ASTM C09 observes centennial, confers top honor on NRMCA’s Lobo

Sources: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.; ASTM International, West Conshohocken, Pa.

A group of 150 members and stakeholders commemorated ASTM Committee C09 on Concrete and Concrete Aggregates’ 100th anniversary amid committee week activities late last month in Toronto. Chairman Steve Parker (Chryso Inc.) and past chairs Doug Hooton (University of Toronto) and Tony Fiorato (PCA, CTL, Slag Cement Association) weighed in on C09’s progress, credibility and vast influence on concrete practice.

“C09 has been leading the way in developing concrete standards that have had an enduring impact in the global construction, industrial, transportation, defense, utility and residential realms,” ASTM officials note. “In the century since C09’s founding, concrete has emerged as the most widely used manmade product in the world, integral to the construction of houses, office buildings, bridges, sidewalks, super highways and dams, among other structures. The work of C09 has been instrumental to the success of concrete, ensuring quality, durability and sustainability and always advancing the application of new technologies in the concrete industry.”

The committee focuses on standards for constituent materials of concrete, excepting cement, plus test methods and practices. With more than 1,400 members hailing from 62 countries and serving on 50-plus subcommittees, C09 maintains upwards of 180 standards, published in the Annual Book of ASTM Standards. Where appropriate, they emerge in concert with those of the American Concrete Institute, including ACI 318: Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete.

In addition to centennial observances in Toronto, the committee recognized NRMCA Senior Vice President of Engineering Colin Lobo with the Award of Merit and ASTM Fellow title. As the Society’s highest individual recognition, the award is based on nominations from peers citing candidates’ service on a range of levels. The committee underscores Lobo’s “outstanding contributions to technology transfer, specifications for concrete materials, test methods for fresh and hardened concrete, evaluation of data, and assessment of laboratories.”

An ASTM committee participant since joining NRMCA in 1991, Lobo received the C09 Katharine and Bryant Mather Member Contribution Award in 2006 and was more recently named Committee C01 on Cement honorary member.