Smyrna Ready Mix Concrete LLC of Murfreesboro, Tenn. opened 2022 Q2 confirming the acquisition of 67 ready mixed plants in five states. The largest of four announced transactions netted 37 central Texas, Colorado and Wyoming sites from Martin Marietta Materials, which had indicated an asset sale agreement with SRM Concrete in mid-March. SRM Concrete has also acquired 18 North Carolina…
Read MoreThe Labor Department Wage and Hour Division (WHD) will open a public comment period for its formal Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, “Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulations” (DBRA). Regulatory changes outlined will improve WHD’s ability to administer and enforce DBRA labor standards on federally funded construction projects more effectively and efficiently, officials contend, and include: Creating efficiencies in the…
Read MoreConstruction aggregate producers closed 2021 with shipments totaling 1.54 billion metric tons (mt) of crushed stone and 1 billion mt of sand & gravel, valued respectively at $19.6 billion and $10 billion, according to U.S. Geological Survey figures. The estimated 2.54 billion mt of construction aggregate volume represents a 5 percent year over year gain. Annual shipment values in USGS…
Read MoreThe Associated Builders and Contractors, National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, and 13 other industry organizations—collectively representing tens of thousands of companies and millions of employees—oppose a recent White House move to require government-mandated project labor agreements (PLA) on federal or federally assisted construction contracts. “We applaud the administration’s leadership to improve and build new roads, bridges, schools, affordable housing and…
Read MoreA federal district court judge issued an injunction to prevent Missouri’s Partridge Sand & Gravel Inc. from stopping Mine Safety and Health Administration representatives from completing workplace inspections. The action addresses an August 2021 incident where owner Westley Partridge used loading equipment filled with rock and dirt to force MSHA inspectors’ vehicle off the road, then verbally harassed them before…
Read MoreThe National Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation Inc. is assisting employees at US Brick Holdings’ Mooresville, Ind. clay brick and mine operation in their pursuit of a National Labor Relations Board-administered vote to decertify Teamsters Local 135, Indianapolis, as collective bargaining representative for the site’s 33-member unit. Based in Springfield, Va., the Foundation has filed a Request…
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Federal policy is vital to accelerate deployment of technologies that can curtail industrial sector carbon dioxide emissions, Portland Cement Association asserts in response to the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office’s (AMO) “Request for Information on Industrial Decarbonization Priorities.” Absent strong support from Washington, D.C., an AMO timeline to reach carbon neutrality across industry is unrealistic due to technical,…
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A solid financial case can be made to use precast concrete more broadly in projects. Decades ago, some bright guy built his own septic tank with forms, casting the concrete structure first and then installing it. His neighbors asked if he could help them do that, too. Boom. Precast as we know it was born. Modern precast is critical infrastructure,…
Read MoreAs a firm, we bristle with optimism. Yes, sometimes it gets tempered when things aren’t going so well in our industry or the economy as a whole, but those setbacks tend to be short-lived. Of course, we missed the timing on what turned out to be a painfully long Great Recession, which will go down in the history books as…
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