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Association & Industry News

Ready Mixed Concrete Production Statistics Updated Through November 2016

The preliminary estimate of ready mixed concrete produced in November 2016 is 28.8 million cubic yards, 7.4% higher than that in November 2015. The estimated production through September is 321 million cubic yards, 2.8% higher than that during the same period in 2015.

Ready mixed concrete production is estimated from cement shipments reported by the U.S. Geological Survey. Additional details, including quarterly production by state, is available for NRMCA members here.

Submissions for Concrete Cares Award Now Being Accepted

The Manufacturers, Products & Services (MPS) Division of NRMCA is now accepting nominations for the 2017 Concrete Cares Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in community service by an NRMCA Producer member company. 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 mixed 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 their choice. The award will be presented at NRMCA’s Annual Convention, March 4-6, 2017 in Las Vegas, NV, during the Association’s annual awards breakfast.

Ready mixed concrete producers that are members of NRMCA are eligible for nomination. To view past honorees and submit a nomination for consideration, please use the appropriate form found here and forward the nomination form and supporting materials to Kathleen Carr-Smith, senior vice president, membership and communications, via e-mail at kcarrsmith@nrmca.org or mail to NRMCA, 900 Spring Street, Silver Spring, MD, 20910, Attention: Concrete Cares Award. Nominations must be received by Friday, February 3, for consideration.

Government Affairs

Become a CONCRETEPAC Corporate Sponsor for 2017

CONCRETEPAC gives a strong voice to the ready mixed concrete industry on Capitol Hill – and our plans for 2017 are bigger than ever! While we raise personal contributions to fund CONCRETEPAC’s political activities, the PAC is sustained by corporate contributions made by our members to underwrite our administrative operating costs. We invite all NRMCA Producer and Associate members to consider becoming a CONCRETEPAC corporate sponsor in 2017.

Our biggest event of the year, CONCRETEPAC's Bruno Benna 'BACK-the-PAC' Dinner & Auction will be held on March 5 during NRMCA's Annual Convention, immediately preceding the CONEXPO-CON/AGG show in Las Vegas, NV. This is sure to be the largest gathering of the ready mixed concrete industry of the year. Becoming a CONCRETEPAC corporate sponsor increases your company's recognition and exposure. We have sponsorship levels to fit every budget, as well as unique benefits to offer. All levels designate your company as an overall sponsor of all CONCRETEPAC events in 2017 - guaranteeing that your company's name will be in front of the industry's top executives. Join us today!

Thank you to our committed Corporate Sponsors to date:

Landmark Level ($10,000)

Oldcastle Materials Inc.

Thomas Concrete, Inc.

Red Level ($5,000)

Concrete Supply Co.

US Concrete

Silver Level ($2,500)

Lehigh Hanson

Sioux Corporation

Gray Level ($1,000)

CalPortland Company

Conewago Enterprises

CONCRETEPAC’s Corporate Sponsorship Brochure can be viewed here and the form for participation can be downloaded here. For more information, contact Cara Gavagan at cgavagan@nrmca.org.

Senate Holds Confirmation Hearing for EPA Administrator Nominee

Last week, nominees for six cabinet level posts went to the Hill for confirmation hearings. Of particular interest to NRMCA was the hearing for Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Environmental Protection Agency Administrator. As Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Mr. Pruitt led the fight of state’s rights to oppose many of the Obama-era regulations burdening small businesses like many in the ready mixed concrete industry. During confirmation hearings, Mr. Pruitt reiterated his strong belief that executive agencies and departments must be held in check by the rule of law. Consequently, when Mr. Pruitt testified, he opposed regulations that exceeded the scope of the authority granted them by Congress. In addition, Mr. Pruitt leaned on his experience in state government to advocate for states to lead on actions with the EPA facilitating state-directed plans.

NRMCA strongly supports the confirmation of Mr. Pruitt for EPA Administrator because he brings years of experience and knowledge needed to restore common-sense practices to protecting public health and the environment. A Senate confirmation vote has not been scheduled, but NRMCA, as well as members of the Highway Materials Group and North American Concrete Alliance, advocated on his behalf to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, as well as sent letters of support to Senate leadership.

For more information contact NRMCA’s Kerri Leininger at kleininger@nrmca.org.

Trump Names Infrastructure as a Priority in Inaugural Address

In his inaugural address last week, freshly sworn-in President Donald Trump decried the disrepair and decay of American infrastructure, and promised to turn attention once again to rebuilding the "roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation." President Trump’s emphasis on infrastructure follows on a frequent campaign theme of rebuilding America. During the campaign, President Trump’s "Contract with the American Voter" pledged a 10-year, $1 trillion investment in U.S. infrastructure. While a detailed plan has yet to be laid out, President Trump has said that the plan will leverage public-private partnerships and private investment through tax incentives. The President has also suggested redirecting funds for United Nations climate change programs to spend on infrastructure at home.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have proposed their own $1 trillion infrastructure plan, and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is focused on finding funding options for a separate infrastructure package. While the various plans are likely to have significant differences, particularly in respect to financing, momentum continues to grow for a significant surge in infrastructure investment in 2017.

NRMCA has consistently engaged in advocating for significant investments in our nation’s infrastructure. During the 2016 presidential election, NRMCA engaged with both presidential candidates in support of an infrastructure plan that includes shoring up Highway Trust Fund solvency. With the beginning of the new administration, NRMCA is continuing to work with a broad coalition focused on securing long-term investments in transportation and infrastructure.

For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.

Buildings

Industry Launches Responsibly Sourced Concrete Certification

The Concrete Sustainability Council (CSC) has launched a global responsible sourcing certification system which is designed to help concrete producers and their material suppliers measure and report the level at which their company operates in a responsible way. Initiated by a group of international concrete, cement and aggregate trade groups and their members, organizations that include NRMCA, the CSC Responsible Sourcing certification system covers the raw materials, its source or provenance, its manufacture and a range of economical, social and environmental impacts. The CSC certification system has been developed together with a large group of the industry and certification bodies, and went through a consultation process with experts and representatives from NGOs focused on providing feedback on the system's criteria.

By creating a certification system for responsibly sourced concrete, the CSC aims to improve transparency of the concrete sector; highlight the essential role of concrete in creating a sustainable construction sector by getting recognition in "green" procurement government policies and building rating systems, including LEED and BREEAM. Full details about CSC and a list of CSC member organizations can be found here.

As part of the Build with Strength campaign, NRMCA promotes Strength Through Transparency for member and industry competitiveness in the green building marketplace and the trends toward product and company transparency.

For more information, contact James Bogdan at jbogdan@nrmca.org or 412-420-4138.

Recent ICF Awards Shine Spotlight on Build with Strength Campaign

The Build with Strength campaign is in full swing and making a major impact on mid-rise projects across the country, reports NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Michael Wymant. Through consulting and design assistance programs, NRMCA’s building team is working with developers, designers and installers. There is a great deal of momentum around resilient construction. A great example of the growth and high quality of these buildings are those constructed with insulated concrete forms. Last week, the ICF Builder Awards winners were announced at the Insulated Concrete Form Symposium in Las Vegas. In its 12th year, the awards recognize the amazing attributes of concrete buildings. The awards recognize small residential, large residential, multi family, hospitality, education, light commercial, heavy commercial and specialty projects. This was a record breaking year for the awards with more than 100 applicants.

The finalist were evaluated based on ICF use, construction factors, design factors and significance to the industry. The projects represented developments from across the U.S. and recognized the various manufacturing partners of NRMCA, including Fox Blocks, Nudura, Logix, Quad-lock, Build Block and AMVIC and others. The projects were presented by the newly established and renamed ICF Manufacturers Association and ICF Builder Group. While all the projects were exceptional, each shared the same consistent benefits: significant savings on labor, scheduling and insurance, and a superior delivered product comprised of ready mix concrete. All ICF buildings provide a stronger, safer, quieter and more energy efficient building. A list of winners can be found here.

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.

For more information please contact Michael Wymant at mwymant@nrmca.org.

OES

President Trump Orders Immediate Regulatory Freeze

Last Friday, following his swearing in as the 45th president of the United States, President Donald Trump, through his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, issued a presidential memorandum freezing all regulatory action until further notice. In keeping with tradition of other incoming presidents, President Trump ordered the freeze until all regulatory action can be reviewed by his administration. The regulatory freeze puts a hold on all issues that are currently pending within the various agencies in some fashion, but have not been finalized yet. An exception will be allowed, however for those issues concerning "emergency situations or other urgent circumstances relating to health, safety, financial or national security matters."

Click here to review the memorandum order. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org.

Registration Still Open for the Spring Safety Course

Registration for NRMCA’s Spring 2017 Safety Course from March 20-22 in Atlanta is still open; please note that this course will sell out very soon. The 2.5-day 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 electrical safety, machine guarding, fall protection, hazard communication, confined spaces, personal protective equipment, fire fighting and evacuation, maintenance shop safety, chute handling, fleet safety, pre-trip inspection and more.

Click here for location details, registration options and staff contacts.

Reminder: OSHA 300A Summary Logs Must Be Posted February 1

Remember, staring February 1, employers need to display their OSHA 300A log where all employees have access to it. The summary log needs to stay posted until April 30, 2017.

Click here for more information on OSHA recordkeeping requirements. Click here to access OSHA 300A forms and instructions. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org.

Tier II / Community Right-to-Know Reporting Deadline is March 1

The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), put into law in 1986, requires industries to report on the "storage, use and releases of hazardous chemicals (and materials) to federal, state, and local governments." This specific reporting requirement under EPCRA is commonly referred to as Community Right-to-Know (CRTK) reporting, Tier II reporting and/or Section 311/312 reporting. The reporting deadline is Wednesday, March 1.

Click here to learn more about EPCRA, chemical/material thresholds and how to report. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org or Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org.

Engineering

MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub to Hold Webinar Tomorrow on Building-Related Research

The MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) will host a public Webinar on Thursday, January 26, at 11 a.m. Eastern time to provide an overview of the group’s buildings-related research, including discussion of CSHub studies on life cycle assessment; life cycle cost analysis (with hazard resistance); building energy consumption and city energy consumption. The presentation is geared toward a lay audience. These public-focused Webinars will be held approximately monthly throughout 2017. The next Webinar, which will discuss pavements-related research, will be held on Thursday, March 2. Additional topics and dates will be announced via the CSHub Web site.

The CSHub at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was established in 2009 with funding from the Ready Mixed Concrete (RMC) Research & Education Foundation and the Portland Cement Association (PCA). The mission of the CSHub is to develop breakthroughs that will achieve sustainable and durable homes, buildings, and infrastructure.

For more information, please see the CSHub Web site. Click here to register for the January 26 Webinar. Questions may be directed to Anne Yu, CSHub communications coordinator, at anne@mit.edu.

NRMCA Course on Improving Concrete Quality Set for Pennsylvania in Late February

NRMCA, in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Aggregates and Concrete Association, is presenting the one-day course, Improving Concrete Quality, intended for concrete producers, ingredient material suppliers, engineers, testing labs and contractors. The course will be offered on Tuesday, February 28, in Harrisburg, PA. Improving Concrete Quality, a book authored by one of the instructors, and other NRMCA resources provide the basic content for the course.

Improved concrete quality can benefit all stakeholders in a concrete construction project. This course will answer some of the following questions:

How do you know if you have good quality? What should be your quality metric?
How to become more profitable through better quality?
What are all the key statistical calculations you need to know in concrete?
How to control the mixing water content in concrete?
How to deal with temperature and delivery time variations?
What is the most effective way to ensure that your materials ingredients are of good quality?
How to improve batching accuracy, mixing uniformity?
How to identify non standard testing and curing? How to improve testing quality?
Tests a producer should do, internal audits and many more.

Course instructors are Kevin MacDonald, Ph.D., FACI, Beton Consulting Engineers LLC, and Karthik Obla, Ph.D., P.E. at NRMCA. Producers will learn readily-implementable steps to manage variability and attain a more consistent product; ingredient suppliers will learn how material variation affects concrete variation; engineers will learn the opportunity for improving quality through specifications and testing lab professionals will learn to measure and improve testing quality. Upon successful completion of the course, attendees will earn 8 professional development hours, a certificate of completion and credits toward NRMCA’s STEPS program.

Click here for more information and registration options.

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.

February 7, Dallas *Sold Out

Leadership, Coaching & Management Skills for Senior RMC Managers