA, x1158

 

December 12-13, Doha, Qatar

International Concrete Technology Forum

Email: Lionel Lemay, 847-918-7101

 

2013

 

February 18-22, Sacramento, CA

Technical Short Course

Email: Karen Bean, 888-84-NRMCA, x1168

 

February 19-21, Silver Spring, MD

CCSP Module III: General Business Knowledge

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

March 3-5, San Antonio, TX

NRMCA Annual Convention

Email: Nicole Maher, 888-84-NRMCA, x1158

 

March 19-21, Silver Spring, MD

CCSP Module IV: Sales Fundamentals

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

March 20, Charlotte, NC

Handling Concrete Specifications, Low Strength Problems & Mixture Submittals

Email: Karen Bean, 888-84-NRMCA, x1168

 

May 6-8, San Francisco

International Concrete Sustainability Conference

Email: Lionel Lemay, 847-918-7101

 

May 12-15, Chicago

Fifth North American Conference on Design and Use of Self-Consolidating Concrete

 

August 11-15, Montreal

ISARC 2013: 30th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, Mining & Petroleum Industries

Email: Chantal Murphy, 514-939-2710, ext. 1309