NRMCA e-news

NRMCA's celebration of the 100th anniversary of ready mixed concrete in the U.S. begins its submissions for November with more Producer and Associate member profiles - see below for their respective Web site links. This week's industry milestone: Work began in 1984 on the 4.2 mile Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, FL. When complete, it would become the longest concrete span in North America.

Beatrice Concrete Company - Beatrice Concrete Company was founded in 1944 and developed by Everett R. Jones and J.W. Lawler who remained partners until 1983. In 1983, the current owners incorporated Beatrice Concrete Company. It now operates throughout southeastern Nebraska with ready mix plant facilities in Beatrice, Crete, Fairbury, Tecumseh and Highway 2. Read more.

An NRMCA Producer member since 1960 

Separation Technologies - Separation Technologies was founded in 1989 to develop commercial applications for a proprietary electrostatic separation process. By 1994, Separation Technologies was focusing on applying its separation technology to processing fly ash that could be used in high value commercial applications rather than being disposed of in landfills. Read more.

An NRMCA Associate member since 1997

The latest development in Canada's concrete vs. wood feud centers on the Canadian Concrete Masonry Producers Association which recently paid for full-page ads in major newspapers, including the Edmonton Journal, that position wood-frame construction as vulnerable to insects, severe weather and fire. The ad features a picture of wreckage caused by an Oklahoma tornado and bears the headline: "Wood First? First to go." The ad plays off the British Columbia government's Wood First Act of 2009, which specified that wood must be the dominant building material in all publicly funded provincial buildings. With $3 billion in play each year, it was seen as a significant plum. B.C. also openly lobbied other provinces and the federal government for a pan-Canadian, wood-first policy and worked to extend B.C.'s 6-story wood-frame building code across the country.

An October 26 article posted by The Virginian-Pilot which covers the Hampton Roads area of the state address the issue. In short, it’s recycled. In dump truck after dump truck, old concrete slabs of interstate are hauled away to be crushed and reused in another construction project. The sections taken from the interstate can be as large as 15 feet long and 6 feet wide. They’re stacked on a truck and driven to one of E.V. Williams Inc.’s three locations in South Hampton Roads to be transformed into a usable product. Read more.

New York State Electric & Gas has recently installed its first concrete utility poles in the Town of Patterson in Putnam County and Town of Bethel in Sullivan County. Concrete poles can potentially last longer than traditional wooden poles and have a good record of withstanding wind, ice and snow.

After several roads in the Indian city of Bhubaneswar were damaged in rain that has continued non-stop in late October, experts have suggested building concrete roads that can survive similar downpours. A single spell of rain is enough to create potholes on the roads. If some of the roads, which are located in low-lying areas and are prone to waterlogging, can be "concretized," as officials term it, there would be no need for frequent repairs.

NRMCA has created a series of training modules to help develop promotion and advocacy strategies for concrete streets and local roads (SLR). The series will be offered at no cost to NRMCA members and partners as a 10 Webinar series beginning on Friday, November 22, at 11a.m. Eastern time with a promotion and advocacy overview. This first Webinar will cover general issues and approaches appropriate for review by any producer or coalition that is considering a SLR promotion effort. Subsequent Webinars will provide much more detail on recommended strategies and approaches. Please note that these modules can be packaged together and presented in half or full-day sessions on location. Click here to sign up for any of the first four Webinars below:

SLR Planning & Strategy:

                1- Promotion/Advocacy Overview: Glenn Ochsenreiter/Amy Miller, Friday, November 22, 11 a.m. to noon Eastern time

                2 - Team Building & Situation Analysis: Phil Kresge/Doug O’Neill, Thursday, December 5, 11 a.m. to noon Eastern time

                3 - Promotion for DOTs, Counties & Municipalities: Jon Hansen/Phil Kresge, January 9, 2014, 11 a.m. to noon Eastern time

                4 - Winning Initial Projects in Counties & Municipalities: Jon Hansen/Amy Miller, January 29, 2014, 11 a.m. to noon Eastern time

                5 - Elected-Official Advocacy: Glenn Ochsenreiter/Amy Miller, details to be announced

Additional modules focus on utilizing promotion/advocacy resources and will be scheduled beginning in February 2014: Utilizing MIT Research Results, Industry Promotion & Technical Resources for SLR & Parking Lots, SLR Concrete Construction & Repair Basics, Overlays for SLR and RCC for SLR.

NRMCA Senior Director, National Resources, Doug O'Neill recently attended the Northeastern States Materials Engineers Association (NESMEA) annual meeting in Portsmouth, NH, along with promotion partner Jonathan Kuell with the Northern New England Concrete Promotion Association. NESMEA member states include Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hamphsire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. O'Neill and Kuell were invited  to attend the event by the Materials & Research Division of the NH DOT, which had hosted them in a meeting several weeks prior. The topic of discussion was why DOT officials have never considered using concrete for intersections, round-a-bouts and parking lots.

The answer to the question of "why" was met with "we really don't know, other than asphalt is all we've ever used," O'Neill related. He and Kuell then introduced their hosts to the concrete industry's design resources and provided them with evidence of what other cold weather states are doing, prompting a return visit in late November that will include members of the construction, bridge and highway design sectors along with a representative of the Commissioner's Office. Several other valuable contacts were made at this event; O'Neill said he will follow-up with each of them.

For more information, contact Doug O'Neill at doneill@nrmca.org.

More than 80 participants attended Concrete Forums held recently in Brooklyn Park and Rochester, MN, reports NRMCA Vice President, National Resources, Jon Hansen. Sponsored by Portland Cement Association-North Central (PCA-NC) Executive Director Doug Burns and marketed by Margaret Mills with the Minnesota Concrete Council, NRMCA’s newest state affiliate, this series of forums focused on ACI 330 parking lot design, concrete overlays of existing asphalt parking lots, and the use of fibers in concrete flatwork applications.

"Within days of the forums, April Stier, pavement engineer with PCA-NC, received a request from a facilities engineer who attended a parking lot Design Assistance Program (DAP) for a project that was designed with asphalt but is now seeking a concrete option," Hansen said. "Another request for a Streets and Local Roads DAP is being processed at the request of a city engineer that attended. In addition to these urgent requests for DAP service, there were a number of national and regional companies requesting follow up information for future projects."

The NRMCA Roller Compacted Concrete (RCC) Task Force will hold a conference call on Thursday, November 14, at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Anyone interested in participating but has not yet signed up may still do so. Topics of discussion will include RCC specification, contractor qualifications and the ready mix industry's perceptions of RCC.

For details, please e-mail Phil Kresge at pkresge@nrmca.org.

NRMCA is now accepting entries for its 2013 Kids Art Contest. In rounding out the 100th Anniversary of Ready Mixed Concrete, the theme for the contest is "The Evolution of the Ready Mixed Concrete Truck." The contest is open to kids up to grade 12 who have a relationship to an NRMCA member.

• All entrants must be related to or sponsored by an NRMCA member.

• Contestants are limited to one entry each.

• Artwork should be 100% produced by the entrant and be original.

• Entries may be in a medium of the artist's choice (oil, water color, pastels, pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, crayon, etc.). Entries can be a drawing, collage, painting or other two-dimensional work.

• All entries must incorporate a ready mixed concrete truck in some manner – but should not be limited to a picture of a ready mixed concrete truck.

• Entries must be on 11" x 14" flat paper. We encourage artwork to be on good quality bond or drawing paper, or illustration board. Entries should not be framed or matted.

• For contact purposes, please include artist’s name, address, phone number, age and grade, and the name of the NRMCA member and his/her relationship to the artist on the back of their artwork.

• Entries must be postmarked no later than Tuesday, December 31.

Entries will be divided into the following grade categories: pre-K, K-2, 3-5 and 6-12. First, Second and Third place winners will be selected from each grade category. Entries will be judged only against others in their respective grade category. They will be judged on originality, effort, creativity, composition and interpretation of the theme.

Winners in each category will be announced at NRMCA’s Annual Convention, March 1-3, 2014 in Las Vegas. Winning entries will be auctioned off at the CONCRETEPAC Dinner & Auction to help raise money for NRMCA’s Political Action Committee. Images of the winning entries will be used later in the year to create a 2015 NRMCA calendar; winners and the sponsoring members will receive a free copy of the calendar.

All entries will be displayed at NRMCA’s Annual Convention and CONEXPO – CON/AGG, and entries will be on display at NRMCA’s headquarters in Silver Spring for the remainder of 2014. NRMCA reserves the right to copy and modify any entry for reproduction. Entries will not be returned and may be used for future promotional opportunities. 

Entries must be post marked no later than December 31, 2013 and should be mailed or delivered to:

Kerri Leininger

NRMCA 

900 Spring Street

Silver Spring, MD 20910 

As business winds down, allow your operations staff to hone immediate skills that increase efficiency and performance practices as well as their compliance parameters. Registration fee discounts are extended to those companies that send three or more people to one class title.

• The Effective RMC Supervisor – Silver Spring, MD, November 12-14. Click here for more information. 

• Environmental Professional Certification – Orlando, December 4-6. Click here for more information. 

• Plant Manager Certification – Orlando, December 10-13. Click here for more information.

These three classes are required to earn NRMCA's STEPS "Operations and Production" Track certification, CCPf. STEPS is the ready mixed concrete’s industry most prestigious employee professional development program, supporting career development and job retention/succession planning.

The deadline for submitting abstracts for NRMCA’s 2014 International Concrete Sustainability Conference is Saturday, November 30. The ninth annual conference is scheduled for May 12-15 just outside Boston at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, MA. The conference will provide learning and networking opportunities on the latest advances, technical knowledge, continuing research, tools and solutions for sustainable concrete manufacturing and construction. Researchers, academics, students, engineers, architects, contractors, public works officials, material suppliers and concrete industry professionals are invited to submit abstracts. Suggested topics include the latest developments related to design, specifying, manufacturing, testing, construction, maintenance and research of concrete as it relates to sustainability.

Abstracts can be submitted online by November 30. The 2014 International Concrete Sustainability Conference is being held in conjunction with the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub Showcase scheduled for May 15, 2014. Registrants for the 2014 International Concrete Sustainability Conference will have the option of attending both events.

On October 30, Reps. Richard Hanna (NY-22), Tom Rice (SC-7) and Michael Michaud (ME-2) introduced H.R. 3413, the True Understanding of the Economy and Safety Act (TRUE Safety Act). This bipartisan legislation seeks to halt the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) Hours of Service (HOS) "restart rule" change until the Government Accountability Office (GAO) completes a full assessment of the data and rationale the agency used in issuing its rule. FMCSA’s change, which limits the use of the 34-hour restart provision to once a week covering two periods between 1 and 5 a.m., adversely affects the ready mixed concrete industry as well as the trucking industry at large. These rule changes were implemented without the completion of a field study required by Congress. Passage of H.R. 3413 would require the old 34-hour restart rule to be put back into effect until after FMSCA completes the study and GAO reports on its assessment of the rule.

In coming weeks, NRMCA, in cooperation with members of the Hours of Service Coalition, will be seeking additional cosponsors for the legislation from House members and will work with the coalition and sponsors to see it move forward.

The November 2013 issue of Concrete Capitol Connection is now available online, with updates on legislation, regulation and case law from the previous month. If you would like to receive this monthly newsletter in a separate e-mail, or if you have questions or comments, please contact NRMCA’s Elizabeth Fox at efox@nrmca.org.

On Wednesday, November 20, from noon to 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, NRMCA will host a free Webinar,  STEPS A Long Term Career Tool for the RMC Industry. Because STEPS (Seminars, Training, & Education, Programs) continues to play an important role in the ready mixed concrete industry as its premier certification program, this short, FREE Webinar will discuss what the program is and how to enroll. Learn how STEPS®  encourages industry employees to participate in a broad range of technical, operations, sales and sustainability classes through NRMCA, state associations and through their respective companies. The program also builds industry-wide standards for consistent performance that not only enhances business outcomes but also illustrates to employees that they have a device to plan long-term ready mixed concrete careers.

Considering the current sales environment and producers’ recovery goals for 2014, it has never been more timely to beef up sales skills to close orders. To help, NRMCA will offer a hands-on, updated workshop, CCSP Module II, Understanding Your Concrete Contractor's Business, December 3-5 in Silver Spring, MD, at the RMC Research & Education Foundation Center.

 

Topics tie directly into what a sales rep should know that impacts business, including learning about contactors’ estimating methods, bidding, design, procurement, project planning and scheduling. Those that pass the optional exam receive credit toward CCSP Module II certification. This is a required class for STEPS recognition.

Click here to register or for more information.