NRMCA e-news
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association
NEWS LINKS
On behalf of 11 environmental and community groups, Sierra Club counsel Earthjustice has filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to force completion of an Environmental Protection Agency rulemaking on power plant coal ash handling and disposal. Concrete artist Mark Whitten traces his love of concrete to his grandfather and uncle who were employees at Lehigh Portland Cement Co., located not far from where Whitten grew up in the Iowa city of Mason City. Formerly a custom home builder, Whitten opened a concrete arts studio where he brings "a new focus" to the art form into the residential market.
Source: April 5 posting by the Mason City Globe Gazette. Read more. Got $4.3 million? Nice place in the California wine country sound nice too? If so, this Sonoma County property featuring concrete floors and walls might be your style. Source: The Wall Street Journal's House of the Day feature: view here. A few weeks ago, we brought you news of a potential New York City pilot program involving the use of crushed toilets to fill potholes. Now, a related story comes from the West Coast, where officials in Bellingham, WA, recently gave the OK to use some 400 toilets as aggregate in sidewalk concrete. Source: An April 12 story in Waste & Recycling News. Read more. PROMOTIONS
Are you looking for the latest collateral material to support your local promotion efforts? Do you need to update your presentation for an upcoming lunch and learn? Looking for some quality photos for your promotion literature or Web site? You need look no further than www.concretepromotion.org. Concretepromotion.org is the concrete promoter’s resource center, providing a one-stop location that supports promotion opportunities for ready mixed concrete. "When a member or state affiliate partner asks for information, I always ask if they’ve checked concretepromotion.org," says NRMCA Senior Director of National Resources Phil Kresge. "Most times, what they are looking for is right there." There are dedicated pages for Flowable Fill, Insulated Concrete Forms, Paving and Parking, Pervious Concrete, Self Consolidating Concrete, Streets and Roads, Sustainability and Tilt-up Construction. You will also find links to NRMCA services such as the Parking Lot Design Assistance and Streets and Roads Design Assistance programs, Concrete Pavement Analyst software and the top-ranked "Concrete Answers" series of informational Web sites for the design community. Downloads of the popular "Concrete In Practice" (CIP) series of technical briefs are also available. Additionally, results from the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub are featured. Other resources include links to "Life-365" Service Life Prediction software, the Awareness and Concrete Education for Students (A.C.E.S.) Program and NRMCA’s P2P Initiative. Guidance is also available for developing strategic plans and annual promotion plans for your organization. "The content is continually updated. It’s a clearinghouse of collateral for promoters," Kresge says. "Ad slicks, video clips, photos, PowerPoint presentations, success stories and case studies – you can find all of them here. I believe that every concrete professional should have concretepromotion.org saved in his or her list of favorite Web sites." Concretepromotion.org can be viewed here. For more information, contact Phil Kresge at pkresge@nrmca.org. A nearly completed Walmart in Bridgeton, MO, will feature a number of concrete features, reports NRMCA Senior National Resource Director Jon Hansen. In addition to the 250,000 square feet of concrete parking area, the irregular site required hundreds of feet of cast-in-place retaining walls along with a circular truck turn around at the rear of the store. The store is scheduled to open in early June. The general contractor for the project is Wright Construction Services with Fenix Construction performing all the concrete work. Local concrete promotion support of NRMCA efforts on the project was provided by Evan Bolesta with the Concrete Council of St. Louis. The Nebraska Concrete & Aggregates Association (NCAA) is offering a one-day seminar on designing, producing, placing, testing and maintaining pervious concrete pavements in Omaha on Thursday, April 26. Seminar speakers include Matt Offenburg (WR Grace and ACI 522 chairman), Heather Brown, PhD (Middle Tennessee State University), Walt Flood IV, M.S., P.E. (Flood Testing Laboratories), David Mitchell (Bunyan Industries) and Scott Erickson (Evolution Paving Industries). NRMCA is pleased to be a co-sponsor of this event. Click here for more information or contact NCAA's Jereme Montgomery at 402-325-8414. NRMCA's national resource directors have two Webinars scheduled through April 27, so be sure to click on the links below for more information or contact NRMCA's Jessica Walgenbach at jwalgenbach@nrmca.org.
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS
To read government affairs-related stories that relate to the ready mixed concrete industry for the week of April 9 - 13, 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. NRMCA encourages you to join our industry allies on Capitol Hill on May 30-31 for the Transportation Construction Coalition’s (TCC) 2012 Legislative Fly-in and make the case to "Make Transportation Job #1". Despite the clear interest from bipartisan leaders in the House and Senate, long-term transportation reauthorization legislation remains elusive in the 112th Congress. The highway and transit program authorization expired on September 30, 2009, and these programs have been operating on short-term extensions ever since. Congress needs to understand the impact this inaction has on state transportation programs and the transportation construction industry. With the construction industry’s unemployment rate over 17 percent, the highest of any industry and nearly double the all-industry rate, inaction is not an option. Come to Washington, DC, and tell your elected officials there is no one piece of legislation now before Congress that could do more to immediately create jobs and boost U.S. competitiveness than the transportation bill. Constituent visits are a key component to any successful legislative advocacy strategy. A legislative briefing is scheduled to prepare you for your visits with your legislators. Educational briefing packets have been prepared for you to deliver to your congressional delegation. Now is the time to demand action. Reduced federal investment undermines state and local transportation programs and hurts the construction industry: contractors, material suppliers, designers, equipment manufacturers and labor. More than that it threatens the nation’s global competitiveness, economic growth and the freedom of mobility that Americans treasure. This year’s meeting will be held at the Marriott Metro Center, 775 12th Street, NW, Washington, DC. To make your reservation call reservations at 1-800-228-9290. The room rate is $274 per night and the registration cut-off date is Monday, April 30. Click here to register. For more information, contact NRMCA’s Kerri Leininger at kleininger@nrmca.org. EDUCATION &TRAINING
The annual Webinar, Dispatch Management: Real Time Supply Chain Management Solutions in Tight Times, is just a month away - scheduled for May 15-16, from 1 - 2 p.m. Eastern time. These two live online seminars will discuss creative and sound dispatch business processes and management systems that add dollars to your bottom line at a time when every penny counts. The content concentrates on strategic delivery concepts as they relate to pricing, changing your customers’ market environment and possible dispatch performance incentives. These tools, tips and tactics are practical coaching tools you can share with your dispatch staff so they help reduce delivery costs while maximizing efficiency and customer service. Senior level dispatch managers, operations managers, area managers and sales managers will benefit from this course. Because of the content, it is not recommended for dispatch staff. Click here for registration options or contact NRMCA's Jessica Walgenbach at 888-846-7622, ext. 1152 or by e-mail, jwalgenbach@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. April 19, Denver September 20, Webinar |
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