·Heavy
Construction, Commercial Markets Remain
Stalled
– There have been spikes in commercial construction starts in
localized markets, but so far the gains
haven't been sustainable on a national
level, according to Reed Construction
Data Chief Economist Jim Haughey.
Spending on heavy construction remains
stalled, as declining government
investment hasn't been offset by an
anticipated increase in airport
facilities spending. That could come
next year, Haughey adds. Source:
Reed/ACP Construction Data for
August 25, contained in August 26 AGC
SmartBrief e-newsletter –
read more.
·New
Approach for Concrete Wine Tank
– The wine country of Northern
California is known worldwide for its
quality products. Concrete wine tanks
have dated to Roman times and have been
the subject of consistent innovation
among West Coast winemakers. Now a
California company is trying to enter
the developing market for egg-shaped
concrete wine fermentation tanks.
Source: August 23 North Bay Business
Journal –
read more.
·
Pervious Concrete Aids Celery Bog – Say
what?NRMCA producer member
Irving Materials recently placed
pervious concrete in a West Lafayette,
IN, nature area in order to help it stay
dry. A local parks official is very
happy with the result. Source:
Television station WLFI posted
the story on August 27:
read more.
NRMCA Southeast National Resource Director Amy Miller
recently discussed ACI 330 with a group
of public and private sector engineers
from The Haskell Company, the first time
many of them were exposed to a document
created especially for the design and
construction of concrete parking lots.
The discussion took place at
the company's Jacksonville, FL,
headquarters. Haskell is the state's
largest privately held construction
company and Florida’s 52nd
largest private company.
“The interest level was high and the questions were numerous,
favoring use of the document as a
complete ‘go-to’ guide and
specification,” Miller said.
Miller will continue to support the company’s transition
toward using ACI 330; Haskell continues
to do much of its work outside the U.S.,
including many public sector projects.
Engineering News-Record
named Haskell a top GREEN contractor and
it ranks among the top design/build
firms in the U.S.
Earlier this year BRR Architecture
invited NRMCA to discuss pervious
concrete at its metropolitan Kansas City
headquarters. As a result, NRMCA North
Central Senior National Resource
Director Jon Hansen attended a recent
luncheon meeting where 32 members of
BRR’s national account design team based
in Merriam, KS, attended a one-hour AIA-accredited
presentation titled Pervious Concrete
- A Stormwater Solution. (BRR’s
Atlanta office attended via video
conferencing.)
“The presentation request came when I
met two executives of BRR at a mutual
client’s project,” Hansen said. “They
said they would like to know more about
pervious paving to respond to stormwater
mandates and asked about doing a seminar
in house. When I got it scheduled, I
asked Christy Martin with the Concrete
Promotion Group of Kansas City to
accompany me because, from experience, I
knew this firm would want to see local
projects. Christy was able to bring that
information and, with her presence, we
established an additional point of
contact for the concrete industry.”
“BRR was so pleased with the luncheon
that it requested the same presentation
from other members of the NRMCA’s
National Resource Director team at BRR
offices in San Francisco, Phoenix and
Bentonville, AR.”
A project of interest to the concrete
industry can be viewed on the
BRR Web site. This Walmart in
Leavenworth, KS, is the first U.S.
design model for the retailer where BRR
incorporated a number of new
technologies, including the expanded use
of light emitting diodes (LED) lighting,
including parking lot lighting. “The
proof, as they say, is in the pictures
when you compare the Walmart project to
others in the portfolio,” Hansen noted.
NRMCA and the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA)
together released last week a series of
streets and roads concrete promotion
materials and tools to support
development of the high-potential local
roads market. This week the two
associations have launched
ConcreteStreets.org to further
support this market opportunity.
The site is the latest in the
ConcreteAnswers Web series and is
targeted to
metropolitan planning organizations,
public works departments, municipal
leaders, planners, engineers and others
with an interest in enhancing value for
streets and roads in cities and towns.
The site provides information about the
performance, sustainability and economy
of concrete pavements,
links to many other resources and will
evolve rapidly
to provide a range of technical
information about design and
construction and life-cycle cost
analysis.
Complete information about the program and downloadable
resources can be reviewed on the
ConcretePromotion.org
Web site. A new concrete streets’
online discussion group has also
been formed for NRMCA members and
promotion partners. Please contact NRMCA
Senior Vice President of Marketing Glenn
Ochsenreiter with questions or comments
at
glenn@nrmca.org or 240-485-1140.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently published
two options of proposed
rules
for regulating coal combustion residuals
(CCRs) of which fly ash is a large
component. In one option, fly ash will
be regulated under Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA) Subtitle C as a
hazardous waste (termed special waste in
the rule).
The EPA is holding seven public hearings on its proposal
around the country. NRMCA’s Vice
President of Technical Services Karthik
Obla presented NRMCA’s position at the
first hearing, held August 30 in
Arlington, VA. Click
here for a copy of his
testimony.
NRMCA will also attend each of the remaining public hearings
and encourages members to also attend.
September 2 – Denver
September 8 – Dallas
September 14 – Charlotte, NC
September 16 – Chicago
September 21 – Pittsburgh
September 28 – Louisville, KY
For more information, contact NRMCA's Karthik Obla at
1-888-846-7622 x 1163 or by e-mail,
kobla@nrmca.org.
NRMCA Fleet Graphics Contest - The
Fleet Graphics Award Program is
conducted once every three years in
conjunction with the CON-EXPO/CON-AGG
Show. The award program honors the best
ready mixed concrete truck paint and
decal schemes, and recognizes individual
companies’ methods of promoting
professionalism and positive public
image for the industry. There are three
categories of winners based on fleet
size. The best antique mixer and
specialty mixers are also honored. The
awards are presented at the NRMCA Annual
Convention. Click
here for more information.
Applications will be accepted until
Wednesday, September 15.
ConcreteWorks – This year’s event
will take place in Charlotte, NC, from
October 10–12. Registration is now open.
Early Bird Special (save
$125) is until Friday, September 24. Click
here for full agenda.
·Green-Star
Plant #121: American Concrete –
Clarinda, IA
·Green-Star
Plant #122: American Concrete –
Atlantic, IA
·Green-Star
Plant #123: American Concrete – Creston,
IA
·Green-Star
Plant #124: Ready Mixed Concrete Company
– Little River, SC
·Green-Star
Plant #125: Jack B. Parson Companies, an
Oldcastle Company – Ogden, UT, first
Green-Star plant in state
·Green-Star
Plant #126: Aggregate Industries –
Manassas, VA
Click here for a complete list and
map of Green-Star Plants
Joseph E. Carpenter Award – Joseph
E. Carpenter of Rinker Materials, West
Palm Beach, FL, was instrumental in the
formation and early operation of the
NRMCA Committee on Maintenance. Shortly
after his untimely passing in 1988, the
OES Committee decided to honor him by
instituting the Joseph E. Carpenter
Award for Outstanding Contributions to
the OES Committee. Carpenter Award
recipients are singled out for their
outstanding lifetime contribution to the
ready mixed concrete industry in the
field of operations, safety or
environmental. Nominees may be ready
mixed concrete company employees,
manufacturers or suppliers to the
industry, or association staff members.
They can be active, retired or deceased.
Award recipients must be members of
NRMCA in good standing. Nominations for
the Carpenter Award are solicited
annually from the members of the
Operations, Environmental and Safety
Committee; however, awards are only
given when deemed appropriate by the
committee. The award is presented at
NRMCA’s Annual Convention. For more
information
click here or contact
Gary Mullings or 240-485-1161.
For more information on the above items
besides the Carpenter Award, contact
NRMCA’s David Ayers at
dayers@nrmca.org.
To read government affairs-related
stories that relate to the ready mixed
concrete industry for the week of August
23-27, 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.
Every sale counts, perhaps more so in these economic times,
so NRMCA is aggressively supporting
producers with two different sets of
classes. The first class is a
short-and-sweet Webinar series called
New Ideas for New Times, set to run
September 22-24, from 2:30-4:30 Eastern
time. Its goal is to push sales reps and
managers in the most critical time of
the year with renewed vigor and
strategies. Group discounts apply. NRMCA
STEPS™ and CEU credit also apply. The
Webinars will concentrate on ideas and
real life examples for selling concrete,
as well as your company, to contractors,
builders, corporate executives and
specifiers in this challenging economy.
Click herefor online and fax-back back registration options
along with NRMCA staff contact for more
information.
The second series of four courses is the renowned Certified
Concrete Sales Professional (CCSP)
classes, held at NRMCA headquarters in
Silver Spring, MD. For those producers
who now have staff multitasking into
sales functions, this class offers
critical concepts to help them be
successful. It also supports sales staff
that can always sharpen skills. Class
interaction is a key component to active
learning and territory planning so all
win. Dates are as follows:
·Module
1: Concrete 101: September 14-17
·Module
2: Understand the Contractor's Business:
October 26-28
·Module
3: RMC Business Knowledge: December 7-9
·Module
4: Professional Sales Skills and
Promotion: February 8-10, 2011
Register for all four classes and save $100 on each class's
registration fee. The classes are
standalone courses and do NOT have to be
taken consecutively. Therefore, if
someone would like support in one
critical area he or she is most welcome
to take the one without jeopardy. This
is the perfect time to sharpen the total
sales-skill package in preparation
Spring 2011. The series is required to
earn certification in the Sales and
Promotion STEPS career program. Earn the
industry's prestigious capstone
certification CCPf.
Click
here to access Web
site links to each CCSP module, which
including more information, staff
contact and registration options.
NRMCA's Internet Spotlight, good only
through this Friday, September 3, is the
Respiratory Protection Program
safety binder. This CD-based PowerPoint
presentation and instructor notes is
designed to teach employees the
importance of respiratory protection
along with the necessary steps to
implement an effective Respiratory
Protection Program. A respiratory
protection inspection checklist and the
OSHA Medical Questionnaire are also
included. Finally, a quiz and training
documentation form is enclosed to help
track personnel training.
Order online
today and receive 30% off the regular
member price of $75; Internet
Special is$52.50, plus shipping.
Please use Discount Code
ISAUG10 to receive
the online discount.
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