Useful News from Around the Web and
World of Business
·
States Lock in Highway Stimulus Money
– Every state has committed at least
half its highway stimulus funds so none
will lose any of its allocation, the
Obama administration said Thursday.
States had until June 29 to obligate the
funds or risk losing half the leftover
money. Only a month ago, some 14 states
had yet to satisfy that goal. Hawaii was
the last to meet the mark, hitting it on
June 19. CNNMoney.com posted the story
on June 25:
read more.
·Steel Giving Way to Concrete in Bridge Construction –
Environmental issues and the
unpredictability of prices are two
factors contributing to steel
increasingly taking a back seat to
concrete in bridge construction.
American Metals Market posted the
story on June 22:
read more. (Note that this link
leads to an abbreviated story. The full
article can only be accessed by
subscribers or a free trial.)
·Pervious Concrete Expands Foothold in Chicago Area
– The city of Chicago’s successful
“Green Alleys” project that features
pervious concrete in many neighborhood
alleyways has spread to the nearby city
of Des Plaines. A Web site called
chicagopressrelease.com posted a
release on June 24:
read more.
·New York Producer Confronts High Diesel Costs –
Even before energy costs skyrocketed
last year, NRMCA member Troy Sand &
Gravel Co. had been taking steps to save
money and reduce pollution. The
Albany Times-Union posted a story on
June 28:
read more.
The Oregon Concrete & Aggregate Producers Association (OCAPA),
an NRMCA state affiliate, recently held
a meeting of its Promotion Committee,
chaired by Tony McCauley of Lehigh
Northwest Cement, reports Dan Huffman,
NRMCA vice president, national
resources. The Portland, OR-based
Huffman attended the meeting, which
focused on NRMCA’s national parking lot
initiative and was primarily attended by
cement and admixture sales
representatives interested in seeing how
new markets resulting from a successful
concrete parking lot promotion program
could evolve.
The NRMCA presentation focused on many of the increasing
resources NRMCA has to offer, including
the Design Assistance Program
(DAP). Longtime NRMCA supporter and
Huffman industry colleague Scott
Erickson of Quality Concrete (a past
recipient of NRMCA’s Promoter of the
Year Award) and his subsidiary company,
Evolution Paving Resources, represented
by Al Steward, took the bull by the
horns and immediately after the meeting
presented OCAPA with its first request
for the Design Assistance Program. As a
result of that, a project for a 1.5-acre
all concrete parking lot at a YMCA in
West Central Oregon is looking good for
the industry – and likely to go with
approximately 2/3 of the concrete
pavement in pervious and 1/3 in a
conventional mix.
Also in attendance was Rich Angstrom, executive director of
OCAPA. An industry promotion team
consisting of Erickson, McCauley and
longtime industry pro Bob Allen of BASF
later met with a state legislator to
discuss ways to enhance the potential
for concrete parking lots in Oregon.
Two years ago while attending the Ohio Ready Mixed Concrete
Association’s annual meeting, Mike
Dougan, territory manager for Armstrong
Cement, sat in on NRMCA Mid-Atlantic
Senior Director of National Resources
Phil Kresge’s presentation Leveraging
the Change Order. Dougan was
impressed with the presentation and
believed its message was just what the
industry needed to hear. And he feels
even stronger about it today. That is
why Dougan invited Kresge to repeat the
presentation at this year’s West
Virginia Builders Supply Association (BSA)
Annual Meeting.
Kresge provided an updated version of the program, focusing
on the changes in market trends over the
last year and emphasizing the importance
of a fast response from our industry to
those changes. Following the
presentation, several BSA members,
including some not in the
concrete industry, shared how timely
they felt the information was,
particularly with regard to their
experiences on recent projects.
NRMCA currently offers a number of programs focusing on
helping our members train their
sales/marketing staff to capitalize on
opportunities. The programs range from
1-hour presentations to 1½-day programs,
and include several that are part of the
NRMCA STEPS (Seminar, Training and
Education Programs) curriculum. Many of
the programs are also available in
Webinar format.
With the continuing price increases seen for asphalt-based
materials, NRMCA members are capturing a
larger share of the parking lot market,
reports NRMCA South Central Senior
National Resource Director Vance Pool.
This is true in many construction
sectors, including retail, where success
is continuing to accelerate. NRMCA has
heard that a number of Wal-Mart stores
have been or are being placed with
concrete.
“We need to capture not only a list of these properties, but
record any first-cost savings associated
with using concrete,” Pool said. “If we
could also know how much less the
concrete was at bid time, this would be
a powerful tool in our selling toolbox.”
If you are aware of any Wal-Mart stores which were placed in
2007 until now, please e-mail Pool with
the store location, type of store
(Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Neighborhood
Market) and any initial cost savings (if
available). If you don’t have the cost
savings, send the project anyway so we
can try and measure our gains with this
leading global retailer, he added.
This regular feature in E-NEWS is a listing of selected large
projects recently published in the
Buildings Under Design (BUD)
project-lead subscription service.
Provided by National Building News
Service, BUD is provided to many state
affiliates with support from NRMCA.
Helpful to promotional efforts, BUD
listings generally provide specifier
contact information and long lead time
before projects break ground.
ASTM Committees C09 on Concrete and Aggregates and C01 on
Cement met during the week of June 15 in
Vancouver. Some brief notes from NRMCA
staff participation at the meetings:
ASTM Subcommittee C09.40 Ready Mixed Concrete –
Approved a revision to C94 to include
tolerances for slump flow for self
consolidating concrete. Working on
revisions for ordering concrete by
prescription and performance, reuse of
returned concrete, use of automated
slump adjustment in truck mixers and
minor revisions on air content table and
batching accuracy requirements for
aggregates.
C09.49 Pervious Concrete –
Resolved negatives and approved new
standard to measure infiltration rate on
installed pervious pavements. This is
the second standard approved in a
relatively short period. The
subcommittee is also working on methods
to measure strength of pervious
concrete.
C09.66 Fluid Penetration –
Proposal being balloted to include
standard and accelerated curing
procedures in ASTM C1202 (Rapid Chloride
Permeability test). The subcommittee has
proposed a new standard to measure
conductivity in a shorter test period,
in a method and using specimens similar
to ASTM C1202.
Alkali aggregate reactions –
A task group is working on developing
similar provisions for effectiveness of
mitigation methods in ASTM standards.
C09.48 Performance of Cementitious Materials and Admixture
Combinations – A new standard on semi-adiabatic calorimetry has been
proposed and the subcommittee is working
through initial comments. The method
will be useful to evaluate effects of
concrete ingredients that cause
incompatibility relative to setting and
rate of strength gain.
C09.24 Fly ash and pozzolans –
A standard that will cover blended
supplementary cementitious materials is
being developed. The subcommittee is
also developing a guide for evaluating
the potential of using other materials
currently not covered as supplementary
cementitious materials in concrete.
C09.47 Self Consolidating Concrete –
Subcommittee is working through comments
on two new standards on “Making and
Curing SCC specimens” and “Rapid Test
for Static Segregation of SCC”.
C09.60 Fresh Concrete Tests –
The subcommittee is working on a new
standard on determining the water
content of fresh concrete using the
microwave oven. The method is similar to
AASHTO Method T318.
ASTM C09.20 Aggregates –
The subcommittee is proposing to move
the limits on minus No. 200 (fines) from
the deleterious materials section to the
fine aggregate grading section. This
could permit the use of fine aggregate
with higher quantities of minus No. 200
that are primarily crusher fines in
manufactured sands.
C01.10 Cement – It was
noted that after considerable efforts
ASTM C150 and AASHTO M85 will have
similar provisions. A task group between
AASHTO and ASTM has been working to
minimize the differences between the two
standards for portland cements. Ternary
blended cements are being proposed under
ASTM C 595.
NRMCA is accepting applications for the 2009 Excellence in
Quality Award. A company must be a
current 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
be judged. Companies or divisions that
receive at least a 75% score will be
recognized at the NRMCA’s ConcreteWorks
in October in Indianapolis. The deadline
for receiving completed award
applications is Friday, July 31.
There are several advantages to participate 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.
4.The company can use
this national recognition for business
advantage
For more discussions about this award and the 2007 award
winners, click here.
For more information and the application
form, click here.
The award application can also be
requested by e-mail from
Karen Bean.
Completed award forms should be returned
to Karen Bean by July 31.
For more information, contact NRMCA's Karthik Obla at
1-888-846-7622 x 1163 or by e-mail,
kobla@nrmca.org.
Texas to
Target Safety at Construction Sites —
Federal inspectors will begin a
safety crackdown next month at
construction sites in Texas — the
deadliest state in the nation for
construction workers, U.S. Secretary
of Labor Hilda Solis said Monday in
San Antonio. This is a reminder to
ready mixed concrete producers in
Texas and nationwide that OSHA will
be present at construction sites in
greater numbers. Ready mixed
concrete producers should ensure
they have documentation of training
and ensure that mixer drivers have
proper PPE for construction sites.
The 2009 Environmental Excellence
Award application deadline has been
extended until Wednesday, July 15.
Last week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee released the draft text of
Chairman James Oberstar’s (D-08-MN)
755-page Surface Transportation Act
of 2009. Given the length of the
bill, it is easier to tell you what is
currently not in the bill than what it
contains. Among other things, the bill
fails to identify authorized funding
levels, budget authority, obligation
ceilings, apportionment formulas,
allocated amounts and percentage
deductions or takedowns. More
importantly, the bill does not offer
solutions or guidelines to pay for its
spending levels; under current fuel tax
rate revenues, the Highway Trust Fund
can only support a bill half its size.
The bill also does not contain earmarked
projects; however, thousands will be
included during a full committee
mark-up.
In addition, the bill prevents states from using federal
highway funds for new construction by
only allowing maintenance of existing
infrastructure (earmarks are the
exception) and preventing states from
transferring funds from account to
account. These provisions would limit
the funding for new construction.
Because the draft did not contain spending amounts, the bill
was immediately marked up in the House
Highways & Transit Subcommittee to
establish that $450 billion will be
designated for surface transportation
and $50 billion will be designated for
high-speed rail. In fact, the bill’s
blanks will be addressed as the
transportation debate continues during
T&I full committee and subcommittee
hearings in future weeks. Despite
efforts in that committee to move the
bill, the Administration and key
Democrats in the Senate have recommended
an 18-month extension of SAFETEA-LU
until after the 2010 elections.
Registration continues for courses that fulfill the STEPS
requirements for the Operations and
Production career track. The first is
the Plant Manager Certification
course, August 11-14 in Charlotte, NC. Fleet
Manager Certification Course will be
held the following week, August 18-20,
in Silver Spring, MD. The third required
Operations and Production class,
Effective RMC Supervisor Certification,
will also be held in Silver Spring,
September 15-17. The last required
course for this track is the
Environmental Certification for the
Ready Mixed Concrete Industry,
December 2-4 in Silver Spring,
MD. Concrete 101 (CCSP Module I) is also
being offered in Silver Spring, MD on
September 22-25.
To earn aCCPf participants must complete 120
hours of coursework, including 24
prerequisite hours, 88 required course
hours and 8 elective hours. Some typical
industry job titles that would benefit
from this track are plant operator,
mixer driver, dispatcher, driver
supervisor, plant manager, operations
manager, safety manager, environmental
manager, general manager, area manager,
fleet manager and maintenance manager.
For more information on the STEPS program and NRMCA’s
courses, contact NRMCA’s Gillian
McBurney at 1-888-846-7622, ext. 1166 or
by e-mail,
gmcburney@nrmca.org.
NRMCA is now accepting nominations for
its Board of Directors. The NRMCA
Nominating Committee must select
director candidates from regions and
member companies along with one state
association executive director to be
elected to the NRMCA Board for the
2010-2013 term that begins immediately
after the 2010 annual convention in
Austin, TX, in March. The deadline for
nominations is Friday, July 3.
NRMCA has compiled updated summaries of
the goings-on at various state
associations across the U.S. Click on
the following link -
http://www.nrmca.org/news/statenews/ -
to read more.
The RMC Research & Education Foundation is celebrating
Independence Day by highlighting how its
work not only increases professionalism
and quality in the concrete industry,
but, just as importantly, how its work
benefits the citizens of the United
States. The Foundation’s research
reports and studies help to strengthen
infrastructure and building codes, and
includes recommendations on ways to
increase energy efficiency and improve
the environment. The RMC Research &
Education Foundation is having a
positive impact on people across the
nation as communities are increasingly
demanding that:
Construction is sustainable;
Places health, safety and
environment at the forefront of all
development planning and;
Governments make decisions resulting
in less waste, for both resources
and funding.
The RMC Research & Education Foundation helps to contribute
to all these important goals and more.
Materials such as the Hurricane Katrina
forensic study, pervious concrete
research, the fuel consumption and
emissions study, fly ash study/Guide for
the Construction Team and LEED Guide are
just a few examples where the average
citizen can ultimately benefit as the
Foundation’s work continues to gain
recognition around the country and
around the world. The RMC Research &
Education Foundation is proud of the
hard work and innovation of its
partners, donors and supporters who have
helped us to develop programs in support
of the country’s progress and wishes
everyone a safe and happy holiday
weekend.
For more information on the work of the RMC Research &
Education Foundation, please visit
http://www.rmc-foundation.org/. For
a detailed list of how the Foundation is
making a difference, please view our
Impact Statement by
clicking here.
NRMCA's June Internet Spotlight, good
through Friday, July 3, is the
Concrete In Practice – Single Set
(English or Spanish). Order online
today and receive 25% off of the regular
member price. Concrete In Practice is a
series of 42 one-page information sheets
on important technical topics, written
in a non-technical "What, Why and How?"
format. Give them to contractors and
they'll know that you deliver quality
and value, and make them a part of your
promotion and education program.
Regular price $27; Internet
Special$20.00, plus shipping.
Note: Please use Discount Code
ISJUNE09
to receive the online discount.
New for 2009 is the
2009 Concrete Technology Forum
Conference Proceedings.
This CD contains the papers and
presentations delivered at the 2009
Concrete Technology Forum: Focus on
Performance Prediction, held in
Cincinnati in May. The symposium brought
researchers and practitioners together
to discuss the latest advances,
technical knowledge, continuing
research, tools and specifications that
involve test methods and modeling to
predict concrete performance and service
life of concrete structures.
302 Knights Run Avenue, Suite 900, Tampa, FL 33602
Chicago, Cook County, Illinois
Hotel
Project Estimate: $1,200,000
OWNER: Sachi Construction Inc.
Phone: 847-806-3600
1229 East Algonquin Road, Suite A, Arlington Heights, IL
60005
ARCH: ABB Design Studio USA
Phone: 847-414-4575
6540 North Longmeadow Avenue, Lincolnwood, IL 60712
Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri
River Market Residential/Retail & Office Building
Project Estimate: $8,500,000
OWNER: Ladco Development
Phone: 515-278-8505
6601 Westown Parkway, Suite 240
West Des Moines, IA 50266
ARCH: Bell/Knott & Associates
Phone: 913-378-1600
12730 State Line Road, Leawood, KS 66209
A free BUD trial is available at www.buildingsunderdesign.com.
NRMCA members interested in subscribing
are eligible for a 15% discount – click here for a member
Discount Form (PDF). For more
information, contact Michelle Barringer
at mbarringer@nrmca.org.
