Sources: Vacuworx, Tulsa, Okla.; CP staff
The National Park Service’s Frederick, Md.-based Historic Preservation Training Center (HPTC) deployed a Vacuworx lifting system to set 46 new Missouri limestone slabs, topping out at 2,400 lbs., during the recent White House South Portico stairway reconstruction. The diesel-powered device pulls a vacuum between lifting pads and objects to be placed, securing a positive seal.
Read MoreSources: Clark Pacific, West Sacramento, Calif.; CP staff
Amid higher student housing, parking structure and office building demand, Clark Pacific has opened a second precast/prestressed concrete site in southern California. The new Adelanto plant is about 50 miles north of an existing Fontana operation, east of Los Angeles, and expands the producer’s fabrication and yard scope in the region to 135-plus acres.
Read MoreSources: Besser Co., Alpena, Mich.; CP staff
A new global marketing agreement focused on manufactured-concrete producers calls for the Besser sales organization to promote the automated production and robotics-enabled handling solutions of St-Hubert, Quebec-based Slab Innovation, Inc.
Read MoreSources: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.; CP staff
NRMCA has announced a partnership with the newly formed Utah Ready Mixed Concrete Association (URMCA), citing it as the latest example of national, regional and state leaders working toward the common goal of making ready mixed concrete the building material of choice across all sectors of the built environment.
Read MoreSources: U.S. Concrete Inc., Euless, Texas; CP staff
U.S. Concrete’s NorCal Materials Inc. subsidiary has closed on the assets of independent producers Harbor Ready-Mix and A-1 Materials Inc., which serve residential and commercial accounts in the Peninsula and South Bay areas of San Francisco. The deal brings two concrete batch plants and 23 mixer trucks, plus the assets of L.C. Frey Co., a landscape materials business tied to A-1.
Read MoreSources: Portland Cement Association, Skokie, Ill.; CP staff
The latest PCA forecast of U.S. cement consumption sees year-over-year gains of 2.6 percent and 2.8 percent in 2017 and 2018 versus uniform 3 percent levels projected earlier this year. Bad weather, especially in the high volume concrete markets of Florida and Texas, coupled with lower anticipated public construction sector budgets are behind the more modest growth outlook.
Read MoreSources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; CP staff
The EPA has designated cement and concrete, construction, and iron and steel among 13 regulated industries chartering Smart Sectors, a partnership program whose collaborative approach, agency officials contend, provides an opportunity to pinpoint more forward-thinking ways to protect the environment.
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Sources: CP staff; National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.
Eastern Concrete Materials veteran Ed Rieper took the 2017 National Mixer Driver Championship, staged October 1-2 in Grapevine, Texas, during the NRMCA ConcreteWorks Conference. The first place finish earned the Saddle Brook, N.J., driver a $2,500 check from the NRMCA Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau, and adds to his 2016 National Mixer Driver Championship fifth-place and 2015 NRMCA Driver of the Year honors.
Read MoreSources: U.S. Concrete, Inc.; CP staff U.S. Concrete has arrived in one of the few major U.S. cities lacking a ready mixed producer from the industry’s upper ranks, acquiring the assets of Philadelphia’s Action Supply Co. A primary source of high-performance concrete for commercial and public works projects, the producer offers vertical integration potential with Corbett Aggregates Companies, a Quinton,…
Read MoreSources: Astec Industries Inc., Chattanooga, Tenn.; CP staff
Astec has acquired the assets of concrete batch plant manufacturer RexCon LLC, Burlington, Wis., in a $26 million cash transaction. A key player in central mixed equipment, RexCon becomes a sister operation of Albuquerque, N.M.-based CEI Enterprises, which has built a transit mixed equipment line under the Fusion banner.
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