NRMCA e-news
Association & Industry News

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2022 NRMCA State Association of the Year Award. This award recognizes state or area/regional ready mixed concrete associations making significant progress for the industry in the areas of promotion, education, advocacy and/or research. The award will be presented at the March 2023 NRMCA Annual Convention in Las Vegas, NV. Nominations can be made by either a member company or the state association itself, with member endorsement. The deadline for nominations is January 4, so be sure to nominate your state association to receive national recognition for its efforts.

Click here to download the nomination form. For more information, contact Nicole Maher at 703-706-4858 or nmaher@nrmca.org.

Bidding is now open for auction of a 2023 Mack Granite 64FR 11 yd. Con-Tech BridgeKing Mixer & Chassis Package, including Con-Tech’s exclusive Mack warranty. 100% of the proceeds from this auction are being donated to four charitable organizations, including 25% to the RMC Research & Education Foundation as well as 25% each to Concrete Cares, Gift of Life Transplant House and the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge. We truly appreciate the support and generosity of Con-Tech Manufacturing, Inc., Mack Trucks, Transource, Inc. and Welsh Equipment in donating this mixer package for auction and we are humbled and honored to be included with such worthy causes.

Con-Tech is leading and coordinating the auction, which is LIVE NOW. Bidding will conclude on November 22 at 3 p.m Central time. Don’t miss your chance to bid on this mixer which will be featured in the Con-Tech booth at CONEXPO-CON/AGG and in promotional materials and a video. The mixer will then be delivered free to the winning bidder’s location immediately after the show in March 2023. Specs and other detailed information are also available through the link above.

Please BID NOW to add this great equipment to your fleet while supporting your industry and worthy charitable organizations at the same time.

For more information, please contact Julie Garbini. For more information about the work of the Foundation, please visit www.rmc-foundation.org.

   WAM USA, Inc.       CarbonCure Technologies Inc.    
Buildings
 

The highly anticipated Greenbuild International Conference and Expo was held November 1 - 3 in San Francisco with a special presentation by Build With Strength’s Brandon Wray (seen here at the podium) titled Own Your Concrete’s Carbon Footprint: 10 Strategies to Reduce it Right Now. The presentation was held in partnership with industry advocates Don Davies, president of Magnusson Klemencic and Associates, Kirsten Ritchie, principal, Gensler, and Dirk Kestner, principal, Walter P. Moore. The event had a special focus on highlighting in-practice strategies and case studies to demonstrate the innovations that the concrete industry has advanced for the design community in an effort to help projects establish and meet sustainability goals. Overall, the presentation was packed with nearly 400 attendees, many of whom further integrated with Wray and his Build With Strength colleagues at their respective exhibit hall booths to discuss strategies and NRMCA resources.

For more information regarding the presentation, contact Brandon Wray at bwray@nrmca.org.

Concrete Innovations Session 9, scheduled for Wednesday, November 30, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern time focuses on innovative supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) along with other strategies to lower the carbon footprint of concrete. Presentations include: 

Use of Ground-Glass as Supplementary Cementitious Material in Portland Cement Concrete - Dr. Prasad Rangaraju, professor of civil engineering, Clemson University 

• The Carbon Reduction Potential of Concrete presented by Shane Mulligan, PE, LEED GA, sustainability and technical manager, Lehigh Hanson

• Fly Ash Reclamation and Beneficiation Using Triboelectrostatic Separation - Steve Sullivan, vice president, business development, Separation Technologies, a subsidiary of Titan America 

• Biochar Concrete: Carbon Reduction, Mechanical Enhancement and Commercial Viability - Dr. Harn Wei Kua, associate professor, Department of the Built Environment, National University of Singapore

Concrete Innovations Learning Sessions are designed to bring practitioners, researchers and policymakers together to exchange the latest innovations for sustainable concrete design, construction and manufacturing.

Click here to register for free for Session 9 and for the entire conference at www.concreteinnovations.com. For more information, contact Lionel Lemay at llemay@nrmca.org.

NRMCA recently verified three system-level Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for NRMCA Producer members Texas Concrete and Fordyce Concrete/Century Concrete, and non-member ready mix producer American Materials.

For Producer member Texas Concrete, underlying life cycle data for each plant and EPD were reviewed and verified by Labeling Sustainability, a verifier in NRMCA’s EPD program. Public access to the EPD is available on the NRMCA EPD webpage and is listed as NRMCA EPD: 20069 Texas Concrete. This EPD reports the impacts for ready mixed concrete from three plants in the Austin, TX, market.

Frank Mruk, FAIA, LEED AP, has joined NRMCA as senior director, building innovations, covering New England. Based in the Boston area, Mr. Mruk’s primary goal is to promote concrete as the primary structural system and building material for low- to mid-rise buildings. He will accomplish this by building awareness of advanced concrete technologies while connecting the design community to NRMCA’s in-house design assistance programs.

Prior to joining NRMCA, Mr. Mruk worked as an architect and technology strategist for 25 years, recently directing Emre Arolat’s New York City architectural studio and serving as executive director of the Boston Center for Smart Building Technology. Over the duration of his career, he has delivered large infrastructure projects for the Port Authority of NY & NJ, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a 32-story one million square foot trading headquarters building for Morgan Stanley in New York City, and regional post Hurricane Sandy resilience work on Long Island and New York City. He has also served as New York Institute of Technology associate dean/director of the Master of Architecture in Urban and Regional Design program, president of the Metro NY Construction Specifications Institute, president of the Metro NY Association of Strategic Planning and is currently serving as 2023 president of AIA RI.

Frank Mruk can be reached at fmruk@nrmca.org or 401-585-7756.

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Build With Strength (BWS), PaveAhead and the Oregon Concrete and Aggregates Producers Association recently held a low carbon concrete event, reports NRMCA Senior Director, Building Innovations, Patrick Matsche. The event highlighted the ready mixed concrete industry’s 21% reduction in carbon emissions, with BWS and PaveAhead convening a symposium of the leading voices in the Pacific Northwest. The event began November 9 with a tour and presentation at Remy Wines in Drake, OR. Remy Drabkin, mayor of McMinnville and winemaker/owner of Remy Wines, gave guests a gracious tour of the winery, which features one of Oregon’s first commercial uses of biochar in a concrete floor, a charcoal product produced from plant matter which removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
   Euclid Chemical Company       Con-Tech Manufacturing, Inc.    
   Master Builder Solutions Admixtures US LLC       Sika Corporation    
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Build With Strength Tennessee, in collaboration with the Tennessee Concrete Association (TCA), Build With Strength, NRMCA, the Insulating Concrete Forms Manufacturers Association (ICFMA) and Nudura hosted an insulated concrete forms (ICF) installation training in Antioch, TN, (seen here) on November 9 and 10. Zach Davidson and John Ritch of Nudura hosted the training session that showcased their product and Zach Davidson provided ICF training using the ICFMA curriculum while NRMCA's Frank Gordon presented ICF 101: The Basics to a mixed group of students, builders and design professionals.

The focus of this multi-day event was to educate the students from Cane Ridge High School, Middle Tennessee State University’s CIM students and several contractors, architects and engineers on the benefits and opportunities of affordable Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) construction. Between 20-25 people were in attendance for both days.The purpose of the training is to encourage the construction infrastructure to build with ICFs which are quickly becoming the method of choice for all forms of construction due to 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 that can augment its portfolio of construction services.

Build With Strength thanks TCA's Alan Sparkman for providing new office/training space along with sponsoring this event. 

Build With Strength has partnered with ICFMA and launched ICF contractor training across the U.S. The training is driven locally by NRMCA state affiliates and targets 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.

   Xypex Chemical Corp       MAPEI    
   MESA Systems Co.       Penetron USA    
   C&W Manufacturing & Sales Co.       BCMI Corp.    
Business Advancement

Registration is still open for NRMCA’s financial performance education course, Think Like an Owner, to be offered in Dallas on December 12 - 13. This course is intended to empower participants to understand the drivers of financial performance and improve their management with an eye to profitability of their business center. Participants will learn how to read financial statements, measure performance, examine elements of profit and loss, and think in terms of economic profit. This course is a must-attend for industry participants, from plant managers to company presidents who want to run their operations profitably.

Additional course information is available here and registration is available here. The staff contact is Andrew Tyrrell.

Make plans to join the Business Advancement Committee and NRMCA’s IT Task Group for a session on eticketing on Monday, November 21, at 2 p.m. Eastern time. This will be the first of two eticketing sessions hosted by NRMCA’s IT Task Group; co-chairs Keith Onchuck and Luis Angulo will lead the discussion on the importance eticketing plays in the industry’s digital transformation. This webinar is an opportunity to hear from NRMCA members that have successfully transitioned to etickets; learn about the challenges in adopting etickets and ask questions about implementing etickets.

Click here to register for the webinar; it will be recorded. For more information, contact Andrew Tyrrell at atyrrell@nrmca.org.

NRMCA Member News
John Malcolm was named vice president and general manager of Cleveland-based NRMCA Producer member Tech Ready Mix in October. He previously was employed at Lafarge in Maryland, BASF Construction Materials, Titan America and, most recently, at Summit Materials in Colorado. Malcolm is a past member of the NRMCA Board of Directors and Executive Committee. Tech Ready Mix has operations throughout Northeast Ohio, primarily the Cleveland and Akron market areas.
   Allen-Villere Partners       Sicoma North America    
Calendar

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

November 29 - December 1, Orlando, FL *Sold Out
Environmental Certification Course
Co-located with Florida Concrete & Products Association
Email: Jeffrey Bowers, 703-706-4835

December 6 - 8, Dallas
CCSP Module II: Understanding the Concrete Contractor's Business
Email: Jeffrey Bowers, 703-706-4835

December 12 - 13, Dallas/Ft Worth, TX
Think Like an Owner Course
Email: Jeffrey Bowers, 703-706-4835

December 13 - 16, Kansas City, MO *Sold Out
Plant Manager Certification Course
Sponsored by Vince Hagan
Email: Jeffrey Bowers, 703-706-4835

December 14, Nashville, TN
Handling Concrete Specifications
Co-located with Tennessee Concrete Association
Email: Jeffrey Bowers, 703-706-4835

2023
January 10 - 12, Indianapolis
Dispatcher Training Course
Email: Jeffrey Bowers, 703-706-4835

January 10 - 13, Nashville, TN
CCSP Module I: Intro to Concrete Fundamentals
Sponsored by Tennessee Concrete Association
Email: Darla Sparkman, 615-360-7393

January 24 - 27, Charlotte, NC *Sold Out
Plant Manager Certification Course
Sponsored by Vince Hagan Co-located with CRMCA
Email: Jeffrey Bowers, 703-706-4835

January 24 - 27, Manchester, NH
CCSP Module I: Intro to Concrete Fundamentals
Sponsored by Northern New England Concrete Association
Email: Jon Kuell, 888-875-3232

February 6 - 10, Orlando, FL
NRMCA's Regional Short Course
Email: Jeffrey Bowers, 703-706-4835

February 14 - 16, Dallas
CCSP Module III: General Business Knowledge
Email: Jeffrey Bowers, 703-706-4835

February 21 - 23, Nashville, TN
CCSP Module II: Understanding the Concrete Contractor's Business
Sponsored by Tennessee Concrete Association
Email: Darla Sparkman, 615-360-7393

March 10 - 13, Las Vegas, NV
NRMCA’s 2023 Annual Convention
Email: Jessica Walgenbach, 703-706-4852

March 14 - 18, Las Vegas, NV
CONEXPO-CON/AGG
Email: Nicole Maher, 703-706-4858

March 21 - 23, Nashville, TN
CCSP Module III: General Business Knowledge
Sponsored by Tennessee Concrete Association
Email: Darla Sparkman, 615-360-7393

March 28 - 30, Dallas
CCSP Module IV: Professional Sales Skills
Email: Jeffrey Bowers, 703-706-4835