November 2018 – Page 5 – Concrete Products

Feds extend mixer truck driver hours exemption to concrete pump peers

November 19, 2018 Concrete News

Sources: Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA); CP staff

American Concrete Pumping Association members have secured a five-year exemption from the FMCSA requirement that short-haul drivers utilizing the records of duty status exception return to their normal work reporting location within 12 hours of clocking in. It enables all concrete pump operators, pumping companies, and truck drivers who operate concrete pumps to use the short-haul exception but return to their work-reporting location within 14 hours.

Research sheds increasingly favorable light on design-build delivery

November 19, 2018 Concrete News

Sources: Design/Build Institute of America, Washington, D.C.

New Design/Build Institute of America-backed research finds that the design-build (DB) method delivers projects faster and with greater cost and schedule performance than Construction Management at Risk (CMR) and traditional Design, Bid, Build (DBB) alternatives.

EPA Cleaner Trucks Initiative: Cut NOx emissions, compliance red tape

November 19, 2018 Concrete News

Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; CP staff

Through its just-announced Cleaner Trucks Initiative (CTI), EPA aims to further decrease nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from on-highway heavy-duty trucks and update a current engine exhaust standard in an early-2020 rulemaking. Set in 2001, the standard culminated in 2010 with a 0.2-gram brake-horsepower-hour NOx threshold for which engine manufacturers deployed selective catalytic reduction equipment and urea-based diesel exhaust fluid.

Coal ash recycling reaches record rate as production, use patterns shift

November 16, 2018 Concrete News

Sources: American Coal Ash Association, Farmington Hills, Mich.; CP Staff

Sixty-four percent of the coal ash produced during 2017 was recycled, establishing a new record rate and marking the third consecutive year that more than half of such material produced in the United States was beneficially used rather than disposed.

PCA tames projections for 2019, 2020 cement consumption gains

November 16, 2018 Concrete News

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

The PCA Market Intelligence Group cement consumption forecast paints a limited growth pattern from 2017 levels, with this year trending a 2.9 percent gain, followed by 2.6 percent and 1.6 percent bumps in 2019-2020.

Injury, illness survey shows 10K cases in concrete, cement production

November 12, 2018 Concrete News

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; CP staff

New Bureau of Labor Statistics data and estimates show private industry employers reported 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2017, down nearly 46,000 cases from the prior year and equating to a rate of 2.8 cases per 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers.

ICPI rolls out workforce program to combat contractor, installer labor shortage

November 12, 2018 Concrete News

Source: Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute, Chantilly,Va.

Expedited by the Board of Directors, ICPI has launched a workforce development program in response to wide-spread contractor needs for new and better skilled employees. It includes a new Hardscape Installer/Contractor Career Path, in partnership with the National Concrete Masonry Association, that aligns the two groups’ certifications and education courses in a clear, achievable process for those entering the industry.

2018 International Green Code: Adoption expedited, standardization eased

November 12, 2018 Concrete News

Source: U.S. Green Building Council, Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Green Building Council, International Code Council and ASHRAE have released the 2018 International Green Construction Code (2018-IgCC), citing its potential to help state or local governments streamline code development, adoption and enforcement, and improve industry standardization by integrating two previously separate guidance documents: ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES 189.1 – Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low Rise Residential Buildings and the ICC International Green Construction Code.

Cemex Research Group weighs down energy storage venture

November 9, 2018 Concrete News

Sources: Energy Vault, Lugano, Switzerland; CP staff

Crane-suspended concrete segments, placed in a multi-layered, circular pattern recalling an agricultural stave silo, propel commercial stage technology announced at Energy Storage North America in Pasadena, Calif. The technology is based on what developer Energy Vault describes as the principles that underpin traditional gravity-based pumped hydro plants, combining “conventional physics fundamentals of potential and kinetic energy with a proprietary, cloud-based software platform.”

Road Builders chief frames user fee case in wake of California gas tax vote

November 8, 2018 Concrete News

Sources: American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), Washington, D.C.; CP staff

Negative election day response to a proposed roll back of a 2017 California Senate measure increasing state gasoline taxes by 12 cents/gallon elicited a strong defense of user fee-based funding models from ARTBA Acting President & CEO William Toohey, Jr.: “By soundly rejecting Proposition 6 and re-electing 95 percent of the state legislators who voted in 2017 to increase the state gas tax to fund needed transportation improvements, California voters showed the public continues to support a user funded approach to infrastructure investment. That’s a message the Trump administration and new Congress should heed as they consider a bipartisan infrastructure package and permanent revenue solution for Highway Trust Fund programs next year.”