Ronnie Pruitt has joined U.S. Concrete Inc. as senior vice president and chief operating officer, a new position charged with direct oversight of ready mixed, aggregate and ancillary operations in New York and New Jersey, Texas and Oklahoma, and California. His 20-plus years’ industry experience was gained primarily at Dallas-based Texas Industries Inc., where he served as vice president of Cement Production and vice president of Sales & Marketing, Cement and Aggregates Divisions. Following the mid-2014 TXI–Martin Marietta Materials merger, Pruitt was named vice president of Cement Sales.
Separately, U.S. Concrete has acquired the Wantage Stone reserves, a site-development quarry with 80 acre land parcel plus mining rights to an additional 77 acres. The company has operated the Hamburg, N.J., deposit under lease agreement since October 2014, The operation will continue to enhance the company’s ability to serve the northern New Jersey and New York metropolitan markets, owing to a combined 19 million tons of proven and permitted reserves, plus an equal volume of additional reserves not yet permitted. The reserve position and increased production capacity strengthens U.S. Concrete’s mix of internally supplied aggregates plus shipments to new and existing customers.
Within a four-day schedule of board activities late last month in Seattle, ASTM International directors were set to visit Mutual Materials, a major concrete masonry source in the Pacific Northwest, plus 24 other standards stakeholders. “Seattle is home to many industries that use high-quality technical standards to grow and thrive,” says ASTM International President Jim Thomas. “Like the rest of the world, Washington looks to ASTM’s 12,000-plus standards to improve quality of life while also supporting growth of its businesses on a global scale.”
In addition to Mutual Materials, based in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue, the ASTM Board Outreach Day called for office or plant visits to engineering giant CH2M Hill, Walters & Wolf Curtain Wall, Washington State Department of Transportation, and Weyerhaeuser.
ASTM has 500-plus members in Washington who assist in standards spanning more than 90 industry sectors, including those tied to sustainable construction and infrastructure growth; consumer goods; aviation and recreation equipment; and, the fast-changing fields of biotechnology, software development and 3-D printing.
Spancrete has added industry veteran Hal Herrin as a business development manager, based at the producer’s recently opened plant in Newnan, Ga. He joins the company with nearly 30 years’ construction experience, concentrated in South Carolina and Florida markets. His arrival coincides with the Newnan plant attaining Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute Certification, providing owners, architects, engineers and contractors assurance that components and structures are fabricated and installed according to stringent standards. The operation specializes in namesake hollowcore floor and roof systems, insulated and non-insulated wall panel systems, solid plank and stair components.
FRED WEBER ENTERS PIPE, PRECAST
Maryland Heights, Mo., heavy/civil contractor, aggregate and asphalt producer Fred Weber Inc. has closed on three Missouri pipe and precast plants—two operating as BeCo Concrete, the third Independent Concrete—from St. Louis peer J.H. Berra Construction. Shown here is the BeCo flagship plant, whose recent large bore pipe projects included an Ikea store along Interstate 44.
“These acquisitions allow us to vertically integrate and diversify our business,” CEO Douglas Weible told the St. Louis Business Journal. Coupled with a mid-summer asphalt business deal, he added, the BeCo and Independent operations have boosted 2015 volume by one-third over last year.