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A proposed hazardous air pollutant regulation for the cement industry undermines the balance between environmental protection and economic viability, according to statements the Portland Cement Association (PCA) issued at a series of public hearings. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced amendments to the national emission standard for hazardous air pollutants for the portland cement manufacturing industry. It requires new emission standards for mercury, total hydrocarbons, hydrochloric acid and particulate matter. The regulations, as published, are based on a new approach to setting regulatory standards.
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AggMan.com, the online counterpart of Aggregates Manager magazine, is a news and commerce web site for crushed stone, sand & gravel operators, equipment manufacturers and dealers, and providers of services and supplies to the aggregates industry, and it’s been completely redesigned to offer even more information than in the past. The revamped site features AggBeat Online, a guide to fresh industry news that’s updated every business day of the week; digital issues with exclusive online content; the award-winning Operations Illustrated department with downloadable .pdf files; ConstructionPundit, featuring breaking news from throughout the construction industry, and the all-new Aggregates Zone, an exclusive online industry manufacturers and service guide. This valuable resource boasts a broad range of major equipment and service categories.
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The Obama administration offered a temporary finance plan that could put off an overhaul of federal highway programs – and what is likely to be a politically sensitive vote to raise gas taxes – until after next year’s midterm congressional elections. The plan, described by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in private meetings with lawmakers, undercuts efforts by Rep. James Oberstar, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, to get a six-year, $450 billion transportation bill approved this year. The bill – which Oberstar and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the highways subcommittee, have been working on for more than two years – would completely revamp federal transportation programs. Oberstar had been counting on a looming October 1 deadline – that’s when the current law authorizing federal highway and transit programs expires – to force lawmakers to make tough decisions on how to pay for transportation programs over the next six years.
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Leaders of the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association hailed House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) for unveiling a six-year, $450-billion surface transportation bill dubbed, “The Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009.” The initial rollout of this bill came just one day after U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood met with Oberstar on behalf of the Obama administration, asking him to refrain from moving forward on it and instead support an 18-month extension of the current law. LaHood has stated this is necessary in order to replenish the Highway Trust Fund, which will otherwise run out as soon as the end of August. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) echoed LaHood’s call for an 18-month extension. Other senators are said to be pushing for a two-year extension. Both options would have the effect of postponing reauthorization until after the 2010 midterm elections and into the 112th Congress that will convene in January 2011.
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Nearly three years after California adopted its landmark global warming law, the state is poised to impose the nation’s first statewide carbon fee on utilities, oil refineries and other industries. The money will go toward funding a regulatory bureaucracy that will oversee the law and ensure the state lowers its greenhouse gas emissions. It would be imposed beginning in 2010 and would raise $51.2 million annually during its first three years, an amount that would level off at $36.2 million during the fifth year. The average cement plant would pay about $200,000 a year, while the average oil refinery would pay about $1.3 million a year.
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Self-healing concrete for safer, more durable infrastructure
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A concrete material developed at the University of Michigan can heal itself when it cracks. No human intervention is necessary – just water and carbon dioxide. A handful of drizzly days would be enough to mend a damaged bridge made of the new substance. Self-healing is possible because the material, dubbed engineered cement composite – or ECC, is designed to bend and crack in narrow hairlines rather than break and split in wide gaps, as traditional concrete behaves. More flexible than traditional concrete, ECC acts more like metal than glass. Traditional concrete is considered a ceramic. Flexible ECC bends without breaking. It is studded with specially-coated reinforcing fibers that hold it together. ECC remains intact and safe to use at tensile strains up to 5 percent.
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MIT engineers find way to slow concrete creep to a crawl
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MIT civil engineers have for the first time identified what causes the most frequently used building material on earth – concrete – to gradually deform, decreasing its durability and shortening the lifespan of infrastructures such as bridges and nuclear waste containment vessels. Researchers say that concrete creep is caused by the rearrangement of particles at the nano-scale. “Finally, we can explain how creep occurs,” said Professor Franz-Josef Ulm, co-author of the PNAS paper. “We can’t prevent creep from happening, but if we slow the rate at which it occurs, this will increase concrete’s durability and prolong the life of the structures. Our research lays the foundation for rethinking concrete engineering from a nanoscopic perspective.” It likely will lead to concrete infrastructure capable of lasting hundreds of years rather than tens, which will bring enormous cost-savings and decreased concrete-related CO2 emissions.
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Martin Marietta Materials acquires aggregate operations from CEMEX
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Martin Marietta Materials announced that it has acquired three quarries plus the remaining 49% interest in an existing joint venture from CEMEX. The purchase price for the assets of the three quarries plus the 49% interest was $65 million. The quarry operations are located at Fort Calhoun, Nebraska; Guernsey, Wyoming, and Milford, Utah. Guernsey and Milford are rail-connected quarries while Fort Calhoun ships material via barge on the Missouri River in addition to its local and long-haul truck market in Nebraska. The 49% interest purchased relates to the Granite Canyon, Wyoming, quarry where Martin Marietta is the operating manager. Granite Canyon is a major supplier of railroad ballast serving both the Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. Aggregate shipments in 2008, including the partial interest only in Granite Canyon, were 3.3 million tons.
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OSHA offers tips on working safely in hot weather
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Those hot, hazy days of summer have arrived. The heat can be especially harmful for those who work outdoors in direct sunlight or in hot environments, making them susceptible to heat-induced illnesses such as heat stress, heat exhaustion or the more serious heat stroke. “Protecting Workers from the Effects of Heat” and “Working Outdoors in Warm Climates” are OSHA fact sheets that explain heat stress and provide recommendations to protect workers from exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Employers and workers will find more practical tips for guarding against UV radiation in “Protecting Yourself in the Sun,” a pocket-sized card addressing various forms of skin cancer.
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PCA announces concrete technology webinar series
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The Portland Cement Association (PCA) is now making some its most popular courses available via the Internet. The webinars provide employees with the latest concrete technology information without travel expenses and while minimizing the time spent away from the job. Scheduled courses include, among others, Impact of Water on Concrete Properties – July 9, 2009; Aggregates for Use in Concrete – July 16, 2009; Hot Weather Concreting – July 23, 2009; Chemical Admixtures for Use in Concrete – August 27, 2009, and Top 10 Myths in Concrete Construction – September 3, 2009. Several of the webinars also include free downloads of PCA publications. Registration is available online at www.cement.org/learn
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Ancient Holy Land quarry uncovered, team says
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Israeli archaeologists said they had discovered the largest underground quarry in the Holy Land, dating back to the time of Jesus and containing Christian symbols etched into the walls. The 4,000-square-meter cavern, buried 10 meters beneath the desert near the ancient West Bank city of Jericho, was dug about 2,000 years ago and was in use for about half a millennium, archaeologist Adam Zertal said. The cave’s main hall, about three meters tall, is supported by some 20 stone pillars and has a variety of symbols etched into the walls, including crosses dating back to about AD 350 and Roman legionary emblems. The team believes the stones were used in buildings and churches in the region, but Zertal said further research was necessary.
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Cemex accused of failing to pay $550M in fees
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Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson sued Cemex in El Paso, alleging the company failed to pay more than $550 million in royalty fees on millions of tons of rock extracted from McKelligon Canyon. Cemex, a Mexico-based cement and concrete company with a mining operation in El Paso, and its predecessors have illegally mined rock in McKelligon Canyon since the 1940s, according to the lawsuit filed in state District Court in El Paso. While Cemex and its predecessors own the land the quarry is in, the state owns the rights to minerals in the land. Texas owns the mineral rights to more than 50 million acres statewide. Property owners are generally required to lease the mineral rights if they want to extract oil, gas, rock or other materials from the ground. Then, they pay the state royalties, or a percentage of the market value of what is removed from the land.
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Jobs picture dims and overshadows improved GDP
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Fresh signs of weakness in U.S. job markets at the end of June underlined the strains faced by a recession-struck U.S. economy that contracted slightly less in the first quarter than previously thought. The Labor Department said the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits last week jumped unexpectedly by 15,000 to a higher-than-forecast, seasonally-adjusted total of 627,000. The worse-than-expected jobs data outweighed a Commerce Department report showing gross domestic product, the gauge of total output within U.S. borders, contracted at a 5.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter instead of 5.7 percent.
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March U.S. cement shipment totals lower than last year
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Total shipments of portland and blended cement in the United States and Puerto Rico were about 5.3 million mt in March 2009, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. This was almost 28 percent lower compared with shipments for March 2008. Year-to-date 2009 shipments were 14.3 million mt, down almost 28 percent from the same period in 2008.
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Construction employment picture slightly hopeful
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The construction employment picture brightened slightly with 18 states adding construction jobs from April to May according to a new analysis of the latest data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). However, construction employment overall continued to decline, noted Ken Simonson, the chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. “Projects funded by the stimulus legislation probably mitigated the overall downturn in construction jobs in May,” Simonson said, noting however that the BLS data do not separately identify ’stimulus’ hires. “While the stimulus is starting to help, it is not keeping pace with overall declines in construction activity in most places.” Compared to construction employment this time last year, the current jobs picture is bleaker, Simonson said.
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Mining after-tax profits slow downward slide
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First quarter 2009 unadjusted after-tax losses for mining corporations with assets of $50 million and over totaled $17.8 billion, down $29.4 (+-0.1) billion from the $11.6 billion after-tax profits recorded in the first quarter of 2008. Compared with fourth quarter 2008 after-tax losses of $24.8 billion, first quarter 2009 after-tax losses were $7.0 (+-0.1) billion smaller. Unadjusted sales for the first quarter of 2009 totaled $44.9 billion, down $13.4 (+-0.4) billion from the $58.3 billion recorded in the first quarter of 2008, and down $9.0 (+-0.3) billion from fourth quarter 2008 sales of $53.9 billion. After-tax profits per dollar of sales averaged -39.7 cents for the quarter, compared with 19.9 cents for the first quarter of 2008, and -46.1 cents for the fourth quarter of 2008.
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Godwin Pumps earns South Jersey Top 25 honors
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Godwin Pumps was recognized by the Philadelphia Business Journal and the Rowan University – Rohrer College of Business as one of the 25 fastest growing private companies in South Jersey. With a 31.14% increase in revenue from 2006 to 2008, the 23rd-ranked Godwin Pumps was the largest company on the list in both employee size and annual revenue, and also boasts the greatest business longevity.
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Mannvit Engineering opens new research facility to study alkali aggregate reactivity
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An International Centre of Research and Applied Technology for Alkali Aggregate Reactions (AAR) has been established at the laboratory of Mannvit Engineering, in Iceland. The founder of the Centre, Prof. Borge Johannes Wigum, has carried out research and consulting regarding AAR for the past two decades. The laboratory employs a staff of experts in the fields of concrete, aggregate, geological and geotechnical engineering. The Centre operates in close cooperation with a group of international experts in AAR, representing leading universities, research organizations and companies in North America, Europe and Asia.
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