Concrete Products Briefs, May 2010

PRODUCERS The American Concrete Pumping Association has presented Cemstone Products’ Darrell Gagnon a Pioneer Award for his contributions to the concrete-pumping

PRODUCERS

The American Concrete Pumping Association has presented Cemstone Products’ Darrell Gagnon a Pioneer Award for his contributions to the concrete-pumping industry. A 35-year industry veteran, he joined Cemstone’s newly formed Concrete Placing Division in 1994, overseeing fleet growth from two belt-driven conveyors to 25 placing vehicles, conveyors and high-rise booms.

ORGANIZATIONS

Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute announces two changes to its staff organization. Serving PCI for more than nine years, Jason Krohn, P.E., will assume the responsibilities of managing director, Technical Activities. Alex Morales, M.Ed., will serve as director, Learning & Performance Management. In that capacity, he will determine the best medium for dissemination of educational programs and oversee PCI’s publication production team, ensuring that the institute provides quality continuing-education programs for its members and the design and construction community.

Richard Stehly, principal of Minneapolis-based American Engineering Testing, Inc., officially assumed a one-year term as American Concrete Institute president during the group’s spring convention in Chicago. The appointment follows three decades of ACI membership and committee participation, along with his current chairing of the Board Advisory Committee on Sustainable Development and Strategic Planning Task Group.

Also during the convention, University of Michigan Civil Engineering Professor James Wight began a two-year term as ACI vice president, while the Institute named these Board of Direction members: University of Illinois, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor David Lange; McGill University, Department of Civil Engineering and Applied Mechanics Professor Denis Mitchell; University of California, Berkeley, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Jack Moehle; and, University of Nevada, Reno, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor David Sanders.

Separately, ACI Committee 522’s Report on Pervious Concrete [ACI 522R-10, 38 pages] addresses constituent materials, properties, mixture proportioning, pavement design and construction, quality-control inspection and testing, performance, limitations/research needs, and environmental benefits. It can be purchased at ACI’s web site, www.concrete.org, for $67.50 (ACI members $41.00).

The report updates an original 2006 version, which was followed two years later by ACI 522’s Specification for Pervious Concrete Pavements. Committee chairman, Grace Construction Products Southeast Technical Services Manager Matthew Offenberg, was also the founding chairman of the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association committee on pervious concrete certification and project engineer for the UCF/FDOT/RMC Research Foundation pervious concrete research project. Joining him as ACI Committee 522 members are Carolinas Ready Mixed Concrete Association Executive Director William Arent; Concrete Industry Management Director and Middle Tennessee State University Associate Professor Dr. Heather Brown; NRMCA Vice President, National Resources Daniel Huffman; and, Concrete Engineering Group’s George Seegebrecht, formerly of CTLGroup.

Tom Flynn, president of Dubuque, Iowa-based Flynn Ready-Mix Concrete Co., has been named vice chairman of the 2011 ConExpo-Con/Agg Management Committee, charged with overseeing exhibit, seminar and other plans for the March 22-26, Las Vegas Convention Center gathering. A past (2000) National Ready Mixed Concrete Association chairman, he is joined on the committee by peers also holding that title: Henry Batten (2009), president of Concrete Supply Co., Charlotte, N.C.; Frank Craddock (2008), executive vice president Commercial, Cemex Inc., Houston; and, James Russ (2003), senior vice president, Essroc Cement Construction Materials Division, Stevensville, Md.; plus, NRMCA board member Thomas Baird IV, director of Sales and Marketing, CONCO Companies of Springfield, Mo., and staff president Robert Garbini. Representation on the 22-member Management Committee is part of an agreement NRMCA (Con/Agg Show brand co-owner) secured in a transfer of show management duties to (ConExpo owner) Association of Equipment Manufacturers. Chairing the committee is Michael Haberman of Gradall Co., New Philadelphia, Ohio.

The Consulting Engineers Group. Inc. announces that Keith Allen has been named a vice president of CEG-IL. Allen joined the company in 1986 and continues his affiliation at CEG’s Mt. Prospect, Ill., office.

MANUFACTURERS

Precast concrete accessories manufacturer and distributor A.L. Patterson Inc. in Fairless Hills, Pa., closed on New Nycon Inc., rebranding the business Nycon Corp. and positioning it to realize sales, marketing and distribution efficiencies with affiliated companies Vandex-USA and Cast Supply LLC. Patterson chief Barry Fleck will serve as Nycon Corp. president, with Paul Bracegirdle as vice president.

The business will further leverage Patterson’s depth of product offerings to precast and precast/prestressed concrete producers. The transaction coincides with a new license enabling Nycon Corp. to offer Nycon-G eco-friendly concrete- and asphalt-reinforcing fibers. Billed as the market’s only reinforcing product of its kind that has no negative net effect on the environment, Nycon-G joins a line of nylon, polypropylene, AT and E glass, steel, basalt, and blended fibers. Nycon-G was first announced as part of a sale of the former Nycon Inc. to Pennsylvania-based Pure Earth.