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Association & Industry News
NRMCA and Build With Strength are presenting a full complement of educational seminars during next week's CONEXPO-CON/AGG Show in Las Vegas. Each week until the beginning of the show, E-NEWS is highlighting a single seminar, which continued last week with Concrete Mix Design: What to Look For. This week's highlighted seminar is Mass Timber, Tall Tinder scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, from 3 to 4 p.m. in South Hall S 232. Dramatic changes have been made in U.S. building codes allowing combustible construction to be built bigger and taller. Without considering the fire services input, code officials justified the passage of new mass timber code proposals allowing for 18-story wooden high-rises. This session will explore the real concerns with tall timber construction and also explore resilient composite timber/concrete solutions which maximizes the advantages of each material. Click here to to register and here for the full lineup of courses at the show. For more information, contact Tien Peng at tpeng@nrmca.org. Slag cement shipments are still on the rise, with 2019 seeing a 10.8 percent increase over 2018 totals. The estimated slag cement shipments for 2019 is 3.8 million metric tons. This marks the fourth consecutive year of double-digit percentage growth in shipping totals across the United States. Click here to learn more about U.S. Slag Cement shipments. 
Buildings
This Build With Strength advocacy report summarizes activity in state and local legislation for January and February 2020. Locations of interest are municipalities throughout New Jersey and Massachusetts along with the cities of Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Click here to access the advocacy report. For more information, contact John Loyer at jloyer@nrmca.org.
Government Affairs
The Government Affairs Committee will meet on Sunday, March 8, at NRMCA’s 2020 Annual Convention with NSSGA’s and PCA’s government affairs committees in a Joint Advocacy Meeting from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Make plans to attend this meeting for legislative and regulatory updates impacting the ready mixed concrete industry. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org. Please join us on Sunday, March 8, at the CONCRETEPAC Speakeasy Night at the Mob Museum for a night full of glitz and glamor in support of NRMCA's Political Action Committee, CONCRETEPAC. Take a step through time touring The Mob Museum and dance the night away to our live Rat Pack Band. Dust off your zoot suit and pack your shiny flapper dress because prizes will be awarded to the best-dressed dame and darb at the end of the night. Take a chance with CONCRETEPAC in Las Vegas and participate in our auction and sweepstakes drawing. Remember, everyone is a winner when they are supporting the ready mixed concrete industry and you wouldn't want to start the new year swimming with the fishes! The annual CONCRETEPAC Golf Tournament is on Tuesday, March 10; shotgun start at 12:30 p.m. at the Bali Hai Golf Club. Transportation is provided. Happy hour and awards to follow. *CONCRETEPAC events are for NRMCA member companies that have granted prior authorization. For more information on how you can grant CONCRETEPAC prior authorization and how you can attend these events, contact Taylor Drzewicki at tdrzewicki@nrmca.org.
SEO
Registration for NRMCA’s Spring Safety Course taking place May 13 - 15 in Glendora, CA, is still open. The 2.5-day course teaches participants about OSHA safety compliance, beginning with why safety is so important and detailing the reasons why an effective safety program actually saves money through loss prevention and control. Participants learn about the new silica rule, electrical safety, machine guarding, fall protection, hazard communication, confined spaces, personal protective equipment, firefighting and evacuation, maintenance shop safety, chute handling, fleet safety, pre-trip inspection and much more. Click here for location details, registration options and staff contacts. The March 24 - 27 Plant Manager Certification Course in Boston and the April 28 - May 1 class in New Orleans are still open for registration. The only remaining class in 2020 will be located in the Southwest, December 15 - 18 in Phoenix. These classes are expected to sell out, so please do not dally if any of these venues suit your needs. The four-day course is industry-specific and concentrates on issues that challenge plant managers all across the county. The intense curriculum includes the latest information on concrete product knowledge and technical standards, safety culture and OSHA-based regulations, operational and maintenance skills, environmental issues and regulations from EPA as well as labor law issues and the challenges of supervision and training of industry personnel. The NRMCA Plant Manager Certification is required for all Army Corps of Engineer jobs and is considered the industry gold standard professional development course for ready mixed concrete plant managers and operators. Click here to access more information, registration optoins and staff contact for each of the three courses. 
Calendar
*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. March 5, Hagerstown, Maryland March 7 – 9, Las Vegas March 10 – 14, Las Vegas March 17 – 19, Dallas March 24 – 27, Boston March 25, Winchester, KY March 25, Washington, DC April 15 – 17, Indianapolis April 17, Sweetwater, Tennessee April 28 – May 1, New Orleans April 29, Charlotte, NC 
Pavement
NRMCA President Michael Philipps and Vice President, Local Paving, Don Clem were featured speakers at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Concrete Association of Wyoming (CAW) held last week in Casper. Philipps provided an update on NRMCA activities and recent changes, urging the audience to get involved and to understand the industry’s messaging concerning sustainability, which is sure to impact the cement and concrete business going forward. Clem then updated the audience on the Pikes Peak (CO) Concrete Overlay Project, documenting the promotion timeline and design details for the project, which is believed to be the largest concrete overlay of an asphalt parking lot in the U.S. Clem urged CAW members to ask for parking lot business, and bring NRMCA paving professionals into the process to assist with promotion and design efforts. For more information, contact Don Clem at dclem@nrmca.org. The NRMCA Concrete Parking Lots Boot Camp recently rolled into Maumee, OH, as NRMCA member Kuhlman Group hosted the program along with contractor Rudolph Libbe Group (RLG). The 10-hour course was presented by NRMCA senior vice presidents Phil Kresge and Jon Hansen. There was great interest in the program and a lot of interaction throughout the two days, Kresge said. “The folks from Rudolph Libbe really seemed to embrace the concept,” he noted. “There were a number of potential projects that were brought up in class discussions. In fact, one of the projects was used as the sample for the Concrete Pavement Analyst (CPA) portion of the class. On completion of the CPA exercise, the contractor reported that the proposed asphalt price in CPA was a mere $3,000 off from the actual bid submittal. That’s pretty close for a nearly 500,000 sq. ft project.” This was Kuhlman Group’s second Boot Camp; Vice President Ken Kuhlman continues to be committed to growing the parking lot market and is excited for the opportunity to partner with Rudolph Libbe Group. Reports are that RLG was also pleased with the Boot Camp and, as a direct result, has recently submitted an application for membership to the American Society of Concrete Contractors (ASCC). “The collaboration between ASCC and NRMCA has shown to be key to the success of our promotion efforts,” Hansen added. “Part of the Boot Camp message is the importance of building a partnership among ready mix producers and quality concrete contractors across the U.S. Rudolph Libbe Group’s joining ASCC shows its commitment not only to the promotion effort, but also to the industry as a whole.” For more information, contact Phil Kresge at pkresge@nrmca.org. 
Business Advancement
NRMCA is offering its information-packed, one-day course, Handling Concrete Specifications, Low Strength Problems and Mixture Submittals, intended for concrete producers, contractors, engineers and testing labs on Wednesday, May 20, in Nashville, TN, in association with the Tennessee Ready Mixed Concrete Association. This one-day course will discuss the latest changes to the code and specification requirements (ACI 318, 301, ASTM C94) governing ready mixed concrete. This course will address many topics, including the following:
Course instructors are Luke Snell, P.E., FACI, FASCE, Western Technologies and Karthik Obla, Ph.D., P.E., vice president, technical services, at NRMCA. Producers, contractors, engineers and testing labs will find the discussions on investigating low strength problems and specifications very helpful to address issues that impact partnering, project cost and schedule. Upon successful completion of the course attendees will earn 8 professional development hours, a certificate of completion and credits toward NRMCA’s STEPS program. Click here for more information, registration options and staff contact. May 13 – 15, Glendora, CA May 20, Nashville, TN September 25 – 29, Denver October 20 – 22, Mendota Heights, MN November 17 – 19, Glendora, CA December 15 – 18, Phoenix *For sold out courses if you wish to be added to the course waitlist, please send your request to meetings@nrmca.org. Engineering
NRMCA’s Research Engineering and Standards Committee (RES), as part of its initiative to improve quality, has developed a resource for companies to quantify the cost of poor quality (COPQ) and to justify investment in quality management systems. A more user-friendly version of this resource, Cost of Poor Quality, is now in an Excel spreadsheet format. The resource includes a supporting user manual that suggests how to estimate the various cost items and is intended to help concrete producers calculate the financial impact caused by deficiencies in product quality. This user-friendly version was developed last year by an NRMCA Developing Industry Leaders (DIL) group consisting of Michael Chancellor, Mauricio Curbelo, Alex Olin and Trace VanOrden. The DIL is an annual program administered by NRMCA as part of its workforce development initiatives. COPQ is the total cost to the company as a result of internal and external failures or deficiencies of ready mixed concrete. It can be used as a tool for focusing attention on the quality management system (QMS) in place at the company. By investing and implementing better quality practices, a company can minimize its COPQ and increase profitability. Establishing the company’s reputation as a higher quality supplier will help increase revenues. Measurement of COPQ will help track and document improvement in quality on an annual basis. The COPQ form and user manual can be downloaded here. For more information, contact Karthik Obla at kobla@nrmca.org. 
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