NRMCA e-news
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association
NEWS LINKS
Construction in the energy, manufacturing and multifamily housing sectors will increase steadily between 2012 and 2013, according to Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. "This year, for the first time in five years, construction spending should be up anywhere from 5% to 15%," Simonson said. The economist cited Marcellus shale gas development as a factor encouraging manufacturers to expand throughout the country. Source: AGC SmartBrief e-newsletter for April 5 which included this April 3 story from the Pittsburgh Business Times. The US Green Building Council (USGBC) is revamping the LEED rating system this year. LEED 2012 will focus on improving the rating system’s clarity (providing more precise technical criteria) and making the system more user-friendly. LEED 2012 is going through a third public comment period and has a proposed launch date in October (see related story below under Sustainability). Source: An April 3 story by the Environmental Leader Web site: read more. "A concrete with mechanical properties equal to or better than conventional normalweight concrete, but weighing 20% less is a big deal," writes Ken Bondy, a consulting structural engineer and member of the ACI Standard Building Code Committee. In this piece, he explores the composition of the material and explains how using it can reduce costs and improve sustainability. Source: AGC SmartBrief e-newsletter for April 4, which contained this story from Structure magazine. Say what? Meet Suzaan Heyns who, in collaboration with Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC), has incorporated concrete into the production of her 2012 Spring/Summer Collection, launched at her show at the Crowne Plaza, Rosebank, Joburg. Inspired by sculpture, Heyns has illustrated the journey of cement from powder to a dream realised and has called it, "Reimagine Concrete". By combining her love of art and architecture, Heyns created the collection to "feminise" concrete. And here's another phrase you don't come across every day: "Fabrics dipped into a concrete mixture." Source: An April 4 posting on Bizcommunity.com: read more. PAVEMENTS
This is the last opportunity to register for NRMCA's Design of Concrete Pavements online course that will be held April 16-19 from 12-1:30 p.m. Eastern Time. This course provides an in-depth look at how to design and construct concrete streets and parking lots. Recommendations for concrete reinforcement, thickness, and jointing designs will be provided. Construction techniques, inspection, testing, maintenance and repair are discussed. Additional detail will be provided on cost estimating, cost-benefit analysis, and life cycle cost. In addition to details of conventional concrete streets and parking lots, this seminar will provide introductions to innovative products such as pervious concrete, concrete overlays and roller compacted concrete.
This course is intended for civil engineers, geotechnical engineers, public works officials and architects involved in the design and layout of concrete streets and parking areas. Concrete contractors and concrete producers will also benefit from the class. Participants who attend all sessions and successfully complete all quizzes will receive 6 Professional Development Hours. Click here to register for the course. For more information contact Shawnita Dickens at sdickens@nrmca.org. PROMOTIONS
For many years promotion of concrete parking lots has been focused on architects and engineers. This made perfect sense since they were the one’s specifying the pavement; who better to reach out to than the design community. Owners also were a regular target for concrete promotional activity. However, promoters in the Northeast have recently realized that there is another segment of influencers that play an important role in the use or non-use of ready mixed concrete for parking lots and that’s the general contractors (GC) who bid these projects for national retail chains such as Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot and CVS just to name a few. NRMCA’s Senior Director, National Resources, Doug O’Neill reported recently that these influencers have been largely ignored by our traditional promotional efforts even though a GC bidding a project who has never done or is unfamiliar with concrete parking lots tends to take the "we don’t do that here" approach and either does not offer the owner a number for concrete or if he or she does, it’s significantly inflated because of the "un-known"..... "What we’ve identified here is that we’ve got to do a much better job communicating to companies that could hold the key to moving our efforts forward, and that’s the GC’s," O’Neill said. Working closely with the state associations in the region, there are plans underway to actively target the GC’s bidding work in the Northeast with a renewed emphasis on educating them on the advantages of concrete both to the owner and also to themselves. "They’ve got to understand that concrete parking lots are being installed regularly in most areas of this country, successfully and competitively," O'Neill added. Too Expensive, can’t handle our winters and cracks uncontrollably are the three most common misperceptions about concrete that the newly defined efforts will aim to address. O’Neill concluded by saying "our members also need to have that same belief that concrete CAN BE DONE HERE!" For more information on how you can start promoting concrete parking lots, contact Doug O'Neill at doneill@nrmca.org. Are you interested in learning about a particular subject matter related to concrete that is not currently represented in the NRMCA repertoire? Are there promotional activities and/or sales tools you would be interested in sharing with your sales team? Maybe you are interested in presentations that could be used in the design community or with owners that relate to certain aspect of jobs and incorporating concrete? At NRMCA we are always looking for subject matter and ideas to enhance the business of our members through Webinars and classes. Our staff represents a wide array of experience and expertise that can be utilized. Please contact an NRMCA national resource director in your region to share your ideas: http://www.nrmca.org/about/staff_bios.asp. NRMCA's national resource directors have one Webinar scheduled in the next few weeks, so be sure to click on the link below for more information or contact NRMCA's Jessica Walgenbach at jwalgenbach@nrmca.org.
ASSOCIATION & INDUSTRY NEWS
Please join the RMC Research & Education Foundation for the 2nd Annual Walk for Sustainability taking place on Wednesday, May 9, in conjunction with NRMCA’s International Concrete Sustainability Conference (ICSC) in Seattle. The Walk will help to raise awareness of the Foundation's large body of sustainable development-focused research reports and to raise additional funds to help the Foundation continue this important work. Participants can set up their own personal fundraising pages to track their support online (although they can also just join us for the Walk). The Walk will begin at 6:30 a.m. (registration begins at 6:00 a.m. with pre-walk coffee) and will conclude with enough time for participants to freshen up and take advantage of the continental breakfast before conference sessions begin at 8:30 a.m. Walkers need not be registered for the ICSC to participate so Seattle-area supporters should feel free to join us. Walkers may register online. If you won't be able to join us, you have the opportunity to support one of the walkers in the endeavor. Please click on the Walk for Sustainability link above to access online fundraising pages of Walkers. For more information, please contact Foundation Senior Director Jennifer LeFevre at 240-485-1151 or at jlefevre@rmc-foundation.org. Additional information on the work of the RMC Research & Education Foundation may be found at www.rmc-foundation.org. NRMCA has extended the deadline for submissions of its Media Survey. To those of you who have already participated, thank you; we appreciate your information. If you have not yet been able to participate, please do so before the survey closes on Monday, April 16. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and will provide us with the insight we need to make our communications program more valuable to you. Click here to access the survey. ENGINEERING
NRMCA will offer its Concrete Durability Course from June 6-8 at offices of the Colorado Ready Mixed Concrete Association in Denver. The course is taught by Michael Thomas, University of New Brunswick, Kevin Folliard, University of Texas at Austin and NRMCA Engineering Department staff. The course provides a fundamental understanding of the nature of cement and concrete as they relate to durability of concrete. Topics will cover cracking, alkali aggregate reactions, sulfate attack, corrosion of reinforcing steel, freeze-thaw durability and other aspects. A group exercise will be facilitated to walk attendees through ConcreteWorks software that can be used to develop concrete mixtures for durability. The course also discusses the new provisions for durability in ACI 318-11 and how specifications can be structured to address durability. Attendees at previous courses have given this program rave reviews. This course also offers those with the NRMCA Level 3 certification an opportunity to obtain the NRMCA Concrete Technologist Level 4 certification. It also provides additional learning units toward the NRMCA STEPS program. Please register early if you wish to attend. Registration information and staff contact information are being finalized and will be posted shortly at this link. The Fifth North American Conference on the Design and Use of Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC) is scheduled to be held in Chicago May 13-15, 2013 (SCC2013). The SCC2013 conference is organized by committees consisting of experts and leaders in the cement and concrete field around the world. The conference is titled "SCC - The New Normal" and will cover new information related to "Innovation, Application, and Production" in the field of SCC. The purposes of SCC 2013 are: Abstracts are now being accepted for the conference. The conference is inviting papers that address recent innovation, application, production and other aspects of SCC. All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings and selected papers will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Cement and Concrete Composite. All abstracts must be submitted online by June 30, 2012 via the conference Web site. The 2012 NRMCA Quality Survey deadline has now been extended to Tuesday, May 15. This is the second quality survey with the first survey conducted in 2010. Only by measuring quality it is possible to improve it and this survey provides a means for companies to do so. The survey has a measurement section which can be used to quantify the benefits of improved quality. Several survey questions establish industry benchmarks for frequency of testing, quality control personnel, quality documentation and equipment monitoring. Producers responding to the survey will be able to compare their systems to these industry benchmarks and improve their processes if necessary. The survey is sponsored by the NRMCA’s Research Engineering and Standards Committee. Survey participants are asked to respond to a multiple-choice application form on a spreadsheet. All survey participants receive 5 points that count toward the 2012 Quality Award. Survey responses of individual companies will be kept confidential while summarized survey responses will be shared with all the survey participants. A report of the survey results will be published in NRMCA’s quarterly Concrete InFocus magazine. The survey form can be downloaded from http://www.nrmca.org/aboutconcrete/surveys.asp or is available by e-mail from NRMCA’s Shawnita Dickens at sdickens@nrmca.org. A company must be an NRMCA member in good standing to participate. Companies can enter as a company or a division. OPERATIONS, ENVIRONMENTAL, SAFETY & HR
The 2012 NRMCA Fleet Benchmarking Survey deadline has been extended until Monday, April 16. The annual survey is conducted in order to give concrete producers a useful tool to monitor and benchmark mixer fleet costs. NRMCA members are encouraged to participate. A complete report will be issued to all participating companies. Contact NRMCA's Gary Mulling at gmullings@nrmca.org for further details. 
SUSTAINABILITY
NRMCA reviewed the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) third draft version of the LEED 2012 Rating System and provided comments for those sections of the LEED system that affect concrete applications. The comment period closed March 27, 2012. LEED 2012 includes changes to all major LEED rating systems that affect new construction, existing construction, homes, and neighborhoods. The comments that NRMCA addressed include: NRMCA will provide follow up articles this fall regarding final adoption of the changes and final publication of the LEED 2012 Rating System. For additional information contact NRMCA's Tien Peng at TPeng@nrmca.org or 206-913-8535. This upcoming Friday, April 13, is the last day to receive conference registration and hotel reservation discounts for NRMCA’s International Concrete Sustainability Conference. This year’s conference will be held May 7-10 at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel. The 7th annual conference will provide attendees with the latest developments related to design, specifying, manufacturing, testing, construction, maintenance and research of concrete as they relate to sustainability. LEED 2012, Architecture 2030, the International Green Construction Code, Envision, Greenroads, Life Cycle Assessment and Environment Product Declarations are just a few of the topics that will be presented by over 60 world renowned experts. Researchers, academics, students, engineers, architects, contractors, concrete producers, public works officials, material suppliers and concrete industry professionals are invited attend the conference. Visit www.concretesustainabilityconference.org to register and make hotel reservations. GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS
To read government affairs-related stories that relate to the ready mixed concrete industry for the week of April 2 - 6, 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 Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. PRODUCTS & SERVICES
NRMCA's April Internet Spotlight, good through Tuesday, May 1, is the In-Place Concrete Strength Evaluation A Recommended Practice manual. This manual contains guidelines for use when strength tests fail to meet specifications. The guidelines include investigation procedures, testing methods and precautions, and assignment of responsibility. It addresses the degree of strength deficiency that warrants further evaluation; a sequence of steps to follow in the investigation and actions that should result from the investigation along with suggestion of allocation of costs. Order online today and receive 20% off. Regular member price is $12, Internet Special $9.60, plus shipping. Please use Discount Code ISAPRIL12 to receive the online discount. CALENDAR
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. December 4-6, Silver Spring, MD |
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