Sources: Portland Cement Association, Washington, D.C.; CP staff
PCA urges Congress to reject the so-called Timber Innovation Act, which has returned to the 115th Congress after a 2016 debut. Through companion U.S. Senate and House of Representatives bills, it incentivizes state and local governments, universities and private companies with federal funds to conduct research & development, outreach and education advancing the use of mass timber products in construction.
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With an eye to global construction, structural and civil engineering markets, Euclid Chemical parent RPM International has formed Cleveland-based Euclid Group, encompassing the namesake concrete admixture and materials business, plus sister subsidiaries, operating companies or brands Increte Systems, Eucomex, Toxement, Cave, Viapol, Flowcrete, RPM Belgium and Vandex.
Read MoreSources: Center for Responsive Politics, Washington, D.C.; CP staff
Using Federal Election Commission data through late October, the Center for Responsive Politics has tracked major supporters of political action committees (PAC) representing concrete, aggregate, cement and asphalt production interests. Among Building Materials & Equipment, one of six Construction Sector categories, are these leading PAC contributors to 2016 federal office candidates:
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Boral USA recently provided 35,000-plus bricks from its Terre Haute, Ind., plant for The Proud Green Home of Louisville, part of the sustainable Norton Commons community in Kentucky’s largest city. Known as Su Verde (Italian for ‘About Green’), the deep green project was designed by architect Clive Pohl of Lexington, Ky.-based Pohl Rosa Pohl, and constructed by Louisville’s Sy Safi of UberGreen Spaces & Homes.
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Texas-based U.S. Concrete, Inc. continues a New York City market roll up, closing last month on asset transactions involving Jenna Concrete Corp., Bronx, and Kings Ready Mix, Brooklyn. With two plants and 52-mixer fleet, Jenna Concrete has established a presence over 25 years, supplying ready mixed to commercial and residential building projects in its Bronx home base and the neighboring borough of Manhattan. Kings Ready Mix runs 60-plus mixers from four plants, and maintains a leading stake in non-union, low- and mid-rise building jobs across Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.
Read MoreSources: Cemex S.A.B. de C.V., Monterrey, Mexico; CP staff
Cemex has reached an agreement to sell its Odessa, Texas, cement plant and two terminals, plus El Paso and Las Cruces, N.M., building materials businesses to Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua, S.A.B. de C.V. Absent the $306 million deal are Cemex Colorado assets—Lyons mill, Florence terminal—rounding out an original transaction the companies outlined in May. Subject to competition authority and shareholder approvals, the revised deal will be consummated through Cemex and GCC U.S. affiliates and is projected to close by year end.
Read MoreSources: Martin Marietta Materials Inc., Raleigh, N.C.; CP staff
Former Union Pacific Corp. Chairman and CEO Jack Koraleski was elected to the 10-member Martin Marietta board on August 15, joining Republic Services President and CEO Don Slager, who was appointed during the producer’s late-May annual general shareholders meeting. They succeed Frank Menaker Jr. and Richard Vinroot who, after 23 and 20 years on the board, respectively, were not eligible for election due to their reaching mandatory retirement age.
Read MoreSources: U.S. Concrete, Inc., Euless, Texas; CP staff
U.S. Concrete has acquired the two plants and 52-mixer fleet of Jenna Concrete Corp. The producer has established a New York City presence over 25 years, supplying ready mixed to commercial and residential building projects in its Bronx home base and the neighboring borough of Manhattan. The Jenna assets join a Big Apple portfolio U.S. Concrete has significantly strengthened in the past 18 months through Ferrara Bros. Building Materials, Greco Brothers and Nycon Supply deals.
Read MoreIn a project funded by outside parties and independent of the Concrete Sustainability Hub, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are seeking to redesign concrete by following nature’s blueprints, contrasting cement paste with the structure and properties of bones, shells, and deep sea sponges. As they observe in the current Construction and Building Materials paper, “Roadmap across the mesoscale for durable and sustainable cement paste—A bioinspired approach,”such biological materials are exceptionally strong and durable, thanks in part to their precise assembly of structures at multiple length scales, from the molecular to the macro, or visible, level.
Read MoreThe International Organization for Standardization’s new 14046, “Environmental management—Water footprint—Principles, requirements and guidelines” standard will allow a wide range of private and pubic entities the means to measure the environmental impact of their water use and pollution potential. It joins the ISO 14000 Environmental management series, whose “Type III Environmental Product Declarations” standard governs documents concrete interests are issuing as green building rating systems evolve.
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