Sources: National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, Alexandria, Va.; CP staff
Corey Lewandowski, who served as manager for much of Donald Trump’s White House run, will address the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association on March 5 at Las Vegas’ Wynn Encore Hotel, where both groups’ annual conventions will lead into ConExpo-Con/Agg 2017.
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Late in his successful White House campaign, GOP candidate Donald Trump introduced what he called “a bold, visionary plan for a cost-effective system of roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, railroads, ports and waterways, and pipelines in the proud tradition of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who championed the interstate highway system.” Construction interests take those observations to heart, along with the effect of a Trump Administration on federal agencies driving employment, environmental and land management policy.
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The National Precast Concrete Association elected Greg Stratis, president of Wilmington, Mass.-based Shea Concrete Products, to a one-year term as chairman during its 51st annual convention in Austin, Texas. Joining him as 2016-17 officers are Chairman-Elect Ashley Smith of Smith-Midland Corp. in Midland, Va., and Secretary/Treasurer Michael Hoffman of Lindsay Precast in Canal Fulton, Ohio.
Read MoreSource: Rock Products
Late in his successful White House campaign, GOP candidate Donald Trump introduced what he called “a bold, visionary plan for a cost-effective system of roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, railroads, ports and waterways, and pipelines in the proud tradition of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who championed the interstate highway system.” Construction interests take those observations to heart, along with the effect of a Trump Administration on federal agencies driving employment, environmental and land management policy.
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:
Read MoreSources: Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC), Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), Washington, D.C.; National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, Alexandria, Va.; CP staff
Seven national construction organizations, led by ABC, AGC and ARTBA, plan to join eight state affiliates petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for review of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s final rule on crystalline silica exposure. Released in late March, it sets a threshold of 50-micrograms per cubic meter of air, averaged over an eight-hour shift, compared to a longstanding 250-microgram level for the construction industry.
Read MoreSources: National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, Silver Spring, Md.; National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, Alexandria, Va.; U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C.
After brief review of a 1,772-page document, NRMCA Compliance and Operations staff reports that concerns the industry voiced in 2013-14 with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s proposed Occupational Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica rule had carried to a final version. Ahead of compliance assistance materials to be prepared through the NRMCA Operations, Environmental and Safety Committee, staff will update members as the rule’s concrete plant-specific requirements are analyzed.
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An American Road & Transportation Builders Association analysis of the five-year, $305 billion Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST) signed into last month finds: “While the total core highway investment increase during the [five-year] life of the bill will be just over 15 percent, yearly assessments are a better gauge of market impact. Highway investment will jump 5.1 percent in FY 2016 and then slow to rates of growth between 2.1 percent and 2.4 percent for [FY 2017–2020]. Investment levels will exceed projected inflation by a total of $1.7 billion over five years and beat projected construction material cost increases by $1 billion over the same period. As a result, federal highway investment will see narrow increases in purchasing power through 2020, but the FAST Act’s biggest impact on the highway construction market will be the stability it provides states and the private sector.”
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a final rule, effective August 2015, to increase protections for construction workers in confined spaces, where life-threatening hazards include toxic substance exposure, electrocution, explosions, and asphyxiation. Manholes, crawl spaces, tanks, and other confined spaces are not intended for continuous occupancy, agency officials contend, adding that such structures are also difficult to exit in an emergency.
The 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.”