Ash Grove deal lifts CRH/Oldcastle to its latest plateau

Sources: CRH Plc, Dublin; CP staff

In nearly 40 years of North American market development, CRH has announced the boldest move yet for its Oldcastle Inc. enterprise: a $3.5 billion acquisition of Ash Grove Cement Co., Overland Park, Kan. Projected to close later this year, the deal brings integrated or stand-alone sites from the Great Plains to the Pacific Northwest: eight cement, 52 ready mixed concrete and nine packaged dry mix plants, along with 20 limestone quarries and 23 sand & gravel operations.

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EPA honors petition to examine coal combustion residuals’ beneficial reuse

Sources: Environmental Protection Agency; CP staff

EPA has granted petitions to reconsider the definition of beneficial reuse and other substantive provisions of the final rule regulating coal combustion residuals (CCR) as nonhazardous waste under subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The 2015 rule regulates how CCR generated from electric utilities and independent power producers are managed in surface impoundments and landfills.

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Overtime-pay accounting fails materials testing firm

Sources: U.S. Department of Labor; CP staff

Louisiana Testing and Inspection Inc. has entered an agreement with the Department of Labor Wage & Hour Division to resolve violations of Fair Labor Standards Act overtime and recordkeeping provisions. The Scott, La., concrete and soils specialist will pay $100,400 in back wages; an equal, additional amount in liquidated damages; plus $10,800 in civil penalties.

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Contractor optimism abounds in Commercial Construction Index

Source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C.

Commercial construction is in high demand across the U.S. and contractors remain optimistic about the current and forward-looking health of the sector, according to the Q3 USG Corporation + U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index. Nearly all contractors surveyed this summer (95 percent) expect revenues to grow or remain stable over the next 12 months compared to the prior 12 months, continuing Q2 2017 survey sentiments.

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Traffic ‘chokepoint’ factor shapes bridge market future around expansion jobs

Sources: Portland Cement Association, Skokie, Ill.; CP staff

Higher volumes of vehicles on the road over the next 25 years stand to spur a 5 percent gain in cement shipments for bridges above present consumption levels. A new PCA Market Intelligence report estimates the U.S. will need as many as 140,000 new or substantially reconfigured bridges by 2040, nearly 60 percent or 81,200 of which will be concrete.

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Mixer driver survey finds lower vacancy rates, fewer capacity constraints

Source: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.

NRMCA 2017 Mixer Driver Recruitment and Retention Survey results are markedly brighter than those of the previous two years. Some 36 percent of respondents turned down business due to lack of drivers in 2016, versus 51 percent the prior year, while the driver vacancy rate dropped about two points for a third consecutive year, to 4.6 percent as of December 2016. Just over 90 percent of 2017 survey respondents cite plans to hire additional mixer drivers this year, up from 72 percent last year.

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Past IowaDOT, AASHTO chief Trombino to head FHWA

Sources: White House Briefing Room; McClure Engineering Co., Clive, Iowa; CP staff

President Donald Trump will nominate Paul Trombino III, P.E., to be administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. He is set to transition to the agency from Iowa-based McClure Engineering Co., a nine-office transportation and environmental firm for which he has served as president since January 2017.

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Hardscape retailer Pioneer effects 30-store upgrade with eye to DIY market

Sources: Pioneer Landscape Centers, Highlands Ranch, Colo.; CP staff

Pioneer Sand began a transformation to Pioneer Landscape Centers with a post-Labor Day weekend grand re-opening of its six-acre store just outside Denver. “Our Littleton Landscape Center is the first step in what is an exciting next chapter for one of the nation’s preeminent landscape-supply companies where do-it-yourselfers and professionals will find direct-to-customer savings and the best product selection in the industry,” says CEO Sagi Cohen.

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Labor Board upholds CMC Rebar case decision against Iron Workers

Sources: National Labor Relations Board; CP staff

The NLRB has affirmed a May 2017 decision and order determining that the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers, Local 229, San Diego, violated the National Labor Relations Act in activities tied to picketing a Temecula, Calif., construction site.

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Court finishes job of invalidating Obama Labor Department’s overtime rule

Sources: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.; Associated Builders & Contractors, Washington, D.C.; CP staff

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has issued a permanent injunction of an Obama Administration-revised overtime pay rule, capping a preliminary injunction it issued late last year. The May 2016 rule attempted to change federal exemptions for overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act by doubling the white-collar worker minimum salary level exemption from $23,660 to $47,475 annually.

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