Month: December 2014
Commitment to Environmental Excellence Awards
The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association recently announced the winners of the 2014 Commitment to Environmental Excellence Awards at it’s ConcreteWorks Conference & Expo in Indianapolis. Cosponsored by Concrete Products, it offers producers national recognition for outstanding contributions to protecting the environment and maintaining sound environmental management practices.
Read MoreRecord PCI productivity tour
The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute conducted its 15th Productivity Tour and Workshop this fall, teaming with host, Mid-Atlantic Precast Association, to visit member operations in Pennsylvania and Virginia. “The tour has great value to production personnel,” says PCI Productivity Committee Chairman Dennis Fink (Northeast Prestressed Products)’ Dennis Fink. With a record 175 attendees, he adds, “This year’s tour showcased some quality producers and gave the group an opportunity to see a variety of products and production techniques that they can incorporate into their own businesses.”
Read MoreMANUFACTURERS – December 2014
Gary Dennis has been appointed vice president and general manager of Terex Construction Americas and Global Aftermarket. In support of the company’s continued focus on customer responsiveness and process upgrades, he will work with the company’s teams in Southaven, Miss., and Rothenburg, Germany, to ensure the Americas business is well-positioned to meet market demands and focused on continuous improvement. He succeeds Dean Barley, who maintains his titles in and shifts to the company’s North America Cranes, based in Waverly, Iowa.
Lafarge’s Stull, PCI’s Toscas lead PCA
Meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz., the Portland Cement Association Board of Directors elected Lafarge North America CEO John Stull as 2014-15 chairman, succeeding Cary Cohrs (American Cement Co.), and Cemex USA President Karl Watson, Jr., vice-chairman.
Read MoreNPCA Elects Tidwell Chairman; Honors Hy-Grade, Western Precast
Michael Tidwell, president of Cartersville, Ga.-based Bartow Precast, was elected to a one-year term as National Precast Concrete Association chairman during the group’s 2014 convention in Montreal, succeeding Brent Dezember of StructureCast, Bakersfield, Calif.
ORGANIZATIONS – December 2014
The National Concrete Masonry Association has promoted Dominick Dowds, staff engineer, to Research and Development Lab manager. He replaces Nick Lang, who becomes director of Research and Development. Additionally, NCMA administrative assistant Mahsheed Ferdowsyan has been promoted to staff accountant.
Pavement, materials specialist leads CSHub
An engineer who researches the environmental and economic implications of materials selection in the manufacture and lifespan of products, Randolph Kirchain has been named co-director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-hosted Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) alongside Civil Engineering Professor Franz-Joseph Ulm.
Coreslab enables New Mexico state ultra-HPC girder research
With specimen production and handling assistance from Coreslab Structures in Albuquerque, a New Mexico State University graduate student team has conducted flexural tests on large-scale prestressed girders designed with steel fiber-reinforced, ultra high performance concrete mixes, to be followed by similar testing on full-scale beams. Under Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering Brad Weldon, it aimed to a) advance the state’s bridge design procedures and extend current structures’ typical 50-year service life three-fold; and, b) obtain flexural behavior data to evaluate design procedures central to development of standardized codes. The initial specimens are the largest scale girders to date fabricated with the UHPC formulation, as previous tests had been limited to small rectangular beams.
Read MoreQuality Recognition
Minnesota-based Cemstone Products Co. received the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association Excellence in Quality Award for a fourth consecutive year.