After more than 18 months of planning and development, Indiana-based engineering and construction consultancy Regulatory Resources LLC, along with the DOT Advisory Board it administers, have created an auditing program to certify the quality of structural concrete-grade fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs). Scheduled for early-2022 release, their FRP Quality Control Manual will serve as a guidance documentation for an auditing program…
Read MoreCategory: Government Affairs
NIST appoints Cornell’s Hover, ACI 318’s Moehle to tower investigation team
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has named members of a technical team investigating the June 24, 2021 partial collapse of the reinforced concrete Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Fla. Progressive column and slab failure took the lives of 96. Cornell University Professor of Civil Engineering Kenneth Hover and ACI Committee 318 Immediate…
Read MoreReport prioritizes transportation infrastructure resilience assessment
To ensure routine and deliberate attention to resilience in transportation investments, Congress should consider requiring all projects that are candidates for federal funding undergo resilience assessments to account for natural hazards, according to a new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report. Despite significant progress made over the last decade in integrating resilience criteria into transportation decision-making, authors find…
Read MoreEPA clips NOx, embraces zero emissions models in ‘Clean Trucks Plan’
The Environmental Protection Agency has scheduled 2022-24 release of rulemakings to extend the sharp reduction of heavy-duty truck emissions realized from the 2010 measure that standardized diesel particulate filter, selective catalytic reduction, and related exhaust treatment system components in on- and on/off-highway fleets. Initial “Clean Trucks Plan” action, applicable to 2027 and later model year Class 8 vehicles, will set…
Read MoreEquipment Distributors clarify “right to repair” distortions
An expansive White House order issued under the banner of “promoting competition in the American economy” presents 72 initiatives for more than a dozen federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, which is encouraged to limit “equipment manufacturers from restricting people’s ability to use independent repair shops.” The order instructs the FTC chairman to consider working with colleagues to exercise…
Read MoreA matter of law: Environmental product declaration submittals
From the Carbon Leadership Forum’s July 2021 report, “Environmental Product Declaration Requirements in Procurement Policies – An analysis of EPD definitions in Buy Clean and other North American procurement policies”
Read MoreCoalition counters push for project labor agreement mandates
An Associated Builders and Contractors-led coalition of construction industry and business organizations has kicked off a six-figure advocacy campaign aimed at educating taxpayers and members of the U.S. Senate about controversial government-mandated project labor agreements. Build America Local argues that such schemes reduce competition and increase costs for the construction of taxpayer-funded affordable housing, clean energy and infrastructure projects acrosst…
Read MoreState soybean checkoff puts durability agent to test in AASHTO projects
The Indiana Soybean Alliance – PoreShield will participate in Innovative Technology Demonstrations (ITD), a field program hosted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Transportation System Preservation Technical Services Program (TSP-2).
Read MoreDavis-Bacon support deepens along White House, Capitol Hill axis
A White House 2021 regulatory update, coupled with a U.S. Senate vote on a Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act amendment, illustrate administrative and legislative branch underpinnings for one of the most contentious statutes affecting construction: the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts (Davis-Bacon or DBRA). Among U.S. Department of Labor responses to a White House executive order is a…
Read MorePandemic measures drive doubling of safety training outlays
Members responding to the Associated Builders and Contractors 2021 Workforce Development Survey invested $1.3 billion last year to provide craft, leadership and safety education to 500,000 course attendees, advancing their careers in commercial and industrial construction. Safety education accounted for 71 percent of the total workforce investment as per-person spending doubled, revealing an elevated focus on total human health during…
Read More