A concrete industry promotion team of Andy Youngs of the California Nevada Cement Association (CNCA), Guy Collignon of Enviro-Crete Inc., a pervious concrete subcontractor and Dan Huffman, NRMCA's managing director, national resources, recently met with top design and construction staff of a national retailer at its Northern California national headquarters. A targeted project exists that is intended to be LEED registered and eventually certified at the highest practical level; the owner expects the use of pervious concrete would help toward achieving LEED Platinum certification.

Challenges exist because the specific project selected is a re-construction of an existing major retail store on a San Francisco Bay Area site with a very thick clay subgrade and a very high water table. Company officials favor using pervious concrete, but Huffman says the initial higher cost of using pervious has business staff concerned – a common scenario NRMCA and its promotion peers have to deal with, he noted. In this case, because of the very poor percolating soils and high water table the use of pervious concrete is certain to increase project costs as compared to conventional pavement with acceptable stormwater regulations compliance. Despite the initial cost concerns, Huffman says the owners realize that using pervious concrete remains key for the firm's national construction program's focus on LEED certification as its new standard.

Huffman has focused on the firm for more than four years with the help of Youngs due to his local expertise and knowledge of job site particulars, among other attributes Youngs provided. But Youngs' impending resignation from CNCA will leave a huge hole in the industry's national promotion efforts.

"Andy Youngs has been one of the nation's very top pervious concrete promoters and his departure creates a void that will be difficult, if not impossible to fill," Huffman said. "Andy has been a terrific mentor to many promoters in the West, including me, for the last five years and this is a huge loss to the promotion element of our industry."  Huffman said best wishes to Andy can be e-mailed to andy.youngs@cncement.org until his effective transition date of May 7.

For more information, contact Dan Huffman at dhuffman@nrmca.org.

Los Angeles became the biggest metropolis in the United States to mandate green building practices. On April 22, Earth Day, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed the Private Sector Green Building Plan into law at a ceremony held in the shadow of Luma and Elleven, two new concrete condominium towers that will be LEED Gold certified. The ordinance will require new commercial buildings and high-rise residential structures with more than 50,000 square feet or 50 units to meet the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED standards. In exchange, the city will work with builders to speed up approvals and to remove obstacles in the municipal code for elements of sustainable building design such as green rooftops, cisterns and permeable pavement.

The city claims the ordinance will reduce carbon emissions by more than 80,000 tons by 2012, the equivalent of taking 15,000 cars off the road.

Source: Portland Cement Association Executive Report electronic newsletter for April 28.

NRMCA's Lionel Lemay presented a paper titled Sustainable High Performance Concrete Buildings at the Structural Engineering Congress in Vancouver, BC, last week. The Congress, organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), attracts over 1,400 structural engineers. Lemay's presentation discussed the numerous sustainable strategies that can be employed with concrete to improve sustainability of the buildings. Topics included substituting waste byproducts such as fly ash and slag as cementitious materials, using thermal massing effect to reduce the thermal loads on a building and the potential of concrete in reducing the urban heat-island effect. The paper was presented as part of a panel discussion in which concrete, steel and wood were represented.

Click here to read the article. For more information contact Lionel Lemay at 847-918 7101 or by e-mail, LLemay@nrmca.org.

Managing Director of Compliance David Ayers reports that NRMCA is very close to completing a backing accident prevention program. These types of accidents are prevalent in the industry, with about 11 backing accidents per 100 trucks, and are a significant drain on ready mix concrete companies. These accidents alter lives with the injuries that occur, cost time, money, anger customers and contribute to poor community relations. All accidents are preventable. Special thanks to IMI and Aggregate Industries for contributing truck and driver time to this program.

For more information, contact David Ayers at dayers@nrmca.org.

The Senate last Wednesday evening failed to reach the 60 vote threshold (56-42) needed to invoke cloture on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007 (H.R. 2831). The bill would amend Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and several other antidiscrimination laws to effectively to abolish the statute of limitations in many discrimination cases. H.R. 2831 was introduced in response to the Supreme Court's recent decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which rejected the "paycheck theory" of compensation discrimination that would permit claims to be filed many years after an alleged act of discrimination occurs. Applying the paycheck rule broadly, it would be possible that claims could be filed decades after an allegedly discriminatory act occurred.

Senate Democratic leaders have expressed their intention to hold another cloture vote on the bill at a later date.

For more information, contact NRMCA's Robert Sullivan at rsullivan@nrmca.org.

Last week, Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced The Diesel Tax Parity Act of 2008 (S. 2896) which would amend the Internal Revenue Code to temporarily lower the federal tax on diesel fuel from 24.3 cents per gallon to 18.3 cents per gallon, bringing it in line with the federal tax on gasoline.

Senator Snowe's bill would mainly provide economic relief to the trucking industry which has been adversely affected by record diesel fuel prices. The proposal, if passed, would lower the diesel excise fuel tax until December 31, 2008.

For more information, contact NRMCA's Robert Sullivan at rsullivan@nrmca.org.

The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing last Thursday to examine the tax aspects of a cap-and-trade system, in preparation for floor debate of the Warner-Lieberman bill, America's Climate Security Act of 2007 (S. 2191) scheduled for June 2. In his opening statement, Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) cited a recent study conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency which found that if S. 2191 were enacted, the economy would grow by 80% from 2010-2030, just 1% less in growth without such a measure. In addition, a study by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates a $1.21 trillion increase in Federal government revenue.

The hearing also focused on how the tax code should apply to allowances and how to use the tax code and revenue generated from the auction of these allowances to mitigate costs of energy prices for consumers. In his testimony before the committee, CBO Director Peter Orszag argued allowances should be sold, not given, to decrease costs to the economy and prevent windfall profits for energy and energy intensive manufacturers. Orszag suggested the use of flexible timing measures and the inclusion of a safety valve to reduce economic impacts.

Robert Greenstein, executive director for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, also testified, suggesting the use of options such as expanding the earned income tax credit and "client rebates" for low income families to offset increased energy costs, as well as establishing a "climate change tax credit" for middle income taxpayers. Greenstein further argued that the existing energy tax initiatives and future claims for additional tax subsidies to encourage activities related to new energy technologies, alternative fuels and efficiency measures are not warranted and will not mitigate the costs to consumers.

For more information, contact NRMCA's Robert Sullivan at rsullivan@nrmca.org.

Litigation is costly. Even if your company prevails, legal fees, trial costs, staff time and potentially damaging publicity can hurt your bottom line. Fortunately, many of the important factors that affect your chances of being sued are under your control.

Attend NRMCA's new Concrete Construction Liability Seminar on May 14-15 in Tempe, AZ and you'll learn how to make your contract your first defense against unwarranted quality claims. You will also gain insight on how judges and juries decide whether companies have met the required "standard of care" in concrete quality and performance disputes.

The workshop will also include a primer on quality control procedures that can help keep legal claims against your company to a minimum.

The seminar will be taught by Jeffrey W. Coleman a licensed engineer, attorney and ACI Fellow whose experience includes working as a design structural engineer for Ellerbe Associates, Inc. and serving as the architect's field representative during reconstruction of the collapsed Hartford Coliseum. Coleman is a partner in the Minneapolis law firm of Coleman, Hull, and van Vliet, PLLP. Attendees will receive a copy of Mr. Coleman's recently authored the book, Legal Issues in Concrete Construction.

Joining him is Richard Stehly, a licensed civil engineer and author of multiple articles in engineering journals. Stehly has delivered over 180 lectures on construction topics to over 20,000 people in 30 countries. He is a past president of the Minnesota Geotechnical Society, a member of the board of directors of the American Concrete Institute and a member of the Disaster Investigation Team of the Masonry Society.

This seminar fulfills a requirement for NRMCA's Concrete Technology Track in the STEPS™ program.

For more information, contact NRMCA's Robert Sullivan at rsullivan@nrmca.org.

With union special interests making support for the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or "card-check" bill, a litmus test for candidate support, NRMCA in concert with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) is participating in a new public awareness campaign aimed at educating voters about this anti-worker legislation. As part of this multi-faceted campaign, NRMCA and CDW have released a new television ad designed to engage and connect voters to the issue. The ad, developed for CDW by nationally known media strategist Mike Murphy, uses a widely recognized character who will be easily identifiable to voters and will use humor to reinforce the need to protect private ballots for workers. The ad began airing on national cable news channels on Friday, April 25.

"This is not an issue of union-shop or not. What's at stake in the upcoming elections are workers' privacy rights," said NRMCA President Robert Garbini. "NRMCA's Board of Directors has made card-check the number one legislative issue for the association and our goal is to make certain that voters and Members of Congress know that 'card-check' is fundamentally incompatible with the interests of individual liberty and the principles of a sound democracy."

Recent polls in Colorado, Minnesota and Maine conducted by CDW suggest widespread voter opposition to Big Labor's card-check scheme. About two-thirds of voters in Colorado (68%), Maine (72%) and Minnesota (65%) oppose the EFCA. Conversely, at least 80% of voters in all three states believe that secret ballot elections are the cornerstone of democracy and should be kept for union elections.

Under the misnamed EFCA, workers would lose their right to a private ballot when deciding whether to join a union. The private ballot would be replaced with a "card-check" scheme where a union is organized if a majority of workers simply sign a card; the workers' signatures are made public to their employer, the union organizers and their co-workers.

Click here to view the television message. For more information, contact NRMCA's Robert Sullivan at 1-888-846-7622, ext. 1148 or by e-mail, rsullivan@nrmca.org.

Popular trainer Brent Strehlow will return to NRMCA to conduct the annual leadership seminar June 3-4 at the RMC Research & Education Foundation Center in Silver Spring, MD. Hotel cutoff for discount room rates is May 10.

Strehlow, an executive training coach for Fortune 500 companies, will help attendees gain personal insight into their management style and how to use it to work effectively with others. The broad content covered in The Manager's Game Plan was mentioned by the Harvard Business Review as the most effective way to give attendees an opportunity to explore and possibly change their "action logic" so they can interpret their surroundings and react when his/her power or safety is challenged.

For more information, contact NRMCA's Jessica Moore at 1-888-846-7622, ext. 1152 or e-mail, jmoore@nrmca.org.

The following are news links compiled over the past week that may be of interest for those in the ready mixed concrete industry:

This week, the RMC Research & Education Foundation announced the release of a Guide to Specifying Concrete Performance. The Guide was formally released last month at NRMCA's Annual Convention and the CONEXPO-CON/AGG Show in Las Vegas as part of the CD "Research to Support the P2P Initiative." This report is a followup to Phase I of this project – Preparation of a Performance-Based Specification for Cast-in-Place Concrete that was published in 2006.

This guide specification was written specifically for the provisions of ACI 318-08, Building Code for Structural Concrete and is intended to address properties or requirements for ready mixed concrete based on performance. It covers requirements for concrete that are not addressed in ACI 318.

NRMCA's April Internet Spotlight, good through Friday, May 2, is Concrete Parking Areas Mean Business video (VHS Only). This 5-minute video creates a great opening or closing during presentations to owners and architects.

Regular price $30, Internet Special $15, plus shipping. Note: Please use Discount Code ISAP08 to receive the online discount.