NRMCA e-news
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association
NEWS LINKS
Concrete companies in Ohio are reacting to changes in road bidding procedures after the state's transportation director has reinstituted asphalt-price adjustments. The director, Jerry H. Wray, rescinded a 2009 Ohio Department of Transportation order that had required asphalt pavers to factor in future asphalt prices over the life of the project. Concrete pavers say the change puts them at a distinct disadvantage because their prices stay relatively stable.
Source: May 6 article in the Columbus Dispatch. Read more.
A new study suggests that government enforcement of workplace health and safety rules can save lives without sapping a company's bottom line. The findings come from a decade-long look at hundreds of California work sites subject to random safety inspections. Researchers found that inspected companies reduced their injury claims by 9.4 percent compared to those not inspected, with no negative impact on profits or sales. Better yet, the same companies saved an average of 26 percent on workers' compensation costs in the four years following an inspection when compared with similar firms that were not randomly inspected.
Source: A May 17 article by The Associated Press that appeared on the Web site of The Sun News in South Carolina. Read more.
A shortage of qualified concrete technologists is a major contributor to the shortage of materials engineers in South Africa and is crippling the country's economic growth, according to Cement & Concrete Institute (C&CI) MD Bryan Perrie. This year, the institute launched an improved Advanced Concrete Technology (ACT) course, which is being run under the auspices of the Institute of Concrete Technology in London.
Source: A May 18 article by Engineering News. Read more.
Now here's an opening sentence you probably won't find very often: "A church worker who had a melon-sized tumour removed from his ribs has had his chest rebuilt using concrete." That's the beginning of a May 17 article in The Daily Mail of the United Kingdom describing Marek Barden, who was diagnosed with cancer in August 2011 after going to his doctors complaining of a lump. After an operation to remove a 3+ pound tumor, surgeons created a panel made from a plastic mesh filled with an acrylic cement. The use of the word concrete might have been off, but you can read more here.
PROMOTIONS
NRMCA Senior Director of National Resources Phil Kresge recently met with the county developers and engineers for Spotsylvania County, VA, to discuss new stormwater management regulations. Representatives of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) also attended the meeting. Kresge made a presentation on pervious concrete and explained its role in stormwater management. Following the presentation, he answered several questions on pervious concrete’s design and placement, durability and maintenance. Kresge’s participation in the meeting was facilitated by Hessam Nabavi of the Virginia Ready Mixed Concrete Association (VRMCA) and NRMCA member Jim Murray from Rowe Materials.
Revisions to the Virginia Stormwater Management Regulations (SWM) became effective on September 13, 2011. Local implementation of stormwater management is a key component of the new regulations. The Virginia Stormwater Management Act mandates that a number of localities – primarily those covered the by the Chesapeake Bay Act or that hold a separate federal municipal stormwater sewer system permit (known as an MS4) – develop and operate their own stormwater management program. The act also provides a number of localities, primarily in the southern and western parts of the state, the option to implement stormwater management rules through a local program. These localities can establish and operate their own local program, keeping fees to pay for the program or have local development regulated under a DCR-operated program.
For more information, contact Phil Kresge at pkresge@nrmca.org.
Last week Harry Lee James, executive director of the Mississippi Concrete Industries Association and NRMCA Senior National Resource Director Amy Miller spoke to engineers and contractors in the southern Mississippi area on correctly designing concrete parking lots. This presentation was facilitated by Dennis Kilpatrick of Delta Industries after a conference call on a concrete parking lots, Miller said.
"Dennis was working with these engineers on a project conversion and pulled NRMCA in to facilitate some questions from the engineers," Miller explained. "This call gave us the opportunity to discuss the advantages of designing by using ACI 330 and the reasons for using the document as a reference guide."
"These engineers requested a meeting for further discussion. This meeting turned into a bigger audience with other members of the firm present as well a local contractor. The engineers confirmed that most engineers and owners still perceive concrete as more expensive on horizontal applications and there is little regard to design equivalency. They also recognized the need to represent the owners' best interests by helping the owner make informed decisions through the education and explanation of using concrete."
"We want our designers and engineers to know that not incorporating a concrete pavement design is the equivalent of leaving money on the table," Miller said. "Job competition is reduced, life cycle costs are unaccounted for and the ultimate option in sustainability has not been incorporated."
For more information, contact Amy Miller at amiller@nrmca.org.
A much anticipated guide on how to overlay existing asphalt parking lots with concrete is scheduled to be ready early this summer. The Guide for Concrete Overlays of Asphalt Parking Lots is being prepared by the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center with funding provided by the Ready Mixed Concrete Research & Education Foundation. This parking lot specific guide will pick up where other rehabilitation documents have fallen short in dealing with evaluation of the existing asphalt pavement, determining the proper concrete overlay thickness, surface preparation, maintaining positive drainage slopes, transitions to fix objects like building entrances and heavy duty sections for truck lanes and dumpster locations, just to mention a few.
The document will be used as guide to instruct designers on how to design concrete overlays of existing asphalt parking lots and as a tool to teach contractors best practices for constructing them. A Technical Advisory Committee comprised of the most experienced concrete overlay designers and contractors in the U.S. are involved in the project.
This new guide is being written by Dale Harrington in the same easy to use format and as a companion piece to Harrington’s Guide to Concrete Overlays: Sustainable Solution for Resurfacing and Rehabilitation Existing Pavements for mainline and municipal pavements.
For more information contact NRMCA's Jon Hansen at jhansen@nrmca.org or the Foundation's Jennifer LeFevre at jlefevre@rmc-foundation.org.
NRMCA's national resource directors have one upcoming Webinar scheduled through June 1, 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
Though two years away, the industry's largest trade show has begun to assemble its lineup of free Webcasts. From time to time, E-NEWS will feature CONEXPO-CON/AGG-related developments as 2014 nears.
Business-to-Business Negotiating Skills - Whether your style is "love to bargain" or "please don't make me dicker," this session delivers the key principles, elements, and skills of creating successful deals for fruitful, long-term business relationships. Negotiating success depends on how well you can help others get what they want, on your terms.
How to Deal with Cracking of Concrete - Excessive or unexpected cracking is too often a source of callbacks and disputes on concrete flatwork projects and need not be. Unfortunately, many of the key influences that contribute to uncontrolled cracking evade attention during the design and construction process.
SAFE Program-A Unique Approach to Safety! - At a time when every penny counts, you won't want to miss this session! This session will cover one company's journey from a desperate situation of out-of-control workplace incidents and injuries to the successful claims record today. Discover how this company turned it all around, saving over $500,000 in the first two years, and how they continue to improve.
NRMCA Producer member U.S. Concrete has become a member of the Regenerative Network (RN), a national network of green building product manufacturers and service providers. RN facilitates profitable, strategic business relationships between its high-tech green building product manufacturers and architects, engineers, contractors, real estate developers and portfolio owners. In a company release, U.S. Concrete said it will be RN's exclusive ready mixed concrete supplier.
"We‘re so proud to be invited to join such an action-oriented organization with an impressive group of companies that are committed to the growth of the green building industry," said Wally Johnson, vice president of sales and marketing for U.S. Concrete. "U.S. Concrete recognizes the inherent value in aggressively supporting sustainable construction and green building initiatives through environmentally responsible, high-performance products and operations."
"The Regenerative Network is committed to accelerating business development for its members by facilitating profitable business relationships with building designers and specifiers. We bring together companies that have demonstrated their commitment to addressing the environmental challenges in the built environment through disruptive technologies," said Regenerative Network CEO and Founder David Gottfried. "U.S. Concrete will be an outstanding resource for our members and affiliates – providing them tangible solutions for significantly reducing the embodied energy in their building structure."
For more information, contact U.S. Concrete's Wade Khalil at 832-858-1247.
A new MIT study, released this week, shows that using stiffer pavements on the nation’s paved roads could reduce vehicle fuel consumption by as much as 3 percent. To put that savings into perspective, even a more conservative estimate of 1 percent, though negligible for each vehicle, would add up to 91 million barrels of crude oil per year or $5.2 billion at today’s oil prices when applied to the 250 million vehicles that travel those roads annually. This would result in an accompanying annual decrease in CO2 emissions of 15.5 million metric tons, the equivalent of the CO2 stored in roughly 3,800 square miles of trees.
Stiffer pavements would decrease deflection and reduce a car’s "footprint." "This work is literally where the rubber meets the road," says Professor Franz-Josef Ulm, the George Macomber Professor in MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "We’ve got to find ways to improve the environmental footprint of our roadway infrastructure....." For a full press release from MIT, go to http://web.mit.edu/press/2012/pavement-savings-tires.html. The completed research report is accessible at http://web.mit.edu/cshub/news/pdf/PVI_Report-2012.pdf. The research clearly points to the need for a renewal of the nation’s highway system overall. The researchers say the initial cost outlay for better pavements would quickly pay for itself not just in fuel efficiency and decreased CO2 emissions, but also in reduced maintenance costs. The study, released in a recent peer-reviewed report, is the first to use mathematical modeling rather than roadway experiments to look at the effect of pavement deflection on vehicle fuel consumption across the entire U.S. road network. A paper on this work has also been accepted for publication later this year in the Transportation Research Record. This research was conducted as part of the Concrete Sustainability Hub at MIT, which is co-sponsored by the Ready Mixed Concrete Research & Education Foundation and Portland Cement Association. ENGINEERING
NRMCA is now accepting applications for its 2012 Excellence in Quality Award competition. Open to NRMCA producer members, the award provides a basis to recognize those companies that strive for continuous improvement through their quality initiatives. It provides reasonable goals for those concrete producers interested in elevating their own quality management systems.
A company must be an NRMCA producer member in good standing to participate. Companies can enter as a company or a division. Applicants are asked to respond to a multiple-choice type application form that generates their score, which will then be judged. Companies or divisions that achieve a score of 75% or greater will be recognized at NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks Conference & Expo, scheduled for September 15-18 just outside Washington, DC. The deadline for receiving completed award applications is Saturday, June 30.
There are several advantages to participating in this award program:
1. It provides recognition to the companies that maintain high quality standards.
2. The award criteria can serve as an excellent quality improvement tool for companies.
3. Companies have used the award criteria for conducting internal quality audits.
The 2012 award application form features some changes from the previous years, based on quality-related discussions by NRMCA’s Research, Engineering and Standards Committee.
Click here for more information from NRMCA’s Web site, along with a link to download the award submission form and a listing of past award winners. Completed award forms should be e-mailed in the original Excel format along with required supporting documentation to Karen Bean at kbean@nrmca.org.
OPERATIONS, ENVIRONMENTAL, SAFETY & HR
NRMCA will host the August 14-17 Plant Manager Certification workshop in Silver Spring, MD (metro Washington, DC). This class not only serves producers, but specifically meets the Army Corp of Engineers' contract spec requirement for personnel who must be certified as part of awarded federal contracts. It is also a required class in the NRMCA Operations and Production Track in the STEPS program.
The last class Plant Manager Certification class in 2012 is December 11-14 in Denver. Registration is also open for that class.
According to NRMCA’s Industry Data Survey, Operations and Production account for approximately 90% of producers’ expenses. Therefore, with your bottom line at stake, it has never been more important for your crew to be at the top of its game when it comes to efficiency and productivity. Whether your operations staff now manages more plants, is new to plant management and batching, or has unplanned down time, the curriculum intensely covers product knowledge, plant safety, environmental regulations, plant operations and ready mixed industry business principles.
Click here for more course information, staff contact and registration options.
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS
To read government affairs-related stories that relate to the ready mixed concrete industry for the week of May 14-18, 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
The NRMCA May Internet Spotlight, good through Tuesday, June 5, is the Environmental Management for the RMC Industry manual. This document outlines best industry practices for water management, air quality management, admixture, chemical and fuel storage issues, noise management, hazardous waste management, best management practice for fleet maintenance shops, plant aesthetics, plant closures, environmental security and sustainability issues. The publication also describes the organizational makeup of regulatory bodies (Environmental Protection Agency and state and local environmental departments) that govern the ready mixed concrete industry and describes agency inspection and tips for preparation of EPA audits.
Order online today and receive 20% off. Regular member price is $75, Internet Special is $60, plus shipping. Please use Discount Code ISMAY12 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.
May 24, Free Webinar
Energy Star - How Concrete Producers Can Save Money and Energy
E-mail: Gary Mullings, 888-84-NRMCA, x1161
May 29, Webinar
Introduction to Concrete Pavement Analyst Software
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
May 29, Webinar (Part 2 on June 5)
Designing & Specifying Pervious Concrete
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
May 30, Portsmouth, NH
Implementing Disaster Resilient Construction In Your Community
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
June 5, Webinar
The Quantifiable Advantages of Concrete Parking Lots
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
June 5, Webinar (Part 2)
Designing and Specifying Pervious Concrete
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
June 6, Webinar
Effectively Communicating Sustainability
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
June 6-8, Denver
Concrete Durability Course
Email: Karen Bean, 888-84-NRMCA, x1168
June 7, Webinar
ACI 330 R-08 – The Gold Standard of Concrete Parking Lot Design
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
June 25-28, Online Course
Concrete's Role in Sustainable Development
Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154
June 28, Webinar
Streets and Local Roads
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
July 3, Webinar
Introduction to Concrete Pavement Analyst Software
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
July 3, Webinar (Part 2 on July 10)
Designing & Specifying Pervious Concrete
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
July 10, Webinar
The Quantifiable Advantages of Concrete Parking Lots
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
July 10, Webinar (Part 2)
Designing & Specifying Pervious Concrete
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
July 16-19, Online Course
Building Green with Concrete
Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154
July 26, Webinar
ACI 330 R-08 – The Gold Standard of Concrete Parking Lot Design
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
July 26, Acme, MI
Slabs: We've Got You Covered
Contact: Concrete Foundations Association's Ed Sauter, esauter@cfawalls.org
August 6-9, Online Course
Pervious Concrete—A Stormwater Solution
Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154
August 9, Webinar
Streets and Local Roads
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
August 14, Webinar
Introduction to Concrete Pavement Analyst Software
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
August 14, Webinar (Part 2 on August 21)
Designing & Specifying Pervious Concrete
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
August 14-17, Silver Spring, MD
Plant Manager Certification Course
Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154
August 21, Webinar
The Quantifiable Advantages of Concrete Parking Lots
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
August 21, Webinar (Part 2)
Designing & Specifying Pervious Concrete
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
August 27-30, Online Course
Design of Concrete Pavements
Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154
September 4, Webinar
Introduction to Concrete Pavement Analyst Software
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
September 4, Webinar (Part 2 on September 11)
Designing & Specifying Pervious Concrete
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
September 11, Webinar
The Quantifiable Advantages of Concrete Parking Lots
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
September 11, Webinar (Part 2)
Designing & Specifying Pervious Concrete
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
September 16-19, Metro Washington, DC
2012 NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks & Board of Directors Meeting
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
September 20, Webinar
Streets and Local Roads
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
October 2-5, Silver Spring, MD
CCSP Module I: Concrete 101
Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154
November 1, Webinar
Streets and Local Roads
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
November 5-9, Silver Spring, MD
Technical Short Course
Email: Karen Bean, 888-84-NRMCA, x1168
November 13-15, Silver Spring, MD
Effective RMC Supervisor Certification
Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154
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: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152
December 11-14, Denver
Plant Manager Certification Course
Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154
2013
February 19-21, Silver Spring, MD
CCSP Module III: General Business Knowledge
Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154
March 19-21, Silver Spring, MD
CCSP Module IV: Sales Fundamentals
Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154
May 12-15, Chicago
Fifth North American Conference on Design and Use of Self-Consolidating Concrete
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