NRMCA e-news

NRMCA's celebration of the 100th anniversary of ready mixed concrete in the U.S. continues its May offerings with the histories of another Producer and Associate member. See below for the two companies we've selected for this week, along with a link to those companies respective Web sites for more information. This week's industry milestone: Founded in 1916, the Portland Cement Association has had the same mission for almost 100 years: "Improve and expand the uses of Portland cement and concrete."

Ameron Hawaii - Honolulu Construction & Draying Co., Ltd. was formed in 1908 by a quarry owner, three construction men and a retired sea captain. The base of the business was the draying of construction materials by horse-drawn wagons. In the business community, the company became known as HC&D. In 1932, a moving and storage division was formed with quarrying and ready mixed concrete remaining the major business operation. During the 1930's and 1940's, quarries were located in Palolo and Moiliili, but in 1949, rock production moved to the Kapaa Quarry site due to increasing suburban development. Read more.

An NRMCA Producer member since 1945

Ash Grove Cement - The Ash Grove Cement Company started in 1882 in Ash Grove, MO, under the name Ash Grove White Lime Association. The lime that was produced was used for construction and sanitary purposes. In 1908, Ash Grove opened its first cement plant in Chanute, KS. Read more.

An NRMCA Associate member since 1953

As more and more wind turbines pop up across the state and country, researchers at Iowa State University are studying a new way to build the towers that hold them up into the sky.

Grant Schmitz, a graduate student in the College of Engineering, says they’ve been testing the use of pre-cast hexagon-shaped concrete panels as the industry moves toward taller towers. He says one of the first advantages is cutting the need to truck the giant steel columns now used for the towers along highways.

Officials in New Dehli are using concrete for at least 500 roads in the city because they are looking to improve the life span of stretches prone to waterlogging. Experts say while the cost of "carpeting with concrete" is almost double that of bitumen, concrete roads survive five times longer.

The current vogue in Canada for using high-tech wood products as a green building material has spawned a flurry of proposals for "timber towers." But some new concrete low-rise projects in the Vancouver area seem to be going against the grain. Proponents of concrete cite advantages that include acoustic privacy, building quality and return on investment. Its "green" qualities include durability and energy efficiency.

Many of you have already been aware of NRMCA Producer member Titan America's Tim Kuebler and his eight rules to live by when promoting concrete. Well, now his work is gaining a worldwide audience. The Web site WorldCement.com is featuring Kuebler's strategic game plan over a period of weeks. Read more.

NRMCA Senior National Resource Director Phil Kresge recently met with representatives from the Naval Facilities Engineering Group (NAVFAC) in Norfolk, VA, to discuss proposed changes to the Unified Facilities Guide Specification (UFGS) for pervious concrete. The meeting was requested by Kresge after it was brought to NRMCA’s attention that there was a problem with certain tolerances within the specification.

"I was first made aware of the issue by Tom 'Zeke' Zinchiak," Kresge said. Zinchiak is president and owner of Z-Con Concrete Specialists in Woodbine, MD, and is an NRMCA Certified Pervious Concrete Craftsman. "Zeke told me he was working on a project for the National Security Agency (NSA), but there was a pretty restrictive requirement relating to elevation tolerances. My first thought was that the project had used an outdated specification, but further investigation revealed the error in the UFGS document."

NAVFAC agreed with Kresge that UFGS should follow the recommendations of ACI 522.1, and said it would make the appropriate changes as quickly as possible. "Although it has promised to act quickly, there will certainly be projects out there that may not reflect the changes," Kresge said. "I’d ask anyone with any questions regarding existing pervious projects utilizing UFGS to contact me directly and I’ll assist as needed."

Vice President Greg Novitzki with the New York Construction Materials Association (NYCMA) was the master of ceremonies for the New York Mixer Truck Rodeo held recently on the banks of Oneida Lake in Brewerton, NY. The 7th annual event pitted mixer truck drivers from across New York State in a three-part competition which included events in visual truck inspection, a written exam and navigating an obstacle course with a mixer truck.

"As with our national championship, these drivers must pilot their way through this course in an unfamiliar vehicle," said NRMCA Senior Director, National Resources Doug O’Neill who was invited to assist with judging the competition. "We take for granted just how much skill is involved with handling these sophisticated vehicles. To parallel park one of these bad boys is amazing to watch. These guys are good!"

The day belonged to Steve Sommer from Manitou Concrete (an Oldcastle company) in Rochester, NY, who became a two-time champion and will represent NYCMA at this fall’s NRMCA National Mixer Driver Championship held outside Las Vegas. Barney & Dickenson driver Nick Clark came in second with Buffalo Redi-Mix driver Ed Wheeler earning third place honors.

"The message left on my voice mail was not typical," said NRMCA Senior Director, National Resources Jon Hansen. "As I listened, I appreciated the fact that this executive director of a local National Association of Home Builders chapter in Washington called the concrete industry for the correct information."

"We are looking for general guidelines for jointing of concrete floors, driveways and sidewalks. A community next to us requires it one way, while another community requires it another way. We want to help guide the local specifications based on concrete industry standards. Can you help," the message asked.

"Being a member of the ‘Life Spike’ club with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), I am aware of the trials that local HBA’s have dealing with concrete issues since concrete contractors often find it hard to find a ‘fit’ within these groups," Hansen explained. "This call brought to my attention the importance for local concrete producers, concrete contractors and concrete association members involvement with home builder groups. As home building begins to ramp back up, we need to be at the table as a resource."

According to a recent Portland Cement Association (PCA) analysis of the concrete overlay pavement sector, the industry will gain market share in the overlay sector in the coming years. This is attributable to greater awareness of the technology as well as changes in the relative price of concrete versus asphalt that favors concrete.

Between 2000 and 2009 asphalt prices increased 89 percent. Concrete prices increased only 47 percent. Since 2009, asphalt prices have increased 20 percent while there has been no to minimal increases in concrete prices. With rising asphalt prices, concrete’s market share should grow. Using Oman data, PCA estimated that concrete’s market share increases 0.14 percent for every one percent rise in relative asphalt prices. PCA estimates that the overlay share will increase from 1.6 percent in 2012 to 3.2 percent in 2020 and 8.5 percent in 2030. This translates to roughly 375,000 metric tons in 2012 to 1.1 million metric tons in 2020, and nearly 2.3 million metric tons in 2030.

Mark your calendars for the final NRMCA promotion-focused Webinar scheduled for May: ACI 330 R-08 – The Gold Standard of Concrete Parking Lot Design. Click on the link below to learn more and then to register online.

• Friday, May 31 - ACI 330 R-08 – The Gold Standard of Concrete Parking Lot Design

The preliminary estimate of ready mixed concrete produced in March 2013 is 21.3 million cubic yards, 2.9% lower than in March 2012. The production through March 2013 is estimated at 56.5 million cubic yards, 0.6% higher than during the first quarter of 2012. Details of ready mixed concrete production are posted on the NRMCA Web site for access by NRMCA members. This includes the production by state for the first quarter of 2013.

NRMCA requests its members, the concrete industry and interested parties who want to deliver an education session at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2014 to submit their proposal(s) no later than Friday, May 31. Speaker proposals can only be submitted online. Submittals will be reviewed by the CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2014 Education Committee for topic and audience balance within the total program, application, newness and practicality of session material; relevance and significance to the marketplace; structure and organization of a session and speaker's ability to engage the audience. Commercial product sessions are not acceptable topics. Contractors, by far, are the heaviest attendees at education sessions.

Session tracks include concrete, aggregates, asphalt, safety and regulatory compliance, heavy machinery, equipment management and maintenance, workforce development and business best practices. The CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2014  seminar program will run Tuesday, March 4, through Friday, March 7, 2014. Seminars may also be scheduled on Saturday, March 8, 2014. Presentation dates of a selected proposal is the sole discretion of CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2014.

The American Concrete Institute (ACI) introduced its 2013-2014 president, vice president, and four board members during the ACI Spring 2013 Convention in Minneapolis last month. Anne M. Ellis was elected to serve as president of the Institute for 2013-2014, Sharon L. Wood has been elected ACI vice president for a two-year term, and William E. Rushing, Jr. is now the Institute’s senior vice president, which is also a two-year term.  Additionally, four members have been elected to serve on the ACI Board of Direction, each for three-year terms. 

Ellis is vice president, government initiatives, AECOM, Springfield, VA. Prior to joining AECOM, Ellis represented the concrete and cement industries as regional structural engineer for the Portland Cement Association and as applied engineering manager for NRMCA. Ellis is a frequent speaker at universities, professional societies and industry forums. She received her BS in civil engineering from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, and has been a professional engineer in Virginia since 1984.

NRMCA will host the August 13-16 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.

 

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.

The only other 2013 Plant Manager Certification class will be December 10-13 in Orlando.  Registration is also open for that class.

 

Proceeding of the 2013 International Concrete Sustainability Conference, May 6-8, in San Francisco are now available for download at www.nrmcaevents.org. The conference provides learning opportunities on the latest advances, technical knowledge, continuing research, tools and solutions for sustainable concrete manufacturing and construction. Over 60 world renowned speakers presented at this year’s event, attended by nearly 200 construction industry professionals. 

The International Living Future Institute (ILFI) held its annual conference in Seattle last week with the theme of Resilience and Regeneration. Approximately 1000 deep-green professionals from the construction, design, products and chemical industries attended the conference by the publishers of the Living Building Challenge (LBC).  

In what must have seemed like the early years of GreenBuild, the audience rallied behind the illuminating speakers Paul Hawken, Jason McLennan and David Suzuki. Like the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system, the Living Building Challenge is gaining interest from design professionals and building owners who want to accelerate the green-building movement by adopting a more stringent set of criteria, including net-zero energy and water. The General Services Administration (GSA) recently reviewed the LBC program for potential adoption for federal buildings and were in attendance.

While the many educational sessions focused on resilience, biomimicry and lessons from Hurricane Sandy, the highlight of the conference was certainly not in the meeting rooms, but the recently completed Bullitt Center. The new 6-story commercial building built by the organization headed by Denis Hayes (who spoke at the 2012 International Concrete Sustainability Conference) is registered under the LBC program and is a testament to what is possible to achieve its "Greenest Building In the World" status. The Class-A office building was designed and built to last 200 years, will store and use all its water needs, generate more energy than it uses and offer a working environment that has less toxins than most children’s hospitals. This was accomplished with a 15% construction premium.

NRMCA’s Tien Peng is monitoring the adoption of the Living Building Challenge and used this conference as an opportunity to educate and inform decision-makers on the issues relevant to material selection in buildings.

The American Public Works Association (APWA) held its Sustainability in Public Works Conference in San Diego earlier this month. The conference covered a wide range of sustainability topics, including low impact development, solar power, biofuels and green transportation initiatives. Concrete’s versatility as a sustainable material for infrastructure was certainly present at many of the sessions and discussions, reports NRMCA Senior Director of Pavement Structures Brian Killingsworth who attended the conference.

For example, pervious concrete pavement was highlighted as part of the City of Bellingham’s green streets initiatives in the state of Washington. Additionally, the FHWA’s INVEST 1.0 Web-based transportation sustainability self-evaluation tool was presented. This tool allows users to evaluate the cost savings of sustainable design, materials and construction practices in highway applications upon which concrete’s sustainable "value" may be captured. Other transportation related sustainability rating systems were also compared in another session. The INVEST 1.0, EnvisionTM, STARS, Greenlites, PEACH Roads, and the STAR Community Index assessment tools were all compared and contrasted. Each of these tools has the ability to capture concrete’s sustainable attributes and use was encouraged on projects where the value of sustainability is to be assessed.

Killingsworth spoke with many public works officials about the use of concrete in street and road applications; they were informed about NRMCA’s Design Assistance Program. NRMCA will continue to seek these decision makers and educate them about concrete’s value proposition from both an environmental and economic perspective.

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 the Week of May 13 - 17, please click here.

The Educational Activities Committee invites ready mix producers to submit their company’s most innovative training initiatives of 2012-2013. Companies must submit their entries no later than Friday, August 2. The Innovation in Training Award winner will be recognized at NRMCA's ConcreteWorks to be held September 23 in Las Vegas. Additionally, the producer’s program will be featured in a best-practices article in NRMCA's quarterly magazine, Concrete InFocus. MTSU's Concrete Institute Management faculty will serve as judges.

 

NRMCA has made available a new compilation of 38 current ASTM standards related to ready mixed concrete. NRMCA Publication 2PCONCRETE13, ASTM Standards for Ready Mixed Concrete includes ASTM C94, Specification for Ready Mixed Concrete and most of the standards referenced in the specification and other standards used for quality control testing of aggregates and concrete. Cement specifications and The Manual of Aggregate and Concrete Testing are also included in this publication. This is a must-have reference for technical services and quality control personnel in the cement, aggregates, admixtures and ready mixed concrete industries.

 

NRMCA's Technology in Practice series cover brief technical topics in the popular "What?, Why? And How?" format and are developed as educational topics for ready mixed concrete industry technical personnel. The topics are selected and developed by the NRMCA Research, Engineering and Standards (RES) Committee. NRMCA releases two more topics in the series:

TIP 9 – Density of Structural Lightweight Concrete – discusses the relationship between oven-dry density, equilibrium density and fresh bulk density of lightweight concrete. The density of lightweight concrete is critical when used for design load on structural members, fire rating of building assemblies and overall mass of a structure in seismic conditions. The TIP discusses procedures used in ASTM C567 to calculate or measure the density of lightweight concrete in different moisture conditions and to develop information required in project submittals.

TIP 10 – Mixing Water Quality for Concrete – addresses the process of qualifying non-potable sources of water, such as well water or mixer wash water, for use as mixing water in concrete. It discusses the details of ASTM C1602, Specification for Mixing Water and the testing requirements to qualify non-potable sources of water for use in concrete.

May 29, Webinar  (Free for Members)

Drivers' Hours of Service

Email: Karen Bean, 888-84-NRMCA, x1168

 

May 31, Webinar

ACI 330 R-08 – The Gold Standard of Concrete Parking Lot Design

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

June 3-5, Chicago

Concrete Durability Course

Email: Karen Bean, 888-84-NRMCA, x1168

 

June 3, Webinar (Part I)

Designing and Specifying Pervious Concrete

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

June 6, Free Webinar

Design Assistance Webinar for State Affiliates, Paving Associations

Email: Amanda Hult

 

June 10, Webinar (Part II)

Designing and Specifying Pervious Concrete

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

June 11, Webinar

Concrete Overlays for Streets and Local Roads and Parking Lots

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

June 19, Free Webinar

Environmental Product Declarations

Email: Lionel Lemay, 847-918-7101

 

June 25, Webinar

Controlling Moisture in Concrete Slabs

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

July 8-11, Online Course

Design of Concrete Pavements

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

July 15–19, Skokie, IL

2013 Professors Workshop: Teaching Buildings, Bridges, Materials, and Pavements

Email: Lionel Lemay, 847-918-7101

 

August 11-15, Montreal

ISARC 2013: 30th International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, Mining & Petroleum Industries

Email: Chantal Murphy, 514-939-2710, ext. 1309

 

August 12-15 Online Course

Pervious Concrete: A Stormwater Solution

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

August 13-16, Silver Spring, MD 

Plant Manager Certification Course

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

August 27, Webinar 

Concrete Pavement Jointing Plans

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

August 30, Webinar

ACI 330 R-08 – The Gold Standard of Concrete Parking Lot Design

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

September 22-24, Las Vegas

Concrete Works & Board of Directors' Meeting

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

November 8, Webinar

ACI 330 R-08 – The Gold Standard of Concrete Parking Lot Design

Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 888-84-NRMCA, x1152

 

November 19-21, Silver Spring, MD

The Effective RMC Supervisor Course

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

October 1-4, Silver Spring, MD

CCSP I: Introduction to Concrete Fundamentals—Concrete 101

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

December 3-5, Silver Spring, MD

CCSP II: Customer Business Knowledge

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

December 4-6, Orlando, FL

Environmental Professional Certification Course

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154

 

December 10-13, Orlando, FL 

Plant Manager Certification Course

Email: Shawnita Dickens, 888-84-NRMCA, x1154