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Association & Industry News
NRMCA is now seeking submissions for the annual Concrete Cares Award, established by the Manufacturers, Products & Services (MPS) Division to recognize outstanding contributions in community service by an NRMCA producer member company. With ready mixed concrete plants in almost every community in America, NRMCA member companies are making a real difference. From Earth Day celebrations to organized volunteering for Boys & Girls Clubs, local schools and recreation departments, to raising awareness for breast cancer screenings, ready mixed concrete producers take great pride in helping their friends and neighbors in need. The Concrete Cares Award aims to recognize these efforts and shine a national spotlight on the positive impact ready mixed concrete companies have in home towns across the nation. A donation in the name of the selected honoree will be made to the charity of its choice. The award will be presented at the upcoming NRMCA Annual Convention, during the Association’s annual awards breakfast. NRMCA Producer members are eligible to submit nominations. Click here for the submission guidelines. Completed applications should be e-mailed to Brett Ruffing, senior vice president, membership, at bruffing@nrmca.org or mailed to his attention at NRMCA, 66 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 250, Alexandria, VA 22314. The deadline for submittal is Friday, January 17, 2020. 
Buildings
Build With Strength has partnered with the Insulating Concrete Forms Manufacturers Association (ICFMA) to enhance the construction infrastructure to build with Insulating Concrete Forms (ICFs). ICFs are quickly becoming the method of choice for all forms of construction, including single and multi-family, hotels, schools, offices – all forms of residential and commercial construction. This course will provide basic ICF training to begin building with one of the fastest growing building systems on the market. The training is driven locally by NRMCA state affiliates and is targeting general contractors, framers, masons and other trades who will learn the techniques to expand their construction services portfolio and be more competitive in today’s construction environment. The next training session is scheduled for Tuesday, December 3, in Denver in collaboration with the Colorado Ready Mixed Concrete Association. Click here for more details, including registration options. For more information, contact James Bogdan at jbogdan@nrmca.org or 412-420-4138.
MRMCA and ICFMA successfully promoted the event and met the capacity of the training space. In fact, interest exceeded the capacity, which provides MRMCA and ICFMA a future opportunity for another event, said NRMCA Project Manger, Concrete Promotion, Derek Torres. (Shown here is Brian Medford of ICFMA/Fox Blocks discussing the benefits and advantages of ICF construction.) Build With Strength has recently partnered with ICFMA and launched ICF contractor training. The training is driven locally by NRMCA state affiliates and is targeting concrete contractors, framers, masons and other trades who will learn the techniques to expand their construction services portfolio and be more competitive in today’s construction environment. As part of the Build With Strength campaign, NRMCA promotes sustainable concrete solutions for buildings. For more information, contact Derek Torres at dtorres@nrmca.org or 973-876-0938.
Government Affairs
NRMCA is now accepting entries for its 2020 Kids' Art Contest, sponsored by the Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau. The theme for this year’s contest is “Safety.” The contest is open to children up to Grade 12 who have a relationship to an NRMCA member.
Entries will be divided into the following grade categories: pre-K - K; 1-3; 4-6 and 7-12. First, second and third place winners will be selected from each grade category. Prizes will be awarded in each grade category ($100 first; $50 second and $25 third place). Entries will be judged only against others in their grade category based on originality, effort, creativity, composition and interpretation of the theme Safety. Winners in each category will be announced at NRMCA’s 2020 Annual Convention, March 10-14, in Las Vegas. Images of the winning entries will be used later in the year to create a 2021 NRMCA calendar and winners and the sponsoring members will receive a free copy of the calendar. Selected entries will be displayed at NRMCA’s Annual Convention. NRMCA reserves the right to copy and modify any entry for reproduction. Entries will not be returned and may be used for future promotional opportunities. Entries must be postmarked no later than December 31, 2019 and should be mailed or delivered to:
Calendar
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. November 6 – 7, Springfield, MA November 7, Antioch, TN November 11 – 15, Baltimore November 19 – 21, Orlando, FL November 20, Little Rock, AR December 3, Denver December 10, Hagerstown, MD December 10 – 13, Orlando, FL *Sold Out December 17 – 19, Dallas 
Pavement
NRMCA’s Parking Lot Boot Camp recently rolled into northwest Kentucky, courtesy of NRMCA Producer member Ernst Concrete which hosted this latest installment. Coordinated by Jay Moore, regional sales manager for Ernst’s Cincinnati and Northern KY divisions, the Boot Camp was held at the offices of contractor Straight Edge Concrete in Florence, KY. The training was conducted by NRMCA Senior Director, Local Paving, Amanda Hult and Senior Vice President Phil Kresge. “This may have been one of the smallest Boot Camps we’ve ever held, but I think it has the potential to be one of the most effective,” Hult said. During the Concrete Pavement Analyst training session, Kyle French, co-owner of Straight Edge Concrete, discussed plans for a project for which he wanted to provide a concrete alternate. “Armed with the knowledge his firm obtained from Boot Camp, and supported by the Concrete Pavement Analyst (CPA) reports, Kyle and Jay plan to present the alternate to their client and are confident about the outcome. They are also putting together a plan to target other potential projects,” Hult reported. An NRMCA Parking Lot Boot Camp is a 10-hour program, typically conducted over two days at a contractor or producer’s site. “The goal of the Boot Camp is to create a team approach for producers and contractors to pursue parking lot opportunities together,” Kresge said. Covering both new construction and concrete overlays of existing asphalt, the program has become widely successful in helping everyone - producer and contractor - expand their business into paving markets that they normally did not have. “As we move into the fall and winter months, now is the time to book your Boot Camp,” Kresge added. “There are still some dates available, but they will likely fill quickly so it is best to book now.” For more information, contact Phil Kresge at pkresge@nrmca.org or any local paving team member. NRMCA paving engineers Amanda Hult and Ken Justice will join the Concrete and Aggerates Association of Louisiana (CAAL) in New Orleans on Wednesday, November 6, for a pervious concrete seminar. Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. with the seminar beginning at 8 a.m. Lunch will be provided before a live demonstration of pervious concrete placement. Contractors desiring to become certified by NRMCA should come prepared to work during the live demonstration. CAAL will administer the written exam after the demonstration. Click here for additional information on the seminar and to register or contact Amanda Hult at ahult@nrmca.org. At the recent NRMCA ConcreteWorks, attendees had a chance to learn about the opportunities in concrete recreational trails with a session based on the newly-released Guide to Concrete Trails. This RMC Research & Education Foundation-funded guide, written by the same team of experts at the National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CPTech) that brought you the Guide to Concrete Overlays of Asphalt Parking Lots, walks the reader through the process of concrete recreational trails, from the beginning stages of planning to the ownership stages of maintenance, with stops along the way that include funding, environmental, design types, ADA compliance, trail widths and thickness, construction and even how to renovate a worn-out asphalt trail with a concrete overlay. Written with all stakeholders in mind, the Guide to Concrete Trails is the first document of its kind that specifically address recreational trail construction using concrete. An initial run of printed copies will be ordered next week. Based on the number of copies ordered, the cost per copy will be the lowest ever offered in this initial order, estimated to be around $6 per copy. If you would like professionally-printed and bound copies in this initial printing, contact Jon Hansen. Additional copies after the initial printing will likely be on demand and carry a much higher cost per copy. You must place your order to Jon Hansen at jhansen@nrmca.org by 5 p.m. Central time on Thursday, October 31. 
2020 January 14 – 16, Des Moines, IA January 14 – 16, Nashville, TN January 21 – 24, Cincinnati January 28 – 30, Orlando, FL January 28 – 30, Dallas February 25 – 28, Miami March 7 – 9, Las Vegas March 10 – 14, Las Vegas March 17 – 19, Dallas September 27 – 29, Aurora, CO Engineering
The American Concrete Institute's Fall Convention was held earlier this month in Cincinnati; the following is a summary of committee activity involving NRMCA staff representation: 122 – Energy Efficiency of Concrete and Masonry Systems – The committee is progressing with development of two new standards. One standard will provide guidance on dealing with thermal bridges in concrete and masonry structures. This standard is designed to provide an alternative to ASHRAE 90.1 requirements, which are unfavorable to the industry and contain details that cannot be constructed. The committee reviewed a draft from the consultant and are awaiting the next version for further action. The other standard will provide the quantitative information required to model concrete and masonry building envelope components for use in building energy models. Scott Campbell maintains representation on ACI 122. 132 – Responsibility in Concrete Construction – The committee is finalizing a special publication and document to address responsibility associated with repair of concrete structures. The committee is addressing responsibilities of the designer in ACI 318 as they relate to establishing construction documents. It is finalizing a Tech Note on responsibilities care of test specimens for acceptance of concrete at the jobsite. It has begun work on revising its existing guide document on responsibility, ACI 132R. The committee also discussed a document that to discuss clarity in project drawings and consistency with specifications. Colin Lobo maintains representation on ACI 132. 201 – Durability – The committee has completed a Tech Note (TN) on joint deterioration in pavements due to deicers and balloted a TN on iron sulfide minerals in aggregate, specifically Pyrrhotite. The committee will include a chapter on Microbial Induced Corrosion (MIC) of Concrete in is guide, ACI 201.2R. A task group is considering performance alternatives to w/cm in ACI 318, specifically for Exposure Class C2 exposure class. The consensus of this task group is to suggest criteria based on bulk resistivity combined with strength. It could eventually result in establishing requirement for formation factor (based on resistivity measurements). Efforts will be made to include the determination of formation factor in ASTM C1876 and to include an option of accelerated curing to predict later age properties of concrete mixtures containing SCMs. Committee 201 will establish a subcommittee to develop code requirements for durability. The committee is developing a review paper on physical salt attack and a report on alkali-aggregate reactivity, jointly with the ACI Aggregates Committee. The committee finalized two special issues of ACI Materials Journal on durability in 2019: one on Chlorides and Corrosion and a second on SCMs. Karthik Obla maintains representation in ACI 201 and chairs the task group for performance alternatives. 211 – Mixture Proportioning – The committee is completing numerical examples of mixture proportioning which will become part of the primary document on mixture proportioning ACI 211.1. A document on developing 3-point curves for trial batches had been approved by the committee and submitted for the ACI review process. Task groups are developing documents on assessing aggregate gradations and aggregate packing models. The committee is close to finalizing a document on proportioning concrete with ground limestone and mineral fillers. Karthik Obla maintains representation on ACI 211. 214 – Strength Tests – The committee is working on a revision to the 214R guide document. A TN “Using two instead of three 4x8 in. cylinders for acceptance testing” is being held in response to the ACI review process. The committee is also progressing on a TN on Cylinder vs Cube strengths. Karthik Obla maintains representation on ACI 214. 232 – Fly Ash – The committee is finalizing a TN on limits on the quantity of fly ash in specifications based on an NRMCA Specification in Practice topic. The committee is working on the new TN on Harvesting Fly Ash that will include guidance on sampling. The committee held a mini session of four presentations that discussed test methods for pozzolanic reactivity using methods based on quantifying bound water, calcium hydroxide consumption, and isothermal calorimetry. ASTM E50 will develop a new document on proper sampling practice for harvesting coal combustion products. Karthik Obla is the vice chairman of this committee. 240 – Pozzolans – A TN on glass pozzolans is being developed and will be expanded to a larger committee report. The committee endorsed a research proposal for funding by the Concrete Research Council that will look at making largescale blocks to investigate the ASR performance of natural pozzolans. The natural pozzolan association will organize a symposium in Colorado in 2020. Karthik Obla maintains representation on ACI 240. 301 – Specifications for Structural Concrete – The committee has completed its work on the next version of the specification. It spent all its meeting time resolving comments from the ACI review process. It is anticipated that this will result in a revised specification that will be available for public comment (part of the ACI process for standards) in December. After those comments are addressed, the next version of ACI 301 will be published around Summer 2020. The committee has made several revisions to the specification in this cycle and has ensured that relevant revisions to ACI 318 have been addressed in ACI 301. In anticipation of completing this cycle, the process of selecting the leadership and members for the next cycle of ACI Committee 301 has begun. Colin Lobo maintains representation on ACI 301. 318 – Building Code for Structural Concrete – ACI 318-19 has been published. A summary of revisions relevant to concrete materials and mixtures was published in Concrete inFocus. A new ACI Committee 318 has been established to develop the next version of ACI 318 scheduled for 2025. Several errata to ACI 318-19 have been compiled. The committee has established several code change items for new business resulting from the last cycle. New subcommittees on sustainability and performance-based wind design have been established. The subcommittee on sustainability will review aspects in the code that represent restrictions to sustainability and establish guidance in an appendix on concepts of sustainability and resilience. Initiatives will evaluate the use of recycled materials and impact of the durability requirements on concrete mixtures. Colin Lobo will maintain representation on ACI 318 and ACI 318 subcommittees A (concrete materials) and N (sustainability). 325 – Concrete Pavements – The committee currently has four documents under development or revision. The committee is rewriting ACI 325.12R-02 (Reapproved 2014): Guide for Design of Jointed Concrete Pavements for Streets and Local Roads and is being be led by Brian Killingsworth. Revisions to this document have been completed and will be balloted over the winter. The committee is developing ACI 325.YR Report on Precast Concrete Pavements - State of the Practice which is based upon work completed by Tayabji for SHRP2. The committee developed ACI 325.14R.17 Guide for Design and Proportioning for Concrete Pavements which was published by ACI in 2017. A revision has been completed of ACI 325.11R Accelerated Techniques for Concrete Paving and was published earlier this year. Work is also underway to update ACI 325.ZR: Design and Construction of Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavements and ACI 325.13R-06: Concrete Overlays for Pavement Rehabilitation. This work will continue over the next year. Killingsworth will ensure that considerations for streets and local roads will be included in all documents. Brian Killingsworth maintains representation on ACI 325 on concrete pavements. 329 – Performance Criteria for Ready Mixed Concrete – The committee is developing a guide performance specification using the AIA MasterSpec section 033000 on cast-in-place concrete to propose specification language and additional guidance information that will minimize prescriptive requirements and propose performance alternatives. The committee approved an introductory chapter on the guide performance specification. A partial chapter that briefly describes test methods that could be used for mixture evaluation/prequalification and acceptance was balloted and reviewed at this meeting. Additional tests will be added to this chapter and sections of the specifications with advisory information are being developed for letter ballot. Colin Lobo (secretary) and Karthik Obla maintain representation on committee 329. 330 – Parking Lots – The ACI 330 Committee continues to work on revising the ACI 330 Guide report. Each chapter has been balloted and comments were addressed during the fall meeting. The complete document will be sent to TAC by January with comments on the agenda for the March meeting. The 330.1-14 Specification will be reviewed and changes made. Amanda Hult maintains representation in ACI 330. 522 – Pervious Concrete –The committee is currently revising the ACI 522 specification. Comments from TAC were addressed during the fall meeting. All negatives were addressed and revised document will be sent out for balloting. The 522R document will be balloted by chapters. Amanda Hult maintains representation in ACI 522. 555 – Recycled Materials – The committee is revising its document: Removal and Reuse of Hardened Concrete to include a section on crushed concrete aggregates from returned concrete based on research work conducted at the NRMCA Research Laboratory. The committee featured a mini session which included several presentations for characterizing RCA. Karthik Obla maintains representation in ACI 555. 560 – ICF Design – The committee approved wording for a proposed code change to ACI 318 regarding ICF construction. It also agreed to collect information on the prevalence of ICF buildings over two stories. Scott Campbell maintains representation on ACI 560. ACI Convention Notes: Colin Lobo delivered a presentation at a session on Innovations in Concrete Technology, titled Perspective of a Material Supplier: Performance Specifications for Concrete Materials and Mixtures.
For more information, contact Colin Lobo at clobo@nrmca.org or Karthik Obla at kobla@nrmca.org. 
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The Maryland Ready Mix Concrete Association (MRMCA) and the Insulating Concrete Forms Manufacturers Association (ICFMA) recently hosted an insulated concrete forms (ICF) installation training event. The purpose of the training was to enhance the construction infrastructure to build with ICFs. ICFs are quickly becoming the method of choice for all forms of construction due to ICF attributes such as speed and safe construction, operation maintenance and energy savings, resilience, sound control and building insurance discounts. These benefits are creating ICF project demand and this training is delivering a knowledgeable contractor workforce which can augment its portfolio of construction services. Additionally, architects, engineers, concrete contractors and ready mix producers were in attendance.
