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NewsLinks |
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Useful News from Around the Web and
World of Business |
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· Aggregates Industry Faces Challenges
–
A November 10 posting on
aggregatesresearch.com states that two
more years of a downturn in business is
seen. "Real Challenges continue to face
our industry. I think everybody has
concerns about 2009. We see no industry
rebound. We see a couple of more years
of being in a downturn," Cliff Halliday
Jr., treasurer of the Michigan
Aggregates Association (MAA) and vice
president of Halliday Sand & Gravel,
Inc., of Houghton Lake, MI, said to
attendees of the 2008 MAA Fall Meeting.
Click here.
· Commercial-Mortgage Lending Comes to “Abrupt Halt” –
A November 7 Bloomberg News story cites
a report by RBS Greenwich Capital
Markets that states commercial
real estate borrowers are running out of
options as asset-backed markets dry up
and alternative financing comes to an
"abrupt halt.” Regional banks and
insurance companies, which had become
the primary source of financing since
credit markets seized up, have stopped
lending, the RBS analysts wrote in a
report.
Click here.
· Obama
Faces £1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill – The
Web site of the United Kingdom’s New
Civil Engineer magazine posted this
story on November 10, based on an
interview with the president of the
American Society of Civil Engineers.
Click here.
· Costs
Paving Way for Concrete – Cheaper than
Asphalt?
– Florida transportation officials
discussed the rising cost of asphalt and
the increasing viability of concrete in
this story posted November 11 on
aggregateresearch.com:
click here.
· City
Halls Call Out for Help from Obama –
America's mayors are crying out for help
from President-elect Barack Obama,
seeking immediate relief from a national
economic crisis that has slammed budgets
in big cities, suburbs and small towns,
reports msnbc.com on November 13.
Responding to an informal survey by
msnbc.com, many mayors called for a
program in the style of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress
Administration to put people back to
work and rebuild neglected roads,
bridges and schools. The economy was by
far the most frequently mentioned
problem, and fixing the nation's
infrastructure the most frequently
mentioned solution.
Click here.
· Engineering
Cited in Minneapolis Bridge Failure -
Last
year’s Interstate-35W highway bridge
collapse in Minneapolis, the worst such
accident in 25 years, was caused by an
engineering flaw and the load on its
deck, Bloomberg reported, citing U.S.
safety investigators.
The Web site of Transport Topics posted
this story on November 14:
click here. |
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Promotion |
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Market Opportunities Exist for Industry
Promoters |
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NRMCA South Central Senior National Resource Director Vance
Pool noted that besides the tremendous
opportunity available for concrete in
parking lots, there are a number of
other market segments that bear
attention when looking to replace yards
no longer available in residential and a
number of commercial market segments.
Wind power is growing rapidly, Pool said. Whether onshore or
off, a significant amount of concrete is
available in footings and bases in this
market. If you live where there is wind,
you will have wind power eventually.
Local streets and roads have also seen asphalt prices climb
and limited availability for the
product. Grassroots efforts through
either politics or city and county
engineers are areas where industry
promoters should be gaining market share
more rapidly than at present, he added.
Pushing to bid concrete alternates on
any asphalt-specified paving should be
an area of focus for all sales teams
with capacity to sell.
Lastly, don’t forget Wal-Mart allows concrete alternates on
all new projects, but if you get a unit
with the old specifications, go get it
from the contractor on price, Pool says,
“like you can do on all others you hear
about. If you don’t get it, position
yourself to get calls on all future
work, you’ll get one!”
For more information, contact Vance Pool at
vpool@nrmca.org. |
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St. Louis Firm to Implement Performance
Specifications for Concrete |
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In an effort to prepare itself for
changes and implement new technology
faster, HOK in St. Louis recently
invited NRMCA North Central Senior
National Resource Director Jon Hansen to
speak to a group of designers and
company executives. The topic of the
luncheon meeting was the transition from
prescriptive specifications to
performance specifications, or P2P. The
1.5 hour meeting allowed Hansen to
present an overview of P2P objectives
and left a generous amount of time for
questions.
“Like any change in procedure, P2P implementation is met with
resistance by some and embraced
cautiously by others,” Hansen said. “HOK
management is committed to keeping the
firm up to date not only on new
technology, but on all aspects of
material specification, concrete
certification and quality control.”
HOK was founded in 1955 by George Hellmuth, Gyo Obata and
George Kassabaum. It currently has 26
regional offices on four continents and
was ranked the #1
architectural/engineering firm by
Engineering News-Record in April
2007. The firm has over 2,500 employees
and is credited with designing the first
LEED certified airport terminal at
Boston Logan International Airport. HOK
has also been recognized for six
consecutive years on the American
Institute of Architects’ “Top 10 Green
Projects List”.
For more information, contact Jon Hansen
at
jhansen@nrmca.org. |
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NRMCA Weekly Asphalt Price Survey Now
Available Online |
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NRMCA is now charting the average weekly liquid asphalt price
of a large national supplier based on 10
of its sales locations across the U.S.
This information is updated every Monday
to show last week’s price compared with
weekly prices since April. The average
price last week was $691, approximately
$100 less than the peak price reached in
early September.
The price survey is available by
clicking here.
For more information, contact NRMCA’s Glenn Ochsenreiter at
glenn@nrmca.org. |
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Engineering |
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NRMCA Completes Guide to Implement
Findings of Fly Ash Project |
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The NRMCA Research Laboratory recently completed a guide for
the construction team (contractor,
concrete producer and engineer) which
was an extension of the project “New
Technology-Based Approach to Advance
Higher Volume Fly Ash Concrete with
Acceptable Performance”. The guide
provides recommendations on the
application of the maturity method to
support the use of optimized Higher
Volume Fly Ash (HVFA) concrete mixtures
by providing a simple method to estimate
in-place strength development.
Funding for the development of this guide was provided by the
RMC Research & Education Foundation. The
original project was also funded by the
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through
the Combustion Byproducts Recycling
Consortium.
The guide can be downloaded from two locations:
http://www.rmc-foundation.org/ and
http://www.nrmca.org/research/eng_articles.asp.
For more information, contact NRMCA's Karthik Obla at
1-888-846-7622, ext. 1163 or by e-mail,
kobla@nrmca.org. |
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NRMCA Reports on ACI Fall Convention |
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Some brief notes from NRMCA staff who attended the recent
American Concrete Institute (ACI)
Convention in St. Louis:
· ACI
211 on Mixture Proportioning
– Extensive revisions were balloted and
discussed at the committee meeting on
the 211.1 document “Standard Practice
for Selecting Proportions for Normal,
Heavyweight, and Mass Concrete”.
· ACI
555 on Recycled Materials
– The committee is looking for case
studies on the successful use of
recycled concrete aggregates in
buildings. These will be incorporated in
the 555R document “Removal and Reuse of
Hardened Concrete” which is undergoing
revisions. The revised document will
also discuss the use of crushed returned
concrete as aggregates.
· ACI
130 on Sustainability – This is a newly
formed ACI committee that had its first
meeting. This committee will develop a
document on how concrete fits in
sustainable development. The committee
will sponsor a session at the Spring
2009 ACI convention in San Antonio.
· ACI 601-B Certification
– This committee has
developed the framework for a Concrete
Quality Technical Manager
Certification. The goal of this
certification is to establish
qualifications of a person who has
demonstrated knowledge in concrete
testing, concrete technology, and codes
and specifications. This person should
be responsible for developing
performance-based mix designs and a
ready mixed concrete company's quality
plan. ACI will undertake a market survey
for establishing viability of this
certification.
· ACI
332 Residential Concrete – The
residential code committee met to
discuss the next cycle for code
revisions. The next committee cycle will
be shortened to coincide with
International Residential Code cycle. No
major revisions to the ACI residential
code, ACI 332, are anticipated.
· ACI
560 Insulating Concrete Forms – This
committee met to discuss the first step
toward developing a design guide for
waffle grid systems. The committee will
host a session in San Antonio where
several design philosophies will be
presented.
· ACI
301 Specifications – This committee is
working hard to complete the next
version of the specification. In three
days of meetings, it resolved issues
from several ballots. The revised ACI
301 will incorporate the pertinent
provisions of ACI 318-08 and include at
least four additional optional sections
on industrial floor slabs, structural
and architectural precast concrete and
tilt-up walls. Significant revisions are
in the works for the existing sections
also. It is anticipated that ACI 301
will be published in 2010 after the ACI
review process.
· ACI
318 Building Code – The building code
is undergoing a complete reformat that
will primarily impact design
professionals. However, the traditional
chapters on materials will be moved
around in a different sequence in the
document. The subcommittee responsible
for the materials section of the code is
working on several revisions through the
process. The next version of ACI 318
will only be printed in 2014. A
supplement is planned for 2011 for
critical items.
· ACI
214 Strength Tests and Cores – The
committee is completing a revision to
this document. It is also revising the
document on testing cores.
·
ACI BAC-SD – Board Advisory Committee on Sustainable
Development – Developed
recommendations for greatly increased
attention to the issues of
sustainability with concrete within the
meetings and other considerations of all
technical committees. This effort was
specifically requested by the Executive
Committee and the Board of Directors.
·
ACI-330 on Design and Construction of
Concrete Parking Lots –
Following the publication in 2008 of a
revised standard; committee members are
already considering revisions.
·
ACI-522 on Pervious Concrete
– The committee finalized its voting on
the ACI-522 R document which will
provide strong recommended guidelines
for the design, construction and use of
pervious concrete. As an emerging
technology much detail is included,
including the history of its use as well
as its future application and in
particular its critical place as a
technology at the forefront of
sustainable development.
NRMCA Staff
Presentations
Lionel Lemay was part of a six-member panel of the traditional ACI 123
Forum with the topic, Should
Sustainability be Policy Driven?
Lemay stressed that there should be a
balance of the economic, social and
environmental aspects of sustainable
development and that it is often
observed that industry initiatives
progress significantly with incentives
rather than mandates.
Karthik Obla delivered a presentation on “Early Age Test Criteria for
Predicting Long–Term Chloride
Penetration Resistance into Concrete”.
Preliminary results indicate that RCPT
(coulomb) results did not appear to
correlate well with chloride diffusion
coefficient test results, possibly due
to varying concrete pore solution
conductivities. The study was funded by
the RMC Research & Education Foundation
and the Portland Cement Association, and
ongoing work is also part of an Indiana
DOT led Pooled Fund Study.
Colin Lobo delivered two presentations: the first one was on Precision
of Strength Testing, discussing the
variability of strength tests derived
from the annual round robin strength
testing program in the Washington, DC,
area. The second presentation was on the
Ready Mixed Concrete Industry’s
Perspective on Self Consolidating
Concrete (SCC), based on a short survey
of the industry members on the
challenges and opportunities to promote
the use of SCC.
For more information, contact Lionel Lemay, Karthik Obla, Dan
Huffman or Colin Lobo at
llemay@nrmca.org,
kobla@nrmca.org,
dhuffman@nrmca.org
or
clobo@nrmca.org. |
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Operations, Environmental & Safety |
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January Classes Designed to Increase
Efficiency, Productivity |
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Meet the 2009 challenge head on by using the dead of winter
to train your staff to apply
industry-specific best practices. Each
class qualifies for national recognition
within the STEPS certification program.
Additionally, registration
discounts/rebates are available for
those companies that are members of
their state association as well as NRMCA.
Please note that each class has a
December hotel cut-off dates, so plan
wisely for additional savings.
The Effective RMC Supervisor,
Silver Spring, MD, January 13-16 – New
– Hands-on people management processes and communication skills for
driver supervisors, operations, fleet,
QC supervisors to increase daily
operations productivity, efficiency and
reduce front line employee liabilities
and claims. Hotel discount cut off:
Saturday,
December 20.
Fleet Manager’s Certification Course,
Phoenix, January 13-16 – New – Prepares
ready mixed concrete industry fleet
professionals for the day-to-day
management of maintenance shops,
equipment, vendor relations, work
processes
and people.
Hotel discount cut off: Saturday,
December 13.
Dispatcher Training Forum, Birmingham, AL,
January 20-22 –
Technical, operational and customer service applied skills and best
practices specifically for RM
schedulers, shippers, dispatchers and
dispatch managers.
Hotel discount cut off: Monday, December
29.
Mentor Driver Workshop,
Portland, OR, January 27-28
–
Once
a year training for a senior driver and
his/her supervisor, instructing how to
schedule and conduct short, weekly
driver training sessions that reinforce
safety and environmental compliance as
well as operations and technical
information that specifically relates to
a driver’s job execution. Hotel cut
off: Monday, December 15.
For more information, contact NRMCA's Jessica Moore at
1-888-846-7622, ext. 1153 or by e-mail,
jmoore@nrmca.org. |
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Sustainable Development |
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Wells Fargo Exceeds $2 Billion in
Financing for LEED-Certified "Green"
Buildings |
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Wells Fargo has surpassed $2 billion in lending for
Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED®) certified buildings. Of
the buildings financed by Wells Fargo,
28% are LEED-rated, 37% are LEED-silver,
21% are LEED-gold and 9% are LEED-platinum,
the highest rating available. Since May
2007, Wells Fargo has doubled its
commitments for LEED buildings from $1
billion to $2 billion and increased the
number of LEED buildings it has financed
by 125%.
In addition, Wells Fargo is one of the
first organizations to be LEED®
pre-certified for new construction. Its
new banking stores will use about 20%
less energy and 40% less water than
conventional buildings of the same type.
Since 2007, Wells Fargo has contributed
nearly $500,000 to nonprofit
organizations in support of green
building education and practices. Learn
more at
www.wellsfargo.com/environment.
Source:
Wellsfargo.com. |
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Cost Savvy Execs Expect Greener
Buildings |
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According to a recent survey by CoreNet
Global and Jones Lang LaSalle,
commercial real estate executives are
increasingly seeking greener office
space. The survey found that more
commercial real estate executives than
ever – some 69% compared with 47% in
2007 – have "embraced sustainability"
and view it as a critical issue. Some
40% identified sustainability and energy
as major factors in their companies'
location decisions and another 36% said
those attributes are "tie-breakers" when
considering competitive sites.
Of the
executives surveyed this year, 42% said
they are willing to pay a premium –
typically 1-5% – to lease green work
space and 53% said they would pay a
premium to retrofit property they own to
increase efficiency. The survey showed
that 40% of the firms queried are
charting "sustainability data" – chiefly
the costs and benefits associated with
energy efficiency – and 30% are
collecting data in some form related to
green workspace.
Source:
GreenerBuildings.com. |
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Green Building Council Predicts New
Green Building Economy |
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The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), developers
of the LEED® Green Building Rating
System, predicts new emphasis on green
building with Barack Obama as president.
With more than 500 energy and climate
advisors, President-Elect Obama
campaigned on an aggressive and detailed
plan to strengthen the economy, spur
green job creation and protect the
environment. Policy proposals include:
· Expand
federal grants to assist states and
localities build more efficient public
buildings through the use of LEED;
· All
new federal buildings would have to be
carbon-neutral by 2025;
· Carbon-neutrality
for all new buildings by 2030;
· Invest
$150 billion over 10 years to spur the
development of renewable energy and
other energy efficient technologies;
· Renew
support for public mass transit
projects;
· And
Implement a National Infrastructure
Reinvestment Bank to direct $60 billion
over 10 years to infrastructure projects
that could create some 2 million new
jobs and $35 billion annually in
economic activity.
In addition, USGBC estimates that 2.5
million new green jobs could directly
result from a 100% commitment to energy
efficiency in our homes, schools and
offices.
Source:
USGBC.org. |
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Government Affairs |
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Labor Department Issues Final Rule on
Family and Medical Leave Act |
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Last Friday, the Department of Labor released a final rule
updating the Family and Medical Leave
Act (FMLA) of 1993. The final rule
primarily focuses on extending the FMLA
benefits to families of servicemen and
women, and families of members of the
National Guard and Reserves. The new
rule allows families to take up to 26
work weeks of leave in a 12-month period
to care for a family member seriously
injured or who has fallen ill in the
line of duty. As well, families of
National Guard and Reserve members are
now able to take FMLA leave to attend to
child care and school matters, obtain
financial, legal and counseling
services, and to manage short-notice
deployment.
The rule also provides employers more direct access to
workers’ and their family members’
health information, reduces the time
that employees need to give their
employers notice of leave and adds new
requirements before an employee can
qualify for paid leave under the Act.
To view the final rule published in Monday’s Federal Register
notice please
click here.
For more information, contact NRMCA’s Tom Carter or Kevin
Walgenbach at
tcarter@nrmca.org
or
kwalgenbach@nrmca.org. |
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Education & Training |
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New Concrete Parking Course Offered for
Producers, Contractors |
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NRMCA and the American Society of
Concrete Contractors have teamed to
offer a new course title How to Build
a Successful Parking Lot Construction
Business, January 20-21, 2009, in
St. Louis. Concrete contractors and
concrete producers now have a unique
opportunity to build a successful
business installing concrete parking
lots.
Concrete has traditionally been
perceived as the higher-priced but
longer-lasting material for parking
lots. However, with the recent rise in
asphalt prices concrete has now become
competitive in both initial cost and
life-cycle cost. Now property owners can
enjoy the benefits of concrete,
including long service life and low
maintenance along with environmental
benefits, including cooler surfaces and
reduced lighting requirements.
This course is intended for concrete
contractors and concrete producers. It
provides features and benefits of
concrete and asphalt for paved parking
areas. It presents the importance of
marketing and effective presentation
skills in the successful promotion of
concrete parking areas. The course also
provides different contract delivery
methods and how they affect the
potential for a successful concrete
parking lot contracting business.
This course provides detailed
instruction on how to design and build
concrete parking lots. Concrete
materials are presented, including
discussions on strength, workability and
durability. Construction techniques,
inspection, testing, maintenance and
repair are discussed. Additional detail
will be provided on cost estimating,
cost-benefit analysis, and life cycle
cost. In addition to details of
conventional concrete parking lots, this
seminar will provide introductions to
innovative products such as whitetopping
and pervious concrete.
Click here to register
online or download a registration form.
For more information, contact NRMCA's
Lionel Lemay at
LLemay@nrmca.org or
847-918-7101. |
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NRMCA Revises CCSP Module
IV/Professional Sales to Address Economy |
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NRMCA will launch a totally revised
Certified Concrete Sales Professional (CCSP)
Professional Sales Module IV, January
27-30, in Silver Spring, MD. The
material will not only address selling
techniques in this challenging
environment but also guide sales reps
through the ins-and-outs of selling
green and parking lots. The material is
geared toward mid-level staff so they
can apply consultative, team-based
cross-selling methods in ready mixed
concrete situations. Hotel discount cut off: Monday, January 5.
For more information, contact NRMCA's Jessica Moore at
1-888-846-7622, ext. 1153 or by e-mail,
jmoore@nrmca.org. |
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Deadline Nears for Minnesota Sustainable
Development Course |
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Registration for the seminar Concrete’s Role in
Sustainable Development, scheduled
for Wednesday, December 3, in
Minneapolis, is nearing capacity. This
popular NRMCA course is being sponsored
by the Aggregate and Ready Mix
Association of Minnesota.
Participants will leave with a detailed understanding of the
environmental attributes of concrete and
how it can contribute to sustainable
development. LEED and calculations
related to the green building rating
systems will be addressed, as well as
how to promote sustainable business.
This course is intended for ready mixed
concrete sales and marketing
professionals, concrete technical and
operational professionals. Attendees can
earn seven Professional Development
hours upon completion of the course and
can also fulfill some requirements
toward NRMCA’s STEPS Certified Concrete
Professional program.
Registration can be completed online at
http://www.armofmn.com/ or
by contacting Margaret Mills at
mmills@armofmn.com. The
registration fee for the course is $300. |
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