Sources: Olympus Precast, Bluffdale, Utah; CP staff
Following nearly a quarter century of measured growth, Owell Precast owners and management have chosen Olympus Precast as the new name of their architectural and structural product operation. Located just outside Salt Lake City, the producer is a key Intermountain market source of Spancrete hollow core plank, plus precast fence, wall and sound wall products.
Read MoreSources: CP staff; New York Times; Associated Press; AvalonBay Communities Inc., Arlington, Va.
“If it was made out of concrete and cinder block, we wouldn’t have this sort of problem,” Edgewater (N.J.) Fire Chief Tom Jacobson said at a press briefing after a blaze destroyed or severely damaged more than half of Avalon at Edgewater, a 408-unit, wood-framed apartment complex built to 1990s-style code. The January 21 incident saw no loss of life and minor injuries to four firefighters and civilians.
Read MoreSource: Portland Cement Association, Skokie, Ill.
Housing starts will increase 20 percent to 1.2 million units this year, from roughly 950,000 units in 2014, PCA Chief Economist Ed Sullivan told a gathering at the 2015 International Builders’ Show, January 20-22 in Las Vegas.
Read MoreSource: Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla
Presentations at the 2015 Missouri Concrete Conference will cover Missouri Department of Transportation Ready Mix Quality Control/Quality Assurance specifications; admixtures for industrial floor projects; exposed aggregate surface issues; corrosion prevention; jobsite water addition; hot and cold weather concreting; accelerated bridge construction; durability testing via concrete resistivity; precast concrete pavement; plus, practical aggregate grading optimization and fine recycled concrete aggregate specs.
Read MoreTrue to a consent decree deadline finalized in federal court a year ago, the Environmental Protection Agency capped five-plus years of rulemaking on coal combustion residuals (CCR) management and disposal in late 2014, tabling a contentious measure that would have hampered ASTM C618 fly ash specifications and prospects.
Read MoreSources: Freedonia Group, Cleveland; CP staff
Led by architectural and structural building product demand, U.S. precast concrete shipments are on track to rise from $8.9 billion in 2013 to $12.15 billion in 2018. Time-saving and quality control advantages will enable precast to capture more market share from cast-in-place and steel alternatives over the next four years, according to the authors of a new Freedonia study.
Read MoreSources: Actuant Corp., Menomonee Falls, Wis.; CP staff
New York Stock Exchange-traded Actuant Corp. has announced Precision-Hayes International, the combining of two businesses with global reach and significant brand recognition, plus reinforced concrete construction and energy infrastructure market presence. The move completes an integration of Sugar Land, Texas-based Hayes Industries, which Actuant acquired in 2014, eyeing synergy with its Precision Sure-Lock business.
Read MoreSources: National Precast Concrete Association, Carmel, Ind.; CP staff
The NPCA 2015 webinar series of monthly one-hour programs, each beginning at noon EST, explores a range of production, safety, quality control and management challenges:
Read MoreSource: International Masonry Institute, Bowie, Md.
Building Information Modeling for Masonry Initiative (BIM-M) members have tasked University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. Franca Trubiano with reporting on brick and block construction workflows, spotlighting especially Huntsman Hall, a signature masonry building on her school’s Philadelphia campus.
Read MoreSource: American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, Mich.
The American Concrete Institute is offering a seminar in 24 cities, February–May, on the newly-released ACI 318-14, Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete and Commentary. The new ACI 318-14 represents the first major change in Code organization in over 40 years and has been completely reorganized from a designer’s perspective.
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