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Association & Industry News
Thank you to everyone who joined one of the scheduled Strategic Plan Feedback Sessions and shared thoughts regarding the draft plan. This document would not exist were it not for your participation and the final version will be better with your feedback! If you did not have time to join one of our real-time online Strategic Plan Feedback Sessions, it is not too late. The presentation shared at these sessions is available to you here; we encourage you to review it and provide feedback via e-mail. Do the Goals and Objectives identified resonate with you? Do you see the priorities you have for the Association reflected in the draft plan? Let us know your thoughts by contacting any or all the below team members:
The plan will be reviewed and acted upon by the NRMCA Board when it convenes at ConcreteWorks 2025 this fall. Before we get there, we want to make certain it meets the needs of the membership: you. Thank you in advance for your help. More details about the NRMCA Strategic Planning Process are available here. For questions or concerns, please contact the Strategic Plan Development Team's Deb Malone by e-mail or 1-202-841-1640. Join us on October 11 at PopStroke Orlando to celebrate CONCRETEPAC’s Fore Tee-Fifth birthday and be a part of the PAC’s most anticipated event of the year. This event, intentionally scheduled for the evening after the National Mixer Driver Championship, is the perfect way for you and your team to unwind, celebrate and connect with industry leaders, colleagues and friends. It's also a great opportunity to have fun and make a positive impact on YOUR industry. Keeping pro-industry, pro-business representatives on Capitol Hill is vital for advancing the industry’s interests in Washington. Your involvement enables NRMCA to advocate effectively on issues that impact the ready mixed concrete industry. To comply with Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulations, we need to obtain prior authorization from a company representative before we can send you detailed information about the event. Please note this authorization does not obligate you or your employees to contribute to the PAC - it simply allows us to keep you informed about upcoming events. This authorization helps ensure that we adhere to FEC guidelines and manage our communications effectively. Rest assured; the information will be used solely for this purpose. We are still looking for hole sponsors, game sponsors (life-sized Operation and Giant Connect Four), prize sponsors and Booze Walk Sponsors/Donors; click here to sign up. Get you company name and logo out in front of your current and potential customers beFORE it’s too late. For more information, contact Heather Houck. 
A recent study from the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) reveals that increasing the allowable weight of mixer trucks could offer major environmental and cost benefits. The study examined the full life cycle impact of allowing trucks to carry up to 40 percent more weight. Results showed that heavier loads reduce fuel use, lower emissions and cut total delivery costs without increasing wear and tear on roadways. Over a 50-year span, researchers found that total system costs decreased by more than five percent, thanks to fewer trips, reduced fuel consumption and minimized pavement impact. This research offers a compelling case for revisiting outdated weight restrictions. Fully loaded trucks could increase efficiency, reduce environmental impacts and help address the ongoing driver shortage, all while sustaining safety and protecting infrastructure. The Concrete Advancement Foundation is proud to fund the MIT CSHub. To learn more about the Foundation’s work, contact Julia Garbini at jgarbini@concreteadvancement.org.
In early June, the Concrete Council (St. Louis and Missouri) supported a presentation on Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) construction for schools as a way to dramatically reduce utility expense and provide resilience and safety in the face of weather disasters just three weeks after an F3 tornado ravaged the St. Louis area. More than 40 people (some seen here, being addressed by Marcy Tyler, director of building science, Tremco CG, at far right holding microphone) attended the three-hour program which featured national and local speakers from suppliers, a premier ICF architect in the country and local school district officials from Missouri and Illinois who have utilized ICF and are considering further ICF projects. For more information or project support or review, please contact the Council at oad@concretecouncil.com. 
Buildings
Build With Strength and the Washington Aggregates & Concrete Association (WACA) recently hosted a multi-day education event focused on state legislators, code agencies, internal member companies, the AEC community and industry influencers along with general contractors and finishers/placers at a roundtable event titled Low Concrete Symposium, Addressing Embodied Carbon in the Built Environment. The event opened with an aggregate and producer open forum where industry experts shared emerging trends and statewide challenges along with ideas and areas where support is needed. Local ready mixed producers covered challenges around enhanced e-ticketing and haul hub portals as well as the timeline for statewide rollout. The day concluded with a guided workshop for WACA members to review RCA and county permitting requirements with guidance on working through local jurisdictional challenges. Day Two included a panel discussion on Measuring Carbon: LCA and EPD Considerations featuring industry leaders. Panelists discussed how these tools drive transparency, inform sustainable decisions and support the construction industry’s journey toward carbon reduction goals. NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Patrick Matsche led a panel that included members of the Lower Carbon Concrete Taskforce that presented its Lower Carbon Concrete Guide. WACA’s Cory Shaw led a panel discussion that included NRMCA’s Tiffany Reed-Villareal and state legislator Rep. Davina (Williams) Duerr, chair of the Environment & Energy, and Transportation Committee. Ms. Duerr asked NRMCA members to share their experience in decarbonizing their projects and opportunities to collaborate on future legislation. “I am going to ask you to help me understand the challenges we face,” she said. Keynote Speaker Anthony Huey brought the day’s session to a close with an inspiring talk that focused on how to weave our stories and create compelling narratives to communicate facts memorably, thereby better telling the industry's story. The highlight of the three-day event was the 2025 Washington State Excellence in Concrete Awards. With 30 submissions in 11 diverse categories, the ready mixed concrete industry was well represented. “I was honored to be a judge," Matsche said. "We are making great progress in the scale and type of successful projects that have embraced the challenge to decarbonize the built environment.” Friday’s placers/finishers event was a hands-on training focused on contractors, subcontractors, and concrete finishers/placers. Matsche's colleague, PaveAhead’s Greg Halsted and WACA held the event at the Cement Masons Local 528 Training Center at the South Seattle College Georgetown Campus. The goal was to help concrete finisher crews and contractors effectively place and handle concrete mix designs featuring Portland-Limestone Cement (PLC) and other supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). NRMCA and Build With Strength thanks all the folks who made the event possible: WACA’s Cory Shaw and Mary Bauer; Ignacio Cariaga, Heidelberg Materials; Alex Collins, CalPortland/American Concrete Institute Washington Chapter; Debalina Ghosh, CRH Americas; Diane Warner, NCC; Don Davies, Davies-Crooks; Tom Van Dam, WJE; Jack Cove, WAP; Bill Larson, PNW Building Resilience Coalition, PNBRC; David Landrey, MASCO; Kelly Alexander, Euclid Chemicals; Steve Reed, Washington Department of Transportation (retired); Kevin Adel, MSHA; Robert Cavaliero, E5 Inc.; Ryan Zakerski, WDOT; Brandon Hundley, HaulHub; Logan Davidson, Geographic Solutions and NRMCA members Miles Sand and Gravel, Stoneway Concrete, CalPortland and Heidelberg Materials. (Seen here, from left to right, are Bill Larson, Debalina Ghosh, Cory Shaw, Davina (Williams) Duerr, Ignacio Cariaga and David Landrey.) Thanks to the generous support of the ready mixed concrete industry, Build With Strength is recognized as a leading advocate, spearheading the effort to reduce and eliminate embodied carbon in buildings, roads and infrastructure. The platform also supports structural engineers, architects, end users and specifiers in achieving low-carbon, high-performance concrete. For more information, contact Patrick Matsche at pmatsche@nrmca.org or 415-672-5275. 
NRMCA’s Build With Strength initiative recently sponsored the Advancing Construction Decarbonization symposium held in Denver that brought together hundreds of sustainability and project leaders from North America and Europe to discuss the collaboration and partnerships needed to continue to advance carbon reduction strategies in the built environment, reports NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Patrick Matsche. Panelists and speakers at the conference included many key NRMCA, Build With Strength and Pave Ahead account representatives who shared their experiences reducing projects' Global Warming Potential (GWP). Build With Strength’s Brian Killingsworth (seen here) presented Concrete Innovations; Pathways to Reducing Carbon Footprint. As the recognized leader in promoting and supporting the concrete industry’s drive to decarbonize the built environment, NRMCA and its team of Killingsworth, Donn Thompson and Matsche engaged with owners, builders, concrete specifiers and contractors who are working to provide zero-carbon projects to their clients, shareholders and stakeholders. Said Mark Chen of Skanska, “we strongly support the efforts of Build With Strength.” The Build With Strength platform is a leader in supporting structural engineers, architects and end users in specifying low carbon, high-performance concrete. For more information, contact Patrick Matsche at pmatsche@nrmca.org or 415-672-5275.
Pavement
NRMCA Senior Director, Local Paving, Greg Halsted recently gave a lunchtime presentation to engineers with Denver International Airport (DEN) who then invited him to visit active concrete pavement projects at the airport, both landside and airside. Halsted addressed 17 attendees on July 15, specifically on the NRMCA Pave Ahead program, covering the goals, objectives and available resources of the initiative. One major focal point was the importance of collaborative project assistance among NRMCA, ready mixed concrete suppliers, paving contractors and the owner/architect/engineer community. It was apparent that DEN engineers were pleased to be included as part of the process, Halsted said. Jamie Johnson, the new executive director of the Colorado/Wyoming Chapter of ACPA, was also on hand to offer his association’s support and assistance with concrete paving. Hosted by Clint Sciacca, project manager at DEN (seen here on the right with Halsted), the tour started on the landside of things with a visit to one of the phases of the Peña Boulevard construction project. Produced and placed by FlatironDragados and following Colorado DOT specifications, Halsted and Johnson saw crews placing, finishing and curing an 11-inch-thick section of JPCP (with 15-foot transverse jointing). Interestingly, the coarse aggregate used in the subbase material directly underneath the pavement was totally comprised of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) from sections of concrete pavement that were removed as part of the major work in the airport vicinity. DEN inspectors reported that all concrete paving operations were proceeding as planned with very few issues, Halsted said. On the airside, the tour stopped at the ongoing Gate Apron Reconstruction and Drainage Improvements (GARDI) project at Concourse A. Produced and placed by Millstone Weber, and following FAA specifications, Halsted and Johnson witnessed crews preparing subgrade and subbase for 17-inch-thick concrete pavement (up to 21” at thickened edges or structures). The entire DEN pavement structure is truly impressive considering the thick concrete section sits on top of four inches of cement-treated base, three inches of hot mix asphalt and, finally, 12 inches of cement-treated subgrade, Halsted noted. Just like on the landside project, airside project personnel reported no problems with the concrete paving work around the terminals at DEN. The construction sites visited are just two of the many concrete pavement projects in progress or soon to start around DEN; both are utilizing portland-limestone cement (Type IL), and alone account for well over 50,000 cubic yards of concrete. Sustainability is being achieved on both projects by using Type IL cement and the incorporation of RCA where possible. Both the office and field events were excellent ways to stress to DEN the assistance and support available to them through NRMCA, ACPA and industry members. For more information, contact Greg Halsted at ghalsted@nrmca.org. 
Calendar
*Please click here to access the relevant links for each of the entries listed below. This link also includes a link for the NRMCA Course Calender. September 8 - 12, Baltimore *Sold Out November 4 - 7, Atlanta November 17, Dallas November 17 - 18, Dallas November 17 - 18, Dallas November 17 - 18, Dallas November 17 - 19, Dallas November 17 - 19, Dallas November 18 - 20, Dallas November 20 - 21, Dallas November 20 - 21, Dallas November 20 - 21, Dallas December 9 - 10, Salt Lake City 
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