The MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) will host two upcoming public webinars related to its pavements research. The first, Doing More With Less: Economically-efficient Management of Pavement Networks, will take place on September 24 at 11 a.m. Eastern time. The second, Sustainable Pavements: It’s About Much More Than Just Materials, will occur on October 8, also at 11 a.m. Eastern time. These free webinars are open to the public, but require advance registration through the links above. Industry members are encouraged to share this information within their companies and relevant stakeholder contacts.

To view past public webinar topics and recordings, visit the MIT CSHub’s website. For more information on the MIT CSHub program and agenda, contact Julie Garbini at jgarbini@rmc-foundation.org.

Last week, the Tennessee Concrete Association (TCA) and Nudura Inc. in partnership with NRMCA’s Build With Strength campaign, hosted an event at TCA’s new headquarters in Antioch. Construction is due to break ground in early 2021. The event provided construction professionals, decision makers and other interested parties an opportunity to observe the installation of Insulated Concrete Forms for a functioning safe room/storm shelter to be built within a 24-hour period. ICF Installer Edd Decker of Holdfast Technologies and Technical Director Randy White of Nudura erected the ICF walls, placed the vertical steel reinforcing and installed the ICF roof deck provided by LiteForm. Concrete Pump Partners, Irving Materials (IMI) and Euclid Chemical assisted in the placement of the fiber-reinforced concrete mix, allowing the installation (shown here) to be completed well within the 24-hour period. Nudura, Inc., a national sponsor of these events, is partnering with local distributors and regional associations to highlight the value, flexibility and ease that building with ICFs offers.

If your organization is interested in hosting one of these events, please contact NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Frank Gordon at fgordon@nrmca.org or 865-719-2861 or your regional Build With Strength promoter.

Build With Strength in partnership with NRMCA and the California Nevada Cement Association, invites you to attend a free webinar titled The Balanced Design Approach to Fire Safety on Tuesday September 29, at noon Pacific time. NRMCA’s Shamim Rashid-Sumar, PE, FSFPE, vice president, fire codes and standards, will present.

Hosted by AIA California, this popular webinar discusses how structure fires and wildfires result in significant loss of life and property in the United States each year. In addition to the direct losses of fighting fires, relocating residents and rebuilding, large fire events can cause substantial indirect losses to communities. There has been an increase in single family and multifamily structure fire losses, partly due to increased use of combustible construction methods. The presentation investigates the causes of these fires and provides balanced design recommendations using both active and passive fire protection strategies.

Register now to secure your place for the webinar, which provides American Institute of Architects (AIA) Elective Learning Units and/or Professional Development Hours (PDH) for continuing education requirements.

Build with Strength is a coalition led by NRMCA that promotes standards advocacy to leverage policies promoting safety and resiliency and help place more concrete. For more information, contact Lionel Lemay at llemay@nrmca.org.

Last week, NRMCA Codes and Standards staff gave two presentations to over 150 participants at the annual Day of Concrete Knowledge seminar hosted by the Alabama Concrete Industries Association (ACIA). NRMCA's Tien Peng presented The Pathway to Resilience and Scott Campbell discussed SE 2050: Reducing Embodied Carbon using Concrete. The audience consisted primarily of engineers and architects, and both presentations generated questions regarding how to implement the concepts discussed.

NRMCA was invited by John Sorrell, executive director of ACIA, to help to provide valuable education programs on concrete topics. Build With Strength supports our members and state affiliates with resources to  advocate for resilient construction, including low-carbon and other key strategies. It's a coalition led by NRMCA that promotes concrete building systems through codes education and advocacy.

For more information, contact Tien Peng at   or Scott Campbell at scampbell@nrmca.org.

Sponsorship opportunities are now available for the Global Concrete Summit, the online conference and expo scheduled for November 30 - December 10. This first of a kind conference will feature speakers and product manufacturers from all over the world to discuss the latest innovations in concrete technology and construction. Architects, engineers, contractors and product manufactures are invited to attend.

Since launching on September 1, the conference has had 31 organizations join the conference as sponsors and partners. Representation from Europe, Middle East and Central, South and North America have signed on. NRMCA is seeking additional sponsors from around the world. There are corporate sponsorships at three different levels (Platinum, Gold and Silver) and a Partner sponsorship for non-profit organizations.

Click here to learn more about sponsorship opportunities or contact Lionel Lemay at LLemay@nrmca.org or 1-847-922-7995.

With the defeat of Senate Republican’s COVID-19 relief package last week, it is increasingly unlikely that a COVID-19 relief package will pass before the election. The next relief package will likely pass during lame duck, after the election and before the next Congress is sworn in, though political pressures could force Congressional leaders and the president to come to a deal earlier. Regardless of ultimate timing, NRMCA is continuing to advocate for the industry’s legislative priorities in any bill and ensuring that the industry’s voice continues to be heard.

• Federal Excise Tax Suspension: NRMCA has continued to work with allied associations to urge Congress to suspend the federal excise tax for heavy trucks. You can see the coalition’s most recent letter here, supported by NRMCA as well as the Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau and Volumetric Mixer Manufacturers Bureau. Congressional advocates are working to include this provision in a COVID-19 relief package.
• Paycheck Protection Program Reforms: NRMCA continues to support critical reforms to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in conversations with Members of Congress and staff, urging Congress to address issues relating to retroactive requirements for loan forgiveness, tax deductibility of expenses and including 501(c)6 non-profit organizations in the PPP.
• Liability Protections: NRMCA activated its grassroots network to support liability protections in the next COVID relief package. If you have not sent your Member of Congress a letter urging him or her to include liability protections in the next package, click here to do so now.

NRMCA Government Affairs team will continue to advocate for these and other issues important to the ready mixed concrete industry.

For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.

NRMCA has joined its coalition partners to urge Congress to extend the federal surface transportation programs for one year. With the FAST Act authorities expiring at the end of September, it is critical that Congress act quickly to extend these programs.

• NRMCA joined the Transportation Construction Coalition and a wide range of transportation construction associations to call on Congress to pass a one-year extension with emergency funding for state departments of transportation (DOT). You can read the coalition letter headed by the Transportation Construction Coalition and Chamber of Commerce here.
• The North American Concrete Alliance (NACA) established a grassroots alert for NRMCA, PCA, ACPA and other NACA member associations to send messages to Congress and the president urging a one- year extension and emergency funding for state DOTs to reinstate canceled and delayed projects. Click here to take action.

In a private meeting, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell late last week told the NRMCA Government Affairs team that he expected a one-year extension of the FAST Act to be attached to the upcoming continuing resolution and pass Congress before the September 30 deadline. This week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer indicated that the continuing resolution and the one-year FAST Act reauthorization would come to the floor next week.

For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.

Earlier this week, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) provided the following update on the Joint Employer Rule.

On September 8, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a decision in a case brought by 17 state attorneys general to block the Department of Labor’s (DOL) joint employer final rule. The court determined that DOL’s final rule had two "major flaws”:

1. The Department only considered the definition of “employer” when drafting its Final Rule, ignoring the relevance of the definitions of “employee” and “employ.” The Final Rule adopts its joint employment test based solely on the definition of employer, but all three definitions must be considered when determining joint employer status.

2. The Final Rule uses different tests to determine a “primary" employer and a “joint” employer. The definition of a “primary" employer is broad under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), but the definition of “joint" employer used by DOL in the Final Rule was much more narrow. The court rejected the idea that there's a distinction between the two and said the test for determining whether there is an employment relationship under the FLSA is the same whether its a primary employment or joint employment relationship. In other words, DOL must rely on the broader employment test when determining joint employer status.

The court reasoned that "There is thus no independent test for joint employment under the FLSA. An entity is an employer if it meets the FLSA’s definition. It is a joint employer if it meets the definition and another entity also meets the definition.”

The Department as well as the six national employer organizations that intervened in the case will likely appeal the decision. They have 60 days to do so. It’s unclear, however, how other courts will view the ruling. NRMCA and CDW will continue to follow and keep you apprised of developments.

For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.

Last week, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published a proposal for a pilot program to study allowing 18-, 19- and 20-year old drivers of commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) for interstate travel. Currently, the age threshold for drivers to hold a commercial driver’s license (CDL) and drive across state lines, or rather interstate, is 21 years old. However, the vast majority of states currently allow drivers starting at age 18 to possess a CDL and drive a CMV so long as they remain within state borders they were licensed in (intrastate). The proposed pilot program aims to determine if an expansion of age range is practical and safe, along with what issues exist for insurance, technology and training, among others.

The proposal follows calls from industry, including NRMCA, for the driver age range to be examined. It also follows the ongoing pilot program that studies the same age drivers, but with military experience. NRMCA will be submitting comments in support of the pilot program, as it has done since the inception of this and the military driver pilot program. The docket for submitting comments will remain open through Monday, November 9.

Click here to review the proposal and/or access the docket. For more information, contact Kevin Walgenbach at kwalgenbach@nrmca.org.

NRMCA’s National Mixer Driver Appreciation Week will be held October 5-9 and the Association is planning to honor 2020 mixer drivers with a scrolling presentation. The slides for the presentation have areas for a driver picture, along with sections for driver’s name, company name, city and state. There is also a text box that can be used as a description (i.e. 2020 Company Rodeo Champion 18-Year Veteran Driver or text of your choosing sample can be found here). Should you wish to have a driver recognized, please send in a completed driver template slide (found here) with the necessary information to DAW@nrmca.org. The following rules apply:

1. Drivers must be employed by a NRMCA member company.

2. Number of driver submissions is limited to one per company or, for larger companies, one per division.

3. Limit of one slide per driver

4. Entries should be in PowerPoint format (don’t convert to pdf).

5. Entries must be submitted by COB Monday, September 21.

6. Please e-mail entry slide(s) to DAW@nrmca.org.

7. Only slides built from the template slide will be used in the presentation.

Click here for sample slides and here for template slides. For more information, contact Gary Mullings at gmullings@nrmca.org.

NRMCA's Ready Mixed Concrete Delivery Professional Driver of the Year Award, now in its 25th year and sponsored by the Truck Mixer Manufacturers Bureau (TMMB), acknowledges the significant contribution of ready mixed concrete truck drivers to the growth and success of individual companies and the ready mixed concrete industry. As a salute to these key members of the concrete production and delivery team, the award recognizes the driver’s career achievement, safety, professionalism, competence and customer service skills in a manner that will enhance the industry and public image of the career of a ready mixed concrete delivery professional.

The 2021 Ready Mixed Concrete Truck Driver of the Year Award winner will be honored at an awards presentation ceremony at NRMCA’s Annual Convention in San Antonio, TX, in March 2021.

Nomination applications must be e-mailed to DOY@nrmca.org by Thursday, December 31. Click here to download the nomination form, more information and staff contact.

NRMCA has improved its Member2Member (M2M) program to provide better service and more value to all members. NRMCA is very pleased to announce two more Associate members have joined the revised program. Cemen Tech, the world’s largest manufacturer of volumetric technology and continuous concrete mixing solutions, is offering NRMCA members a $1,000 discount off the purchase of a new Cemen Tech volumetric mixer. Polarmatic, one of the world’s leading developers and suppliers of innovative heating, curing, cooling, control system and information management solutions specifically developed for the concrete industry, is offering NRMCA members a free "spare parts kit" worth $2,000 when they purchase a Polarmatic Turbomatic heating unit. Visit both Cemen Tech’s and Ploarmatic’s NRMCA dedicated services through the updated M2M webpage where you can explore their offerings.

Neither membership in NRMCA nor participation in the M2M Benefits Program can in any way be construed as an endorsement, explicit or implicit, of any company, product or service by the Association. NRMCA accepts no responsibility in any dispute between supplier and customer. The M2M Benefits Program is intended solely as an informational service. Participating companies are responsible for insuring all M2M Benefit information is correct and up-to-date.

For more information, contact Jacques Jenkins at jjenkins@nrmca.org.

ASCC member SLV Quality Concrete, owned by Leonard Velasquez and Atsa Valdez, Is completing a few final concrete placements for a concrete overlay at the Meadows Golf Club located in in the foothills of the Rocky Mounains in Littleton, CO. Ready mixed concrete is being supplied by NRMCA Producer
member Martin Marietta, reports Vice President, Local Paving, Don Clem.

This will be the third concrete overlay project (seen here) completed by the Foothills Park and Recreation District. Velasquez, Clem and his NRMCA colleague Jon Hansen have been discussing concrete overlays with the district since 2015. The project will require nearly 1,000 cubic yards of concrete.

For more information, contact Don Clem at dclem@nrmca.org or 303 881-5009.

Concrete 101 (Certified Concrete Sales Professional, CCSP I) will be offered online in October. Pandemic aside, the virtual venue opens doors for producers’ staff who lack travel budgets yet would benefit from one of the industry’s most iconic classes. This annual introduction to concrete fundamentals is for those who need a broad overview of technical and operations essentials. The curriculum is appropriate for sales reps, dispatchers, administrative/home office and mid-level staff as well as those in executive functions whose jobs do not relate to concrete per se, but should have working knowledge of the industry. This class is NOT appropriate for technical ready mixed concrete personnel.

For those working toward their NRMCA STEPS® CCPf certification in Sales and Marketing Track, this is a required class. For others working toward CCPf certification in other STEPS tracks, the class is the qualifying prerequisite or an elective.

Click here for more information, including registration options. For more information, contact Eileen Dickson at edickson@nrmca.org.

Last week, the federal government issued two announcements of interest to the ready mixed concrete industry. First, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) updated its technical guidance addressing COVID-19 and the federal anti-discrimination laws enforced by the agency, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It includes 18 new questions and answers. Most involve three topics:

1. Disability-related inquiries and medical examinations;
2. Confidentiality of medical information; and
3. Reasonable accommodations.

They can be found in EEOC’s full guidance document, What You Should Know About COVID-19 and the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and Other EEO Laws.

Second, the Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour Division announced revisions to regulations that implement paid sick leave and expanded family and medical leave provisions for those companies that fall under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). These regulations take effect on Wednesday, September 16.

The revised rule clarifies workers’ rights and employers’ responsibilities regarding FFCRA paid leave. The rule was issued in light of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York’s August 3, decision invalidating portions of the relevant regulations.

• Read the revised FFCRA rule in the Federal Register.
• Further details can be found on the U.S. Department of Labor’s website.

NRMCA continually updates its COVID-19 Resources webpage to reflect the above and other relevant information.

Last month, the Colorado Ready Mixed Concrete Association (CRMCA) attended a groundbreaking ceremony held by the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity which is building an 18-unit neighborhood in Teller County consisting of 2-3 bedroom duplexes. Exterior walls of all units will be built using insulated concrete forms; the majority of CRMCA Producer members, many of which are also NRMCA Producer members, have donated time, personnel and materials for this project.

Read more about this project. Want to share this post and show your support of CRMCA on its social media platforms? Click on its Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin accounts.

For more information on how you can promote the ready mixed concrete industry through social media platforms, contact Gregg Lewis at glewis@nrmca.org.

The following courses, typically offered in person, have been scheduled for online offerings:\

• Handling Concrete Specifications, Low Strength Problems and Mixture Submittals is a popular one-day course; the online offering is scheduled for October 5 and 6, each day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time. Click here for more information and to register.
• Concrete Technologist Training and Certification (Short Course) is typically offered over one week. It offers the NRMCA Concrete Technologist Level 2 and Level 3 certifications. The course is now scheduled online from November 2– 13. The sessions will be offered between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. between November 2 and 10. The exams are scheduled on November 13. Click here for more information and to register.
• Improving Concrete Quality is a one-day course scheduled each day for November 16 and 17 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time. Click here for more information and to register.

Course content will be typically uploaded for registrants to access. The live session webinars will be recorded for registrants to access in case of a schedule conflict.

The Fall 2020 newsletter of the National Concrete Consortium has the following items:

• Moving Advancements into Practice (MAP) Brief titled Overview of Cement-Stabilized Subgrade Soils is now available from the NC² Resource Library. This Fall 2020 MAP brief summarizes Gross and Adaska's recently published Guide to Cement-Stabilized Subgrade Soils that is an outcome of CP Tech Center collaboration with the Portland Cement Association.

• FHWA Concrete Clips: Blended Cements and Supplementary Cementitious Materials

• Effects of Concrete Age on Coefficient of Thermal Expansion of Paving Mixes and Its Significance in Unbonded Overlay Design: With the advancement in rigid pavement design and advent of AASHTOWare Pavement Mechanistic-Empirical (ME) Design (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Washington, DC) as the latest design tool, increasing emphasis is being placed on the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of concrete. The CTE affects the performance of rigid pavements in a significant manner, with a higher CTE corresponding to greater curling and resulting in greater pavement distresses. Prior research has had conflicting views regarding CTE variation with age and there has been very little to no research on the effects of the CTE on the performance of unbonded concrete overlays (UBCOs). This study was performed to investigate the variation in CTE with concrete age through laboratory testing and to further quantify the effects of CTE variation on UBCO design.

• Strategies for Concrete Pavement Preservation (Interim Report): The use of the term “preservation” for concrete pavements is somewhat of a misnomer in that many preservation treatments are actually stop-gap measures used to address visible signs of deterioration in the existing pavement. The treatments address the symptoms of the problem but may not directly address the underlying causes of the distress, which can progress until requiring even more significant rehabilitation, or perhaps even reconstruction. This report redefines the term concrete pavement preservation as “preserving the existing concrete pavement structure to extend its service life for as long as possible by arresting, greatly diminishing or avoiding the pavement deterioration process.” his report reviews the primary factors affecting concrete pavement performance and strategies for concrete pavement preservation. A state-of-the-practice review on the approaches for evaluating the condition of concrete pavements that will help in developing long-term concrete pavement preservation strategies and the engineering economic analysis techniques that can be employed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of various preservation strategies is also included.

• Nondestructive Corrosion Evaluation of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks with Overlays: An Experimental Study: Concrete corrosion induced by deicing agents can decrease the durability of concrete bridge decks by causing cross-sectional loss of reinforcement, concrete delamination and spalling owing to the expansion of corroded reinforcement. The installation of overlays can extend the service life of the deteriorated decks. However, overlays present challenges in the evaluation of the corrosion condition of the underlying decks. This laboratory study employed three nondestructive testing (NDT) methods to assess the effects of seven types of overlays on corrosion evaluation for concrete bridge decks.

• Field Implementation of Compacted Concrete Pavement: The main objective of this research was to investigate the performance of Compacted Concrete Pavement (CCP) with special surface texture design features that can reduce construction cost and secure safe and durable surface texture. This research was part of a larger project undertaken by the City of Mexico, MO, in collaboration with the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). The CCP mixture was evaluated for key fresh properties (unit weight, air content and Vebe consistency), mechanical properties (compressive strength, flexural strength and modulus of elasticity), drying shrinkage and durability (air-void system, freeze-thaw resistance, scaling resistance, and bulk and surface resistivity).

Click here to links to each of the above reports and the entire newsletter.

*Please note that e-mail and direct links to each event listed below can be accessed from NRMCA's Web site. 

September 23, Free Online Webinar
Hours of Service Webinar
Email: Kevin Walgenbach, 703-706-4857

October 5 - 6, Online Course
Handling Concrete Specifications
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

October 5 - 9
National Mixer Driver Appreciation Week
Sponsored by TMMB
Email: Kevin Walgenbach, 703-706-4857

October 7 - 8, Online
NRMCA's ConcreteWorks 2020
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

October 19 - 23, Online Course
Concrete Safety Course
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

October 21-23, Online Course
CCSP Module I: Concrete 101
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

November 2-3, 5-6, 9-10, 13 Online Course
Short Course Online
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

November 16 – 20, Online Course
Environmental Course for the Ready Mixed Concrete Industry
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

November 16 – 17, Online Course
Improving Concrete Quality Course Online
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

November 30 - December 10, Online Conference and Expo
Global Concrete Summit
*Sponsored by NRMCA & Grey Matters | Use coupon code NRMCA40 when you register for a 40% discount.
Email: Lionel Lemay, 847-922-7995

December 11 – 18, Online Course
Plant Manager Certification Course Online December
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

December 14 – 18, Online Course
CCSP Module II: Understand the Concrete Contractor’s Business Model
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

2021
January 26 – 29, Charlotte, NC
Plant Manager Certification Course
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

February 10 – 12, Dallas
Effective RMC Supervisor Course
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

March 23 – 26, Boston
Plant Manager Certification Course March, 2021
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852