CRH Plc guidance on 2022 performance—to which Americas Materials Solutions and Building Solutions segments comfortably contributed—offers some of the most definitive U.S. and Canadian market aspirations we’ve heard from the company during its 45 years of mining aggregate, milling cement, bagging dry mix, fabricating precast, molding masonry and delivering ready mixed concrete or asphalt this side of the pond. The…
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Organizations whose members and market objectives align closely with those of concrete producers have launched campaigns challenging the most basic of job site safety provisions, or delineating who owns what part of the accident prevention equation. The ASCC Education, Research & Development Foundation is live with www.hardhatstohelmets.org, stating the case for what sponsors view as stronger construction worker protection than…
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Unilock, LPS Pavement, PICP underpin stormwater management upgrade The Village of Kenilworth (Ill.) Public Works Department closed a 10-year stormwater management project in late 2022, signing off on nearly 84,000 square feet of permeable interlocking concrete pavement (PICP) from one of the Midwest’s best producer-installer tag teams: Unilock Chicago Inc. of Aurora, Ill. and LPS Pavement Co. of Oswego, Ill. …
Read MoreSuccess in a typical ready mixed concrete operation can turn on the performance of a small team with outsized influence on human capital and physical asset utilization, as well as customer loyalty and profitability. In Making It Happen – Achieving Excellence in RMC Transportation & Customer Service, Jack Delperdang seeks to fill a void in industry references for building an…
Read MoreMajor industry developments last year did not match the eventful 2021, when a dealmaking flourish put leading admixture, plant equipment and ready mixed or manufactured concrete brands or market stakes on track to change hands. But 2022 served up its share of surprises. A review of the year’s most impactful content from these pages and our companion Concrete Currents weekly…
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The CPC entry was among 133 organizers booked in the 2022 bauma Innovation Award Construction, Climate Protection, Digitalization, Mechanical Engineering and Research categories. The competition is a joint project of VDMA Construction – Equipment and Plant Engineering and bauma host Messe München, plus the Federation of the German Construction Industry, German Construction Confederation and German Building Materials Association. Companies and…
Read MoreThe U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments this term involving one of the West Coast’s top cement, aggregate and ready mixed concrete players (note Government Affairs, page 11). CalPortland Co. counsel will demonstrate why justices should reverse a Washington State Supreme Court decision shielding International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 174 from liability in a 2017 Seattle plant stunt…
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Researchers have enlisted the resources of one of the world’s leading X-ray facilities at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill. to help discover what lies inside German-born artist Wolf Vostell’s “Concrete Book #83.” The results of the X-ray scans, which will be published in an unnamed journal, hope to uncover a short book by…
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Terra CO2 localizes supplementary cementitious material production, harnessing the binding potential of secondary, virgin feedstocks As the drum beat for low carbon concrete binders grows louder in public and private construction markets, supplementary cementitious material developer Terra CO2 Technology Holdings Inc. has a unique value proposition hinging on two critical achievements—one at the bank, the other in the field. Under…
Read MoreThe National Ready Mixed Concrete Association Workforce Development Committee did not sugarcoat the results of its 2021 Mixer Driver Recruitment and Retention Survey. As we noted in a report last month, survey data shows that 28 of every 100 drivers hired in 2021 quit during the year. That placed ready mixed producers 3 points above the national resignation rate the…
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