March 7, 2019 – Concrete Products

Foundation backs high strength rebar research

March 7, 2019 Concrete News

Sources: Charles Pankow Foundation, McLean, Va.; CP staff

The Charles Pankow Foundation’s latest grant will help fund a project, “Foundation Mats with High Strength Steel Reinforcement,” under principal investigator Jack Moehle, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley. Project findings stand to further validate the case for elevated rebar strength thresholds in American Concrete Institute and model building code language. Joining the Pankow Foundation as research allies are the ACI Foundation and Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute Education and Research Foundation.

FMCSA moves to ease path from CDL Class B to Class A

March 7, 2019 Concrete News

Source: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration

FMCSA indicates in a Federal Register notice its intention to amend entry-level driver training (ELDT) terms from a December 2016 final rule, “Minimum Training Requirements for Entry-Level Commercial Motor Vehicle Operators,” by adopting a new Class A CDL theory instruction upgrade curriculum. “The agency believes this modest change for Class B CDL holders upgrading to a Class A CDL maintains the same level of safety established by the ELDT final rule,” FMCSA notes, adding that the “regulatory burden reduction will result in annual cost savings of $18 million.”

LafargeHolcim adds Texas’ Colorado River Concrete

March 7, 2019 Concrete News

Sources: LafargeHolcim U.S. ACM, Chicago; CP staff

LafargeHolcim has closed on its second U.S. deal of 2019, acquiring Fort Worth, Texas-based Colorado River Concrete. Founded in 1987, the ready mixed producer serves customers from the southwestern Dallas/Fort Worth area into parts of west Texas. It joins a LafargeHolcim region anchored by Tarrant Concrete in Fort Worth and Lattimore Materials in northern Dallas, plus the Holcim Midlothian cement plant south of the Metroplex.