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Association & Industry News

Special Sponsorship Opportunities Are Now Available for 11th Annual Mixer Driver Championship

Add your company name to the growing list of sponsors for NRMCA’s most exciting event of the year! The 11th Annual National Mixer Driver Championship is your opportunity to help the industry celebrate the hard-working men and women who make up the backbone of our industry. All sponsors will receive recognition in the official Championship Program, on signs throughout the venue and course, and from NRMCA leadership throughout the event. Sponsorships are on a first-come basis, so secure your sponsorship spot today.

Click here for a list of available opportunities available (please note that due to the special nature of this event, these opportunities are not included in the annual NRMCA sponsorship package). For more information, contact Jacques Jenkins at 240/485-1165 or by e-mail, jjenkins@nrmca.org.

Portland Cement Producers Publish Industry-Wide EPD

The Portland Cement Association (PCA) recently published an industry-wide Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) for portland cement. The EPD is certified to conform to the Product Category Rule (PCR) for portland cement published by ASTM. In a growing green building market focusing on disclosure, the PCA industry-wide EPD adds to a growing collection of EPDs published by the concrete industry and its suppliers, which is by far leading the building products industry for product transparency. The PCA EPD is linked on the NRMCA Web site. Click here to learn more.

As part of NRMCA’s Build with Strength campaign, NRMCA is helping position concrete and its members to participate in the growing green building market. According to McGraw Hill, 42% of multi-family homebuilders predict they will build the majority of their projects to green standards in 2018, up from 33% in 2015 and up from 12% in 2011.

If you have questions about NRMCA’s EPD program or the Build with Strength campaign, please contact James Bogdan at jbogdan@nrmca.org or 412-420-4138.

Several Tall Wood Buildings Underway Despite Fire Concerns

Despite concerns over the fire safety of tall wood buildings, several CLT (cross-laminated timber) buildings are underway in North America. Several fire experts and reports have recently been quoted in media articles expressing concerns over CLT connections and fire resistance claims here and here.

Research cites:

• "Firefighters will not be aware of the construction materials and methods used in the building; and will not be able to reliably predict the behavior of a fire starting in the building."

• "Claim of fire resistance should be accepted with reservation based on the enormous amount of heat released when a heavy timber building burns after it is ignited."

• "CLT element charring and separation from the assembly can result in increased charring rate and fire intensity."

• "Temperatures were significantly higher than standard time temperature curve according to EN-1363-1."

However, a new, dangerously tall 18-story timber-framed dormitory is under construction in British Columbia and will be the tallest mass wood hybrid building in the world. While the U.S. model codes currently limit wood construction to five stories, projects in New York and Oregon will be the first to see new high rises built with mass timber with code variances.

NRMCA’s Build with Strength (BWS) campaign has built an advocacy network that will support our members in building codes, standards and rating systems at the state and local level. BWS resources help members and state affiliates advocate for resilient construction, model legislation as well as offer free design assistance services to help developers move toward building better with concrete.

For more information, contact Tien Peng at tpeng@nrmca.org.

Government Affairs

Latest Edition of Concrete Capitol Connection Now Available Online

The July 2016 issue of Concrete Capitol Connection is now available online. The issue includes updates on legislative and regulatory issues affecting the ready mixed concrete industry, including the OSHA Silica Rule, Court rulings on union elections and DOT rules on sleep apnea. Click here to read more.

NRMCA Advocacy News Roundup Updated Through July 1

Media articles on Congress, transportation infrastructure, regulation, taxes and other subjects, each of which relate to the ready mixed concrete industry, are updated each week by NRMCA's Government Affairs staff. To access the most recent compilation of articles for June 27 - July 1, 2016, please click here.

If you would like to receive this weekly updated link in a separate e-mail, or if you have questions or comments about the roundup, contact NRMCA’s Jill Landry at jlandry@nrmca.org.

Buildings

NRMCA, Industry Coalition Align with Resilience Building Coalition

NRMCA, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), and 37 other leaders of America’s design and construction industry released a report on progress made on the resilience front since the Resilience Building Coalition announced the Building Industry Statement on Resilience two years ago.The Resilience Building Coalition also released a set of guiding principles to help the building industry adopt resilient design and policies. These include developing and advocating for codes and policies that advance resilience; developing "whole-systems resilient design" approaches for the built environment and providing guidance, beyond the baseline life-safety codes, that recognizes the importance of fortifying property for individual and community resilience. The report includes results from a survey of signatories about how their work has been impacted by the Building Industry Statement on Resilience.

The Coalition report, titled Preparing to Thrive: The Building Industry Statement on Resilience, is an outgrowth of a landmark agreement made in May 2014 in which leaders of America’s design and construction industry agreed to promote resilience in contemporary planning, building materials, design, construction and operational techniques as the solution for making the nation’s aging infrastructure more safe and secure.

Build with Strength is a first-of-its-kind program for the concrete industry, designed not only to support our members, their businesses and the hard-working men and women of the concrete industry, but also to change the way people think about concrete construction versus direct competitors like soft-wood lumber. NRMCA has resources to help members and state affiliates advocate for resilient and safer construction, including model legislation, talking points, public relations and other key strategies.

To learn more about how NRMCA can assist in state advocacy, please contact Senior Director of State and Local Government Affairs John Loyer at 703-675-7603 or jloyer@nrmca.org.

Calendar

A Look Ahead

*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site.

September 18 - 20, Nashville, TN

NRMCA's ConcreteWorks 2016