April 2015 – Concrete Products

Lafarge, Solidia move to commercialize low carbon concrete binder, curing methods

April 29, 2015 Concrete News

Sources: Solidia Technologies, Piscataway, N.J.; CP staff

Paris-based Lafarge Group has reached a new milestone in its partnership with U.S. start-up Solidia Technologies, entering an agreement to commercialize technology allowing a significant reduction in the environmental footprint of precast concrete—through lower carbon dioxide emissions during cement production and CO2 gas utilization in product curing. The agreement affords Lafarge worldwide rights to the branded Solidia Cement and Concrete.

VOC sealer-triggered blast nets injured bricklayer eight-figure verdict

April 28, 2015 Concrete News

Sources: Passen Law Group, Chicago; CP staff

A Cook County, Ill., jury has returned a $10,875,622 verdict against a concrete sealer manufacturer, and in favor of a plaintiff who was severely burned in a household explosion while using the company’s product on his basement floor.

Industry hosts lawmakers as Governor declares Concrete Day in Colorado

April 27, 2015 Concrete News

Source: American Concrete Pipe Association, Irving, Texas

“The State of Colorado recognizes the concrete industry as important to further development in our state and appreciates the hard work, dedication, and the efficiency of its employees,” proclaimed Governor John Hickenlooper April 24 as he designated that the date “forever after shall be known as Concrete Day in the state of Colorado.”

Tilt-Up group firming post-recession market profile, figures

April 27, 2015 Concrete News

Source: Tilt-Up Concrete Association, Mt. Vernon, Iowa

Aiming to clarify 2011-2014 business activity among contractors and owners, TCA is conducting a 10-question, online survey through May 15 on tilt-up industry market trends and developments in the U.S. and Canada.

Essroc to add Holcim’s Garden State GranCem slag mill, Boston terminal

April 23, 2015 Concrete News

Sources: Essroc Italcementi Group, Nazareth, Pa.; CP staff

Essroc has signed an agreement to acquire the Holcim (US) Inc. slag cement grinding plant in Camden, N.J., along with an Everett, Mass., cement terminal. With 700,000 metric tons’ capacity, the Delaware River facility stands to triple slag cement output for Essroc, which mills the supplementary binder at Picton, Ontario; San Juan, P.R.; and, Middlebranch, Ohio, operations.

Everything’s bigger in Texas: World’s largest tilt-up building en route

April 21, 2015 Concrete News

Sources: Tilt-Up Concrete Association, Mount Vernon, Iowa; CP Staff

Osaka, Japan-based Daikin Industries, Ltd., the leading global manufacturer in heating, cooling and refrigerant products, is expanding its Goodman Manufacturing Co. operations in the United States by constructing a state-of-the-art business campus near Houston. The Texas-sized development, designed by Powers Brown Architecture and LJB Inc., is projected to be operational in mid-2016 and will feature the world’s largest tilt-up concrete building, encompassing 4 million square feet. The structure will incorporate more than 2 miles of panel length, with approximately 370 wall panels. They will account for a large portion of a concrete schedule upwards of 360,000 cubic yards.

Dome builder flexes concrete muscle for post-Fukushima nuclear plant structures

April 20, 2015 Concrete News

Sources: American Business Continuity Domes, Inc., Miami; U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

An alliance that engineers, designs and builds disaster-resistant, reinforced concrete domes has completed the first of three Severe Accident Management “FLEX” equipment storage buildings for Atlanta-based Southern Co. The 138-ft. diameter, 38-ft. tall structure affords 15,400 sq. ft. of ground and 2,500 sq. ft. of mezzanine storage at the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant in Columbia, Ala.

Sound-construction proponents salute Safe Building, FEMA Reform Acts

April 20, 2015 Concrete News

Source: BuildStrong Coalition, Washington, D.C.

The National Concrete Masonry Association – and National Ready Mixed Concrete Association-backed BuildStrong Coalition has endorsed the Safe Building Code Incentive Act (H.R. 1748), providing additional disaster relief assistance to states that adopt and enforce strong code measures. Uniform, statewide adoption and enforcement of model building codes helps to eliminate long-term risks affecting people, property, the environment and ultimately the economy, the Coalition contends.

Wood, Awad, Schneider lead 2015-16 ACI officer slate

April 20, 2015 Concrete News

Source: American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, Mich.

ACI elected officers and directors during its spring convention in Kansas City. Sharon Wood, FACI, has begun a one-year term as president. Dean of the University of Texas, Austin, Cockrell School of Engineering and ACI member since 1983, she serves on Committee 318, Structural Concrete Building Code, and has served as past ETC Product Development Committee chair, ACI Foundation trustee, plus Financial Advisory and International Advisory Committee member.

$450M Summit-Lafarge deal entrenches Continental Cement up and down the Mississippi

April 20, 2015 Concrete News

Sources: CP staff; Summit Materials LLC, Denver; Lafarge Group, Paris

Five weeks after it began trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Summit Materials has moved to strengthen its largest holding, Missouri-based Continental Cement, through participation in a regulator-driven asset sale tied to the impending Lafarge Group and Holcim Ltd. merger.