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The input prices of steel, cement and lumber are all rebounding from recession lows, but overall inflation is not budging.

Revisions to UL Design No. D982 in the UL Fire Resistance Directory, based on recent fire tests, have heated up long-standing differences between structural-steel interests and fire-protection suppliers and installers about the amount of sprayed-on fire-protection material needed for structural-steel floor assemblies.

While most come to the annual World of Concrete trade show in Las Vegas Jan 17-20 to see the latest concrete equipment and products, more than a few of the over 50,000 attendees are there for the spirit of competition. 

With signs of improvement in global equipment sales, including a few bright spots in the U.S., the equipment market saw consolidation and new developments in autonomous equipment in 2016.

A recent series of dynamic tests demonstrates that there are several types and doses of steel-fiber reinforcement that can be used in performance-based seismic design of coupling beams—headers that link openings in concrete shear walls—to reduce rebar congestion.

Moving from the lab to the field, a highway off-ramp bridge under construction in Seattle features memory-retaining metal rods and bendable concrete designed to provide the structure with flexibility sufficient to withstand a major seismic event.