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Category: Features

ENVIRONMENTAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Concrete News

The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association 2023 Environmental Excellence Awards program honors nine plants. Now in its 28th year, the program offers producer members national recognition for outstanding contributions to protecting the environment and maintaining sound environmental management practices. It salutes operators that have not only met, but surpassed governmental compliance requirements and demonstrated a commitment to environmental excellence through…

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Instrumental Workhorse

Concrete News

The past decade’s top two mergers in North American cement, aggregate and concrete—Lafarge Group + Holcim Ltd. and HeidelbergCement AG + Italcementi S.p.A.—have spurred realignment of markets up the Atlantic Seaboard, across the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi. Of all the markets those deals and their asset divestitures impacted, none stands out quite like Toronto, where a case study…

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Pole Power

Don Marsh

Where engineering efficiency and cement optimization go, spun prestressed power transmission and distribution (T&D) poles have few rivals in concrete production: The centrifugal forces that low-slump mixes encounter in hollow cylindrical molds, bearing on horizontal racks and spinning at up to 300 rpm, drive inordinate cement particle hydration and packing. Robust bonding of reinforcing cage and prestressing strand steel to…

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A Hill To Thrive On

Concrete News

In the early stages of their newest Kansas ready mixed plant, officials of Monarch Cement Co. and subsidiary Concrete Materials Inc. didn’t anticipate the need for a backup location or market. Permitting difficulties, coupled with opportunities for improved logistics, prompted a tabling of their initial target in favor of a site along a growing Interstate 35 and U.S. 169 corridor…

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ENERGETIC POURS

Don Marsh

Advance Ready Mix paces 500,000-yd. Battery Park contract BY DON MARSH Batching and deliveries for one of the largest concrete supply contracts in North America are proceeding six days a week, two 10-to 12-hour shifts per day on a 2.3-square-mile, Glendale, Ky. site. Advance Ready Mix and fellow project principals have no wiggle room on the schedule as owners Ford…

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From Clay to Concrete

Concrete News

Kohler Co. solidifies premium offerings with a cement-based series  A boutique precast producer is steering a top home building product brand—synonymous with porcelain, chrome and brass—toward concrete. Kohler Co. has acquired United Kingdom-based Kast Concrete Basins, a fabricator of contemporary basins and sinks made with conventional mixes of local limestone grades, specially sourced sands plus premium pigments.  Known for bold-color…

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First Out of the Gate

Concrete News

Blair Block starts up CarbonBuilt-equipped CMU production line Childersburg, Ala.-based Blair Block is the premier operator to adopt the carbon dioxide-capturing and -mineralizing technology of CarbonBuilt, enabling promotion of concrete masonry units whose embodied carbon characteristics are 70-100 percent lower than traditional blocks. The CarbonBuilt technology replaces most of the portland cement typically used in CMU mix designs with a…

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TRUCKS & COMPONENTS

Concrete News

On the heels of surveying the vehicle-laden ConExpo-Con/Agg and World of Concrete 2023 shows, we examine the latest in OEM, body builder and component manufacturer offerings for mixer, dump, bulk tanker and day cab/tractor trailer fleet operators. MOTOR WHEEL | AUTOMATIC BRAKE ADJUSTERHendrickson International’s Motor Wheel business has rebranded the Crewson automatic brake adjuster product line under the Motor Wheel…

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Design Excellence

Concrete News

The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute recognizes creative and innovative uses of precast. The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute honored 25 building and transportation projects during the 2023 PCI Design Awards program—now in its 60th year. A panel of engineers, architects, and precast concrete producers judges all nominees on aesthetic, structural, and use versatility; site, energy and operational efficiency, and risk reduction; and resiliency,…

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