The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute elected new directors during its 2019 convention: Matt Ballain, Coreslab Structures; Jenny Frost, Wells Concrete; Harry Gleich, Metromont Corp.; Matt Graf, International Concrete Products; Chris Mosley, Consulting Engineers Group; Bob Pabst, High Concrete Group; Jay Stracener, Precast Erectors; and, Randy Wilson, Meridian Brick.
Also during the convention, PCI named recipients of its top individual honors: Ned Cleland, PCI Medal of Honor, adding to prior recognition of Fellow (2001) and Titan of the Industry (2014); Tom Kelley, chairman of Minnesota’s Gage Bros., Mario J. Bertolini Leadership and Innovation Award; plus, Suzanne Aultman of Metromont Corp.; Queen’s University Department of Civil Engineering Associate Dean Amir Fam; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates’ South Region Director Lee Lawrence; Lehigh University Professor Clay Naito; and, University of Minnesota Civil Engineering Professor Art Shultz—all PCI Fellows.
|
|
| Gary Reed |
Separately, the PCI Mid-Atlantic Chapter has named Gary Reed as executive director, succeeding the retiring Tom Holmes. Reed has more than 30 years of industry experience in marketing management, project design-assist, estimating, and training, much of it gained with chapter members High Concrete Group, Nitterhouse Concrete Products and Universal Concrete Products. He most recently served senior project manager with Parking Garage Preservations.
After making the rounds with PCI Mid-Atlantic members, Reed aims to “have our education and awareness programs, along with our relationship building efforts, drive decision makers to choosing precast, prestressed concrete systems as the natural choice for the cost-effective and safe structures and bridges.”
RMC Research and Education Foundation Executive Director Julie Garbini and Charles Pankow Foundation Executive Director Anne Ellis are leading this month’s “Women in the Industry” webinar, continuing dialog they initiated at “Women Building Amazing,” a Command Alkon 2018 Elevate conference breakout session. Among topics they will discuss are challenges of being a woman on the job; applying for construction jobs; double standards and gender pay gap; and, how women and men complement each other in the workplace.
The Elevate session, notes Command Alkon Marketing Communications Specialist Karli Langer, demonstrated “that this conversation is important to our industry, and there is support from both women and men to break free from stereotypes and promote diversity in the construction workforce.” At a Bureau of Labor Statistics-measured 9 percent, she adds, women’s limited construction workforce representation has contributed to a struggle to recruit and retain female workers.
Separately, the 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. The $230,000 grant will cover an investigation scheduled to run from January 2019–January 2021, and yield interim reports on test beams plus numerical modeling, followed by a final report assessing the use of Grades 80 and 100 reinforcing steel in seismic and non-seismic applications. Joining the Pankow Foundation as research allies are the ACI Foundation and Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute Education and Research Foundation.
ASTM International will launch its first-ever overseas chapter later this year in the United Arab Emirates, following a winter meeting in Abu Dhabi between North American representatives and key industry leaders, academia and government officials. The stakeholders met at the Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council, which uses ASTM International standards and helped host the Society board meeting in 2016. “ASTM International standards are already being used in the Gulf, and the planned chapter is a natural extension of this involvement,” says past ASTM director Rashid bin Fahad, Ph.D. “This addition to our cooperation will benefit all those involved.”
In conjunction with the Modular Building Institute’s Annual World of Modular gathering last month in Las Vegas, the International Code Council released the 2019 Guideline for the Safe Use of ISO Intermodal Shipping Containers Repurposed as Buildings and Building Components. The guideline provides an in-depth, technical overview for how to design, review and approve intermodal shipping containers as a building element, and is primarily intended to benefit state and local jurisdictions, owners, architects, builders and engineers as they react to a lack of regulatory and compliance guidelines amidst the growing trend of shipping container repurposing.
Concurrent with the guideline release, ICC also announced that it is accepting applications for its Off-Site and Modular Construction Standard Consensus Committee as it prepares to two related standards: Planning, Design, Fabrication and Assembly; and Inspection and Regulatory Compliance. As part of its work, the Committee will be responsible for the development of minimum requirements to safeguard the public health, safety and general welfare while addressing societal and industry challenges through design, construction, regulatory and testing requirements for off-site and modular construction.
- Video and Animation: Visual Media Benefits in Technical Publications. Session will highlight how visual media, from hand-drawn illustrations to virtual and augmented reality, is playing a key role in enhancing the world of technical publications.