January 4, 2020 – Concrete Products

Redland Brick asset deal nets Glen-Gery parent six new lines

January 4, 2020 Concrete News

A new Brickworks North America subsidiary has announced a binding agreement with Belden Holding & Acquisition Inc. to acquire assets of Williamsport, Md.-based Redland Brick Inc. related to the Cushwa, Harmar, Rocky Ridge, Lawrenceville Brick and Tru-Brix product lines. With a projected early-2020 closing, the transaction includes one Pennsylvania, one Virginia and two Maryland plants that Redland Brick has operated for nearly two decades as a subsidiary of Belden Holding, parent company of Canton, Ohio-based Belden Brick Co.

Shifting production, use patterns temper fly ash, CCP recycling rates

January 4, 2020 Concrete News

Supply dynamics in key regional markets, paralleling coal-fueled power plant closures, spurred an 11 percent year over year decline in fly ash consumption in concrete, according to the American Coal Ash Association’s (ACAA) just-released “Production and Use Survey” for 2018. Concrete-grade ash accounted for 12.5 million of the 59.4 million tons of coal combustion products (CCP) beneficially used last year, the latter figure down 8 percent or 9.1 million tons from the 2017 ACAA survey. Use of all grades of CCP in cement production declined 26 percent in 2018, to 6.4 million tons.

LEED certification system eclipses 100K commercial building mark

January 4, 2020 Concrete News

Auditors for the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program have registered and certified more than 100,000 commercial facilities across the globe. LEED certification is pacing more than 2.5 million-plus square feet of space daily, the group notes, signifying how project teams and owners are going “above and beyond to ensure a building is designed, constructed, operated and performing to the highest level of sustainability.”

Elite engineer validates foundation, beam, column, slab embodied carbon

January 4, 2020 Concrete News

A seven-year survey of 600-plus buildings by global engineer Thornton Tomasetti assesses materials, structural components and facility types with the highest embodied carbon, and cites a market-driven trend toward increased use of supplementary cementitious materials and recycled steel as the largest driver of a reduction in that metric.

California county embraces country’s premier Low-Carbon Concrete Code

January 4, 2020 Concrete News

The Marin County (Calif.) Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted an ordinance that adds a low-carbon concrete specification to the county’s building code, effective January 2020. The new code applies to foundation, column or slab mix designs for private and public construction projects in unincorporated areas, and includes pathways for compliance with either reduced cement levels or lower-emission supplementary cementitious materials. Exemptions address higher cement contents typical of structural precast and lightweight aggregate concrete mixes.

Feds zero in on bid rigging through Procurement Collusion Strike Force

January 4, 2020 Concrete News

The Justice Department has teamed with five federal agencies to form Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF), focused on deterring, detecting, investigating and prosecuting antitrust crimes, such as bid-rigging conspiracies and related fraudulent schemes, which undermine competition in government procurement, grant and program funding. The PCSF has launched a publicly available website, www.justice.gov/procurement-collusion-strike-force, where government procurement officials and members of the public can review information about the federal antitrust laws and training programs, and report suspected criminal activity affecting public procurement. Individuals and companies are encouraged to contact the PCSF if they have information concerning anticompetitive conduct involving federal taxpayer dollars by emailing [email protected].

Incident rate in ready mixed production remains at decade trough

January 4, 2020 Concrete News

From the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association … Just-released U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2018 workplace injury and illness data show a ready mixed concrete industry incident rate of 3.9 in 2018, unchanged from the prior year. Over the past decade, the injury- or illness-rooted lost work time benchmark among producers has ranged from the 2017-18 lows to 6.3 in 2014.

Lawmakers move to codify aggregates’ role in DOT supply chains

January 4, 2020 Concrete News

U.S. Representatives Greg Stanton (D-AZ-09) and Troy Balderson (R-OH-12) have introduced the Rebuilding Our Communities by Keeping aggregates Sustainable (ROCKS) Act bill, citing its potential “to foster local access to stone, sand and gravel essential to construction and public works projects.” The legislation calls for the Secretary of Transportation to establish a working group of federal, state, tribal and local stakeholders to study the use of aggregates and recommend policies ensuring continued access to such materials.