The ACI Foundation Concrete Research Council will fund a record eight research projects, its 2018 budget buoyed by a one-time, $500,000 commitment the American Concrete Institute announced earlier this year to address the industry’s growing need for such technical support. The projects and their principal investigators are:
Read More
A new study from a quarry operator whose signature product clads landmarks no less than The Pentagon and Empire State Building examines distinctions between dimensioned limestone and cast stone fabricated from vibratory dry tamped or wet-cast methods.
Read MoreThe American Society of Civil Engineers and Eno Center for Transportation question the first-cost philosophy behind much transportation infrastructure funding, based on findings from “Maximizing the Value of Investments Using Life Cycle Cost Analysis.”
Officials at Titan Concrete announced late last year their company is the first ready mixed producer in the state of Florida and second in the United States to produce environmental product declarations (EPDs) using the Product Category Rules (PCR) of the University of Washington/College of the Built Environment-hosted Carbon Leadership Forum.
Read MoreSources: Portland Cement Association, Skokie, Ill.; National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.
PCA and NRMCA were among concrete and masonry interests providing testimony at the International Green Construction Code final action hearings, November 2–6 in Phoenix. One of the most significant concepts debated was the use of life-cycle assessment (LCA) for building designs. A PCA proposal for the inclusion of whole building LCA as an alternative compliance path to prescriptive criteria for materials for building design was disapproved, although placing whole building LCA into the code as a project elective option for building designs was approved.
Read MoreARTBA Senior Economist Alison Premo Black examines in “The Economic Impacts of Prohibiting Coal Fly Ash Use in Transportation Infrastructure Construction” how states would have to forego potential savings derived from using the supplementary binding agent in new, high performance concrete pavements.
Read More