As we closed our 2020 work schedule producing this issue, a slew of post-Thanksgiving developments quickly sealed December as the most consequential month of a year we are pleased to see in the rearview mirror. While absent CRH, HeidelbergCement, LafargeHolcim, Martin Marietta, Summit Materials, Vulcan Materials and other deal catalysts or newsmakers of the past decade, the developments warrant cement,…
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Cement and cementitious materials producers are helping concrete customers improve carbon dioxide emissions reduction track records and or embodied carbon metrics. Additional improvements are in the offing for structural concrete as reinforcing steel top guns log CO2 cuts on trend lines sharper than their portland cement counterparts. Since the percentage of rebar in a column cross section can approach that…
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Without referencing specific materials, a new National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) report offers proposals that could reveal how portland cement-based products outshine alternatives in building and infrastructure. A Roadmap to Resilience Incentivization builds an economic and stakeholder equity case for robust construction methods, informed by a prior NIBS report’s compelling payback math—$1 invested equals $5 saved—for building above code…
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Associated Builders & Contractors officials emphasize regulatory reform in their endorsement of President Trump for a second term. Nowhere is their praise more warranted—and substance of their observations better validated—than in his June 2017 withdrawal from the Paris Accord. Recall how that faux treaty, finalized in December 2015 under the United Nations Conference of Parties, held signatories to voluntary greenhouse…
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Our 2020 association chairman’s report series concludes this month with Bill Waushabaugh Jr., who leads one of the best family owned and operated businesses in concrete production. He credits the success of Northern Concrete Pipe Inc., now in its seventh decade, to a loyal group of team members, both family and nearly so. Membership in the American Concrete Pipe Association,…
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Public health matters, travel restrictions and a bow to limited gathering realities preempted our plan to distribute this issue at the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association ConcreteWorks Conference and Expo, originally scheduled for next month in Colorado, along with the National Mixer Truck Driver Championship. Concrete Products shares the disappointment producers, drivers and others feel with the absence of a productive powwow at the Gaylord Rockies Resort, but looks forward to marking National Mixer Driver Appreciation Week, October 5-9, and the virtual ConcreteWorks, October 7-8.
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Our Chairman’s Report series continues this month with visits to Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute’s Marshall Brown (ACM Chemistries; pages 50-52) and Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute’s J. Seroky (High Concrete Group; pages 54-57). When asked how their organizations addressed national and state government pandemic response mandates from mid-March on, their refrains are consistent with what we heard last month from 2020 National Concrete Masonry Association Chairman Tom Finch (RCP Block & Brick): Producers successfully expedited new measures to identify and isolate potential virus spread among team members and customers. Thanks to online conferencing tools, ICPI, NCMA and PCI members have been able to spontaneously share best practices and metrics for ensuring healthy workplaces in unchartered waters.
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Technology Trends’ Craig Yeack breaks down cement savings and carbon dioxide emissions reduction math in a report on ready mixed production and the CarbonCure Technologies process. Outside of fly ash, admixtures and blended binders, CarbonCure’s dosing and injection technology is among the most widely adopted tools for lowering embodied carbon in finished concrete.
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Two months of safety advisory overload have helped curtail negligible to fatal respiratory infection. A shorter window of critical safety advice prevails in May with backing from the American Concrete Institute and other advocates for building integrity and occupant or public wellbeing. Of all organizations serving architecture/engineering/construction, ACI is uniquely qualified to champion “Safer Buildings, Safer Communities, Safer World,” the theme of the International Code Council’s-designated Building Safety Month.
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Our remotely operating magazine staff has had few complications conducting business since the middle of March. We press onward to provide quality content, unable to fully ascertain the challenges readers confront with process changes, worker safety provisions, production scheduling, and material or product delivery amid pandemic response.
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