Playground Logs Win with Concrete

Concrete’s versatility and beauty stole the show in the recent 2008 Decorative Concrete Awards sponsored by Cemstone, a leading supplier of ready-mixed, engineered, and decorative concrete headquartered in Minnesota.

Grand prize for the commercial exterior category was awarded to ThemeScapes, Inc. of Forest Lake, Minn., for a tree-themed playground in Eden Prairie, Minn.

The centerpiece of the playground was a 15-foot high simulated hollow tree featuring a simulated log slide, bridge, and artificial climbing rock.  In addition, there are stepping rocks, balancing poles, a log crawl-through and an independent climbing rock.  All of the tree logs and posts are built from steel reinforced concrete plaster made from Spec Mix and sculpted and textured by ThemeScapes craftsmen.

“The project displays a level of detail in the forms and textures of concrete work that illustrates careful craftsmanship and design excellence,” the judges said. “The entire playground holds together because of attention to detail from railings to rock walls.” 

The 2008 Decorative Concrete Awards recognizes excellence in the design and use of decorative concrete in residential and commercial construction. The winners were selected from nearly 60 contractor entries that featured Cemstone-supplied colored, stamped, and stained concrete.
More information at www.cemstone.com

November PPI: Steel Declines Sharply

Steel prices decreased 9.0% from October to November for the third consecutive monthly decline, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index. Asphalt prices were down slightly (0.5%), while lumber decreased by 1.8% from October. Concrete prices increased 1%.

During the last year, steel prices have increased 21.3%, and asphalt prices are up 44.8%. Concrete prices increased  4.6% over the same periods, and lumber prices declined  6.6%.

Source: Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. PCA provides this information to aid in the promotion of concrete and cement-based products.
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Contact Ninab Maradkel

Sustainable Leadership Awards Presented

PCA representatives presented Najib Fares, P.E., with a 2008 PCA Sustainable Leadership Award on December 4 at the North Central Texas Branch of the Texas Public Works Association’s annual Christmas luncheon.   Fares is the infrastructure manager of the Fort Worth Transportation & Public Works Department.

Matt W. Singel. P.E., of the Cement Council of Texas presented the award.   Fares was recognized for implementing an innovative, cost-saving and sustainable annual roadway rebuilding program that incorporates full-depth reclamation (FDR) with portland cement. Fort Worth’s street maintenance program has saved tax payers millions of dollars by recycling the city’s deteriorated and failed asphalt roadways with cement.

As a major tenet in its ongoing commitment to green building and excellence in leadership, the PCA Sustainable Leadership Awards recognized local leaders in eight cities who have enacted policies or completed projects that promote sustainable development through the use of concrete- and cement-based products.

Pictured above: Najib Fares, P.E. (center), Matt Singel (left), and Jim Amick, president, North Central Texas branch of the Texas Public Works Association (right). (Tom Pennington, Photography)
To learn more about the Awards and the winners, visit www.cement.org/newsroom.

Concrete Construction Honors CTLGroup Engineer

John Gajda, a principal engineer at CTLGroup, has been honored by the editors of Concrete Construction as one of the “Five Who Influenced Us in 2008.”  Heralding Gajda as “our country’s mass concrete expert,” the magazine reported that his expertise and knowledge was so vast that “it's hard to find a mass concrete project in the United States that he hasn't been involved.”

Gajda recently authored the PCA publication Mass Concrete for Buildings and Bridges, and currently is working on a related publication with others for ACI.
More at ConcreteConstruction.net

Web Edges Out Seminars as Top Information Source

On a scale of 1 to 5, please rate the importance of the
following information sources in keeping you informed about
trends, technology, and new products in the construction
industry (5 is very important; 1 is not very important):

> Trade shows and Conferences: 3.20

> Seminars and classes: 3.63

> Trade magazines: 2.97

> Web sites and other digital content: 3.64

> Books and printed materials: 3.27

2008 North American Cement Industry Annual Yearbook: This is the starting place for the historical perspective on the U.S. and Canadian construction and cement industries.  The Yearbook provides long-term historical data tables and graphs for indicators most relevant to the cement industry.  Sections cover economic activity, cement consumption and supply, infrastructure, industry operating characteristics, and Canadian and international trends.  Detailed historical data are provided on construction activity, company rankings, cement trade, and energy consumption (ER385; $175; PDF only; free to PCA members).
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The Long, Hard Road: A History of Concrete Paving in Pictures: With the development of concrete roads came a whole new way of life for Americans, providing dependable transportation routes for both social and commercial purposes. This compendium of 700 images depicts the history of concrete paving in the U.S. from the first concrete roads to modern expressways. The images, searchable by subject, geographic location, and year, are offered in both low-resolution and high-resolution versions, making them appropriate for either slide presentations or printed publications (DVD026; $35.00, less discount).
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The Thermal and Radiative Characteristics of Concrete Pavements in Mitigating Urban Heat Island Effects: The main objective of this research study was to provide understanding, supporting documentation, and tools on how pavement designs and materials selection contribute to surface and subsurface temperature fluctuations. This objective was achieved through two focus areas that outlined the scope of work of this research: thermal properties and reflectance evaluation, and heat absorption and transfer modeling (SN2969; no charge).
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Guide to Full-Depth Reclamation (FDR) With Cement: FDR is a roadway rehabilitation process that recycles the materials from deteriorated asphalt pavement and, with the addition of portland cement, creates a new stabilized base. The addition of a new concrete or bituminous riding surface completes the FDR process, providing a new roadway structure using recycled materials from the failed pavement. This document describes the step-by-step process, from initial site investigation to mix design and construction. A recommended construction specification for FDR is included (EB234; $8.00, less discount).
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Soil-Cement for Erosion Protection of Flood-Control Levee in Phoenix: Four-page case study chronicles the use of soil-cement to protect a 3-mile-long flood-control levee in Phoenix, Ariz., from erosion during overtopping events. The new levee is founded on competent soil and includes an earthen structural fill core mantled by 9-foot-wide soil-cement armor. The levee provides flood control for a 4-milelong highway section, which was constructed concurrently with the levee. A total of 114,200 yd3 of soil-cement were placed between December 2006 and October 2007 at an average unit price of $35.50 per yd3 (PL662; printed copies are available in packs of 25 for $20.00; PDF is free).
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Soil-Cement Solutions: Water Resources Applications Resource Notebook: This three-ring binder provides the engineer, owner, and contractor a one-stop source for the most current information covering soil-cement streambank erosion protection, upstream slope protection for dams and reservoirs, in-stream grade control structures, reservoir and channel liners, and more. The notebook includes a soil-cement guide for water resources applications, a laboratory handbook, technical papers and reports, answers to frequently asked questions, and several case studies (SP385; $50.00, no discount).
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