The Triad Award winner for 2014 is the team that built the Peña Boulevard replacement project leading to Denver International Airport: the City and County of Denver and Castle Rock Concrete Construction. The existing road suffered from alkali-silica reactivity and was replaced with an optimized concrete mix containing portland-limestone cement and 20% fly ash. This is the second year for the Triad Award, which recognizes a great team that built a sustainable publicly owned project using innovation and demonstrating industry leadership. This team and three runners-up will be recognized at the 2015 World of Concrete and during a luncheon on Thursday, Feb. 5. The Triad Awards are sponsored by Holcim.
Diesel Engine Burnout
We recently got a call from Hank de Carbonel with the California Concrete Pumpers Alliance. He is working with the Alliance for California Business to get diesel particulate filters (DPF) removed from truck and bus engines. “Our issue is that DPF systems, both retrofit and OEM, are unsafe and unreliable and should be stopped,” he said. “New engines from 2007 forward must have DPFs, regardless of what state they operate in. These devices are causing fires and costing owners thousands of dollars to try to keep operating.” The ACB has filed an injunction, pending a study and report on the mechanical reliability and safety issues associated with these devices.
Concrete Pavement Promotion
Nigel Parkes, executive vice president of PNA Construction Technologies, hosted a meeting recently to discuss promotion and design tools for concrete pavement — mostly looking at parking lots — and how the concrete industry can collaborate on this effort. Many of the industry’s leading concrete pavement promoters were present and the general feeling was that industrial parking lots provide the greatest opportunity. There are many marketing efforts among industry associations and manufacturers but they often lack coordination. Establishing local teams to approach owners and designers could push concrete to top of mind for specifiers . The next meetings will be held at the World of Concrete. Let me know if you’re interested in participating.
Goodbye to Cylinders
Concrete foundations contractor Dennis Purinton, Purinton Builders, East Granby, Conn., called recently to discuss cold weather concreting practices and ACI 306, Guide to Cold Weather Concreting. We also discussed the problem with poorly handled field-cured concrete cylinders not being representative of the concrete in the forms and the havoc created by low-strength breaks. He proposes doing away with field-cured cylinders — might be a tough sell with ACI members!
