EPA tags builder for lax concrete washout, stormwater management

Sources: Environmental Protection Agency; CP staff

Under agreement with the EPA, Rochester, N.Y., builder Atlantic Funding & Real Estate will pay a $50,000 penalty for stormwater control rule violations at its Gateway Landing development, and invest nearly $70,000 in a bioswale to filter silt and pollution from the site’s contaminated runoff into the Erie Canal.

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Economist links construction materials’ upward pricing to harsh winter

Source: Associated Builders & Contractors, Washington, D.C.

Through April, concrete products and iron & steel prices were up 3.4 percent and 3.2 percent year over year, while overall construction materials prices rose 1.5 percent against the first four months of 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s mid-May Producer Price Index.

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General Resource creates Mapei Americas admixture platform

Sources: Mapei Corp., Deerfield Beach, Fla.; CP staff

Mapei Americas has acquired Minnesota admixture producer General Resource Technology, eyeing synergies with its own product portfolio—adhesives, coatings, grouts and mortars—while extending GRT offerings beyond the Central U.S., first toward the coasts and eventually to Canada and Mexico.

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Targeting fall prevention, OSHA opens June with national stand-down

Sources: Occupational Safety & Health Administration; CP staff

As announced earlier this year, OSHA has designated June 2-6 for a national construction site stand-down—contractors and crews pausing workdays to review ladder, scaffolding and roofing work safety—aiming to raise awareness about hazards accounting for the highest number of deaths in the industry.

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