NRMCA | E-News

· Massive Concrete Pour in Australian Tunnel – More than 2800 cubic metres of concrete was laid during a marathon engineering effort overnight at the Airport Link site at Kedron. Workers spent 15 hours pouring the concrete at the site; it took 380 concrete trucks to deliver the concrete, arriving every two minutes – or 37 trucks an hour – at the work site. Four concrete pumps were used and 300 cubic metres of concrete was poured every hour until about 8am today. The February 26 Sydney Morning Herald reported the story: read more.

· U.S. Bonds Could Help Fund Infrastructure Bank – The U.S. government could issue debt to help underpin infrastructure bank financing for priority highway, transit and other big-ticket projects, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last week. LaHood again ruled out a gas tax hike to boost construction upgrades, saying the Obama administration and Congress must shift away from traditional funding mechanisms. The Reuters news service posted the story on March 4: read more.

· Developing Earthquake-Proof Buildings – Destructive earthquakes in Haiti and Chile recently highlight the importance of engineering and testing earthquake-proof systems. The 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile last week was much more powerful than the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in mid-January. Yet it caused only a fraction of the casualties (fast approaching 800) compared with the 300,000 people estimated to have died in Haiti. Some seismologists suggest that one reason for the difference in the death tolls is that buildings in Haiti were constructed quickly and cheaply, while Chile enforced building codes for earthquake-resistant structures after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake in 1960. The Web site of ThomasNet News posted the story on March 4: read more.

· Not So Smart – You know it’s your favorite building material. And here’s a YouTube video showing what happens when a Smart Car hits 20 tons of concrete at 70 mph: click here.

Promotion

National Site Development Consultant Seeks Closer Ties with NRMCA

NRMCA Vice President, National Resources, Dan Huffman recently met with Kimley-Horn & Associates (KHA), a well established National Account client along with being a top rated Engineering News-Record site consultant for the retail sector and among the top consultants for green building, nationally. Huffman met with KHA’s vice president who is the firm’s lead liaison with Wal-Mart; KHA in turn is one of the retailer’s highly utilized consultants.

The KHA meeting with the executive engineer was held at the engineer’s California-based office. NRMCA’s strong working relationship developed originally when Wal-Mart used pervious concrete on a project in Colorado; since then the KHA client and Huffman have shared the podium presenting green building with concrete at an American Concrete Institute national convention and again before a shared owner client design team that eventually built a multi-billion dollar mixed use project in Las Vegas.

KHA and many of NRMCA’s national resource directors have worked together on numerous projects around the country, Huffman noted. Among the most significant relationships is that of Southeast National Resource Director Amy Miller with one of the firm’s top design offices in the Southeast.

The California meeting with KHA resulted when a major big box retailer asked KHA to work closely with NRMCA to better enable the retailer to use pervious concrete at its locations throughout the U.S. NRMCA also has an active project focus with KHA on a San Diego airport facility and, Huffman said, there’s an increased effort by most big box builders to register LEED projects, increasing the potential to utilize the resources of both KHA and NRMCA.

For more information, contact Dan Huffman at dhuffman@nrmca.org.

National Design Firm Seeks More Information on Pervious in Massachusetts

NRMCA Northeast National Resource Director Doug O’Neill recently visited two Massachusetts offices of National Account firm Stantec in an effort to offer them more information about pervious concrete technology. Accompanying him on one of the presentations was Leon Burch, president of Concrete Crafters, an NRMCA-certified pervious concrete contractor servicing the New England area. Representatives from the campus of UMass at Amherst also attended to learn more about stormwater management. In a similar presentation at a downtown Boston location, O’Neill was joined by local cement representative John Lamplough from Lafarge Cement.

“Our local partners add a lot to our presentations because they bring the local perspective which in many instances is critical to the audience,” O’Neill stated.

This was another great example of cooperation from local partners, O’Neill added. Northern New England Concrete Promotion Association Executive Director Jon Kuell has an ongoing relationship with a Stantec office in his region. He heard through his contact at Stantec that an office in Massachusetts was considering pervious for a project but had some concerns.

“Jon called me and within two days we had seminars set up with two different offices within the state,” O’Neill related. “So even though this situation was not in Jon’s areas, he recognized the opportunity and shared the information. That’s what gets things done!”

Stantec provides professional consulting services in planning, engineering, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, surveying, environmental sciences, project management, and project economics for infrastructure and facilities projects. Its services are offered through approximately 10,000 employees operating from more than 130 offices in North America.

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

NRMCA Webinar Leads to Houston Pervious Placement

NRMCA South Central Senior National Resource Director Vance Pool recently met Houston city officials and an engineering firm to gain approval of a pervious project. While this is not a typical National Account activity, the fourth largest city in the nation has hesitated in approving pervious projects; currently, there are not many pervious applications with the city limits. Pool notes that this project is unique because it’s believed to be the first application of pervious in a residential development (some real estate reports cite Houston as leading the nation in residential development).

The other interesting part of the story is how this all started. The Houston-based engineering firm attended Webinars on pervious hosted by Pool’s Mid-Atlantic colleague Phil Kresge. Based on the information gleaned from attending two Webinars, a spec was written and the engineer pursued city acceptance. When further questions arose, a lead was generated which landed in Portland at the office of Dan Huffman, vice president, national resources. Huffman then called Pool and within two hours the client had e-mails with supplementary information needed. Pool was then asked to meet with the city and, to summarize, soon there will be more pervious on the ground in Houston.

“This illustrates the often taken for granted value of NRMCA’s Webinars,” Pool said. “They are a valuable tool for our members to promote or sponsor with local engineer, architect and contractor clients.”

For more information, contact Vance Pool at vpool@nrmca.org.

Engineering

Latest HPC Bridge Views Newsletter Now Available

HPC Bridge Views is jointly published by the Federal Highway Administration and the National Concrete Bridge Council. The following articles are posted for Issue 59, Jan/Feb 2010:

HPC for the North-South Road Grade Separation Structure, Hawaii, Harold Hamada, KSF, Inc. – The new grade separation bridge in Hawaii uses high strength concrete in the spliced beams to span 165 ft (50.3 m) and high performance concrete in the deck to minimize drying shrinkage, enhance fatigue endurance, minimize bleeding, and reduce plastic shrinkage compared to previous deck mixes. After 12 months, no drying shrinkage cracks have been observed. Full Article>

HPC Precast Panels Provide Accelerated Construction of 24th Street Bridge, Ahmad Abu-Hawash, Iowa Department of Transportation and Hussein Khalil, HDR Inc. – Full-depth, full-width HPC deck panels were used on the 24th Street Bridge in Council Bluffs to accelerate construction of the bridge and maintain traffic flow. The panels were pretensioned transversely and post-tensioned longitudinally. Full Article>

Specifying High Strength Lightweight Concrete for Bridges, Reid W. Castrodale and Kenneth S. Harmon, Carolina Stalite Company – The main characteristics that must be addressed in a specification for high strength lightweight concrete are the lightweight aggregate properties, aggregate absorption, concrete compressive strength, concrete density, air content, and resistance to freezing and thawing. Each of these is discussed in this article. Full Article>

Concrete Permeability Testing – Part 2, D. Stephen Lane, Virginia Transportation Research Council – The ingress of chloride ions into concrete is controlled by the concrete’s sorptivity and chloride diffusion coefficient. This article describes and discusses two recently developed ASTM tests that measure these properties. Full Article>

All issues of HPC Bridge Views can be viewed at http://www.hpcbridgeviews.com/directory.asp.

NRMCA Offers Durability Course, Level 4 Certification in Charlotte

NRMCA, in cooperation with the Carolinas Ready Mixed Concrete Association (CRMCA), will offer the Concrete Durability Course on May 19-21 at the CRMCA offices in Charlotte, NC. The course is taught by Michael Thomas, University of New Brunswick and Kevin Folliard, University of Texas at Austin and NRMCA Engineering Staff.

The course provides a fundamental understanding of the nature of cement and concrete as they relate to durability of concrete. Topics will cover cracking, alkali aggregate reactions, sulfate attack, corrosion of reinforcing steel, freeze-thaw durability and other aspects. A group exercise will be facilitated to walk attendees through ConcreteWorks’ software that can be used to develop concrete mixtures for durability. The course also discusses the new provisions for durability in ACI 318-08 and how specifications can be structured to address durability.

Attendees at previous courses have given this program rave reviews. This course also offers those with the NRMCA Level 3 certification to obtain the NRMCA Concrete Technologist Level 4 certification. It also provides additional learning units toward the NRMCA STEPS program.

Click here for more information, staff contact and registration options.

Concrete Technology Course Offered This Spring in Two Locations

NRMCA is offering its one-day course, Handling Concrete Specifications, Low Strength Problems and Mixture Submittals, intended for concrete producers, contractors, engineers and testing labs on Wednesday, April 28, in New York City and again on Tuesday, May 18, in St. Louis.

Dealing with concrete specifications, troubleshooting low strength problems and ensuring proper mixture submittals can be expensive and time consuming. This one-day course will get into code and specification requirements (ACI 318, 301, ASTM C94) governing ready mixed concrete, including the new ACI Building Code 318-08 exposure categories. It will suggest specification revisions for all around benefits in performance and cost based on a specification guideline document. The guideline document is the result of review of numerous concrete specifications (Section 03300) belonging to large owners and has been reviewed and supported by the NRMCA Research Engineering and Standards Committee.

The course will cover the analysis of strength test results to identify causes for low strength problems and provide guidance to track compliance with specification requirements. Non-destructive testing techniques like the Rebound Hammer, core testing, evaluating core test results for acceptance and assignment of responsibility will be discussed. The course also provides necessary details required for an efficient concrete mixture submittal following the ACI 318 Flowchart for Selection of Concrete Mixtures.

Course instructors are Luke Snell, P.E., FACI, FASCE, Arizona State University and an NRMCA staff engineer. Producers, contractors, engineers and testing labs will find the discussions on investigating low strength problems and specifications very helpful to address issues that impact partnering, project cost and schedule. Upon successful completion of the course, attendees will earn 8 professional development hours, a certificate of completion and credits toward NRMCA’s STEPS program.

For more information, click here.

Sustainable Development

NRMCA Designated Landscape Architecture Approved Provider

NRMCA has been approved as a Landscape Architecture Continuing Education System (LA CES) Approved Provider and is launching its first approved course titled Pervious Concrete; A Stormwater Solution on Wednesday, March 10. The LA CES Provider Program presents high-quality professional development courses to further enrich the knowledge and understanding of landscape architecture, techniques and trends for building professionals.

NRMCA’s successful Pervious Concrete; A Stormwater Solution course has now gone totally online and the first to receive the LA CES status after a comprehensive review of the course materials, course content and instructors. The course is also approved for USGBC credits and AIA credits. The course provides detailed instruction on how to implement pervious concrete pavements as a solution to reducing stormwater runoff from building sites and other paved areas. Attendees will learn the details of pervious concrete pavement systems, engineering properties and construction techniques.

The initial offering of the course will run consecutive Wednesdays through March 31, totally online. Course registration and additional information is available here. The course has also been added to the LA CES growing catalog of courses and is listed on the LA CES website http://laces.asla.org/.

For more information, contact NRMCA's Erin Ashley at 1-888-846-7622, ext. 1306 or by e-mail, eashley@nrmca.org.

Early Bird Registration for Sustainability Conference Ends Next Week

Early bird registration and the conference hotel reservation deadline for the 2010 Concrete Sustainability Conference is Thursday, March 18. To register for the conference and receive the early bird rate of $395, click here. To make your hotel reservations, contact the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel at 800-547-8705 or online at www.SustainabilityConf.org. Mention NRMCA to receive the discounted room rate of $179 per night plus applicable taxes.

The 2010 Concrete Sustainability conference will be held on April 13-15 in Tempe, AZ. The conference, sponsored by NRMCA and the School of Sustainable Engineering and The Built Environment at Arizona State University (ASU), will feature more than 50 speakers. Examples of topics include Measuring Stormwater Quality Improvement through Pervious Concrete Paving; Recycling Carbon Dioxide into Concrete; and The Influence of City Street Pavement Type on Fuel Consumption and Emissions. Several prominent keynote speakers will present during the opening and closing general session, including Dr. Paul Johnson, executive dean of the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering; Mark Wilhelm, principal of Green Ideas Environmental Building Consultants; Wayne Trusty, president of Athena Institute and Dr. Franz-Josef Ulm, George Macomber Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Please help NRMCA meet its hotel room requirements by making your reservations now. Hotel contracts require NRMCA to be financially liable for unused sleeping rooms. The sleeping room rate covers the cost of meeting space, upkeep and utilities of the hotel. Staying at the convention hotel also provides you with the benefit of after-hours networking and easy accessibility to meetings and sessions. Please help NRMCA avoid these unnecessary penalties and keep registration fees low by booking your sleeping room at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel.

For more information, contact NRMCA’s Lionel Lemay at 847-918-7101 or by e-mail, llemay@nrmca.org.

Government Affairs

NRMCA Advocacy News Roundup Updated Through March 5

To read government affairs-related stories that relate to the ready mixed concrete industry for the week of March 1-5, 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.

Education & Training

EAC Committee to Meet Next Week at Annual Convention

The NRMCA Educational Activities Committee (EAC) invites Association members to attend its next meeting, Tuesday, March 16, from 3-5 p.m. at the Barton Creek and Spa, in Austin, TX, as part of NRMCA’s 2010 Annual Convention. The main topic will be how EAC should meet members’ training needs in the current economy, including current acceptance of members with NRMCA’s extensive Webinar workshops and formal online training classes as well as partnering with state associations to offer their members training closer to home.

EAC welcomes your participation and comments. For more information, contact EAC liaison Eileen Dickson at edickson@nrmca.org.

NRMCA News

Two NRMCA Producer Members Awarded Energy Star Designation by EPA

CalPortland Company – Has been recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency with a 2010 Energy Star Sustained Excellence Award. The Glendora, CA-based company earned its sixth EPA award in a row for energy efficiency, including:

· Reducing its total energy consumption by 27% and its energy intensity by 2.1%. Energy efficiency improvements amounted to eliminating 17,271 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions or the equivalent of removing over 3300 automobiles from the road.

· Completing energy efficiency projects costing $26.2 million with estimated energy savings of 24.7 million kWh/yr. and $2.2 million/yr.

· All three CalPortland cement plants scored in the top 2% of cement facilities nationally based on ENERGY STAR^®’s EPI benchmarking tool.

· Promoting energy efficiency throughout its Energy Value Chain including suppliers and customers. The company held an Energy Management Summit to educate its largest customers on good energy management practices.

· CalPortland generates nearly 45 million kWh/yr. of wind energy annually and is a member of EPA’s Green Power Partnership and Climate Leaders.

CalPortland is a major producer of cement, concrete and concrete products, aggregates and asphalt in the western U.S.

CEMEX – The Houston-based company will be honored for strategic energy management and a commitment to save energy across its entire operation that resulted in significant energy and financial savings. This is the second year in a row that CEMEX USA has been named Partner of the Year. In 2009, CEMEX reduced its overall energy intensity by 2.2% as a result of its Energy Management Program using ENERGY STAR guidelines.

Over 1.1 million MMBTUs were saved through such measures as commissioning two new cement lines using state-of-the-art vertical roller mills for finish grinding, replacing and repairing compressed air systems, and upgrading plant lighting. This energy savings resulted in cutting 107,500 metric tons of CO2 emissions and is equal to providing electricity to 14,900 American homes for one year, or avoiding emissions from about 19,700 passenger vehicles.

Both companies will be recognized at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. on March 18. U.S. Energy Star was introduced by the EPA in 1992 as a voluntary market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through increased energy efficiency. For more information, view www.energystar.gov or call 1-888- 782-7937.

NRMCA Hosts Concrete Delegation from China

NRMCA recently hosted a delegation of Chinese concrete officials who sought to learn more about their U.S. counterparts’ efforts in training and educating ready mix personnel. During the visit, NRMCA staff provided an overview of the Association’s mission on behalf of its membership and the Chinese representatives responded by discussing their national trade association and core competencies.

The day together also included a tour of the NRMCA Research Laboratory in College Park, MD and a plant tour conducted by producer member Aggregate Industries at its Bladensburg, MD, concrete plant. Three Aggregate Industries’ Operations, Environmental and Safety personnel also helped answer plant operation questions from the Chinese delegation.

“The Aggregate Industries’ Bladensburg plant was chosen due to its concrete production capacity as well as being a Green-Star plant,” said NRMCA President Robert Garbini. “And the tour of the laboratory was done so they could see how NRMCA members work to optimize mix designs.”

“The Chinese delegation was extremely surprised at the high quality of the concrete constituents as well the environmental controls in place,” said Aggregate Industries’ U.S. Environmental and Land Services Manager Joel Nickel.

NRMCA to Co-Sponsor International Concrete Conference

NRMCA has been named a sponsoring organization of the Third International fib Congress to be held in late May just outside Washington, DC, in conjunction with the 2010 Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) Annual Convention and Bridge Conference. Fib, short for The International Federation for Structural Concrete (Fédération Internationale du Béton), is headquartered at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. It was created in 1998 from the merger of the Euro-International Concrete Committee (Comité Euro-International du Béton) and the International Federation for Prestressing (Fédération Internationale de la Précontrainte).

The fib Congress is held only once every four years. It was last held in 2006 in Naples, Italy, and before that in 2002 in Osaka, Japan. This is the first time the fib Congress will be held in the U.S. With over 500 papers and 100,000 square feet of exhibits, the Congress will be the largest event in PCI’s 56-year history. The combined fib Congress and PCI Convention & Bridge Conference will cover all types of structural concrete, including precast, prestressed, cast-in-place and specialty products. Technical papers will address a broad range of topics, including bridges and transportation, building systems, engineering, design, analysis, materials, plant operations, field operations, construction, ultra-high-performance concrete and more. Both domestic and international exhibitors will showcase the latest in products, services, and technology.

The Third International fib Congress and 2010 PCI Annual Convention & Bridge Conference will be held May 29 to June 2 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, MD, minutes from Washington, DC. Event and hotel registration are now open. To register or for more information, view www.pci.org or contact Colin Faul, PCI events manager, at 312-786-0300 or cfaul@pci.org.

Products & Services

March Internet Spotlight Features Pervious Concrete CD

NRMCA's March Internet Spotlight, good through Friday, April 2, is the Pervious Concrete: Mixture Proportioning – CD-Rom. This software program helps the user to establish mixture proportions for pervious concrete for a design void content and optimum consistency. Included with the software is a guideline that details the pervious concrete mixture proportioning methodology and. a research report that provides experimental validation of the mixture proportioning methodology based on testing conducted at the NRMCA Research Laboratory.

A special feature of this software program is that the mixtures can be designed for a void content that is close to that measured by the newly standardized ASTM C1688 Standard Test Method for Density and Void Content of Pervious Concrete.

Order online today and receive 25% off the regular member price of $45. The Internet Special is $34, plus shipping. Note: Please use Discount Code ISMAR10 to receive the online discount.

Calendar

A Look Ahead

March 17-18, Bryan, TX

2010 Annual Mentor Driver Workshop

E-mail: Gillian McBurney, 888-84-NRMCA, x1166

March 18, Webinar

Optimizing Fly Ash Concrete

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

March 19, Webinar

Introduction to Concrete Pavement Analyst (CPA) Software

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

March 22, Webinar

Quantifiable Advantages of Concrete Parking Lots

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

March 22-May 14, Online Course

LEED Green Associate Exam Study Course

E-mail: Gillian McBurney, 888-84-NRMCA, x1166

March 22-24, Nashville, TN

NRMCA CCSP Module IV: Professional Sales Skills,

administered by the Tennessee Concrete Association

Contact: Alan Sparkman or 615-360-7393

March 24, Webinar

Green-Star Auditor Certification

Contact: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

March 25, Sioux Falls, SD

Design of Concrete Pavements

Contact: Lionel Lemay or 847-918-7101

April 1, Webinar

Requirements and Standards for Concrete Strength

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

April 6, Webinar

Earning LEED 2009 Credits by Utilizing Ready Mixed Concrete

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

April 7, 14, 21 and 28 Online Course

Design of Concrete Pavements

E-mail: Gillian McBurney, 888-84-NRMCA, x1166

April 7, Webinar

Understanding Concrete's Environmental Advantages

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

April 7, Webinar

Identification of Environmental Aspects and Impacts

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

April 8, Webinar

Establishing and Measuring Environmental Goals

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

April 13, Webinar

Accident Cost Accounting

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

April 13-15, Tempe, AZ

NRMCA Concrete Sustainability Conference

E-mail: Gillian McBurney, 888-84-NRMCA, x1166

April 19, Webinar

Introduction to Concrete Pavement Analyst (CPA) Software

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

April 20, Webinar

Specification Revisions for All-Around Benefits

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

April 20 - May 20, Online Course

Safety Certification Course

E-mail: Gillian McBurney, 888-84-NRMCA, x1166

April 21, Webinar

Safety Metrics

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

April 21, Webinar (Part II on April 28)

Designing and Specifying Pervious Concrete

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

April 28, New York City

Handling Concrete Specifications, Low Strength Problems and Mixture Submittals

E-mail: Gillian McBurney, 888-84-NRMCA, x1166

May 5, 12, 19, 26, Online Course

Building Green with Concrete

E-mail: Gillian McBurney, 888-84-NRMCA, x1166

May 13, Webinar

Understanding Concrete's Environmental Advantages

E-mail: Jessica Moore, 888-84-NRMCA, x1165

May 18, St. Louis

Handling Concrete Specifications, Low Strength Problems and Mixture Submittals

E-mail: Gillian McBurney, 888-84-NRMCA, x1166

August 17-20, Silver Spring, MD

Plant Manager Certification

E-mail: Gillian McBurney, 888-84-NRMCA, x1166

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