In a furious hourlong competition that set two dozen teams from around the world against each other in a test of masonry skills, Scott Tuttle of Quick Trowel Masonry in Clearfield, Utah, was crowned champion of Spec Mix Bricklayer 500 competition at World of Concrete in Las Vegas. Tuttle’s prizes included the keys to a brand new 2016 Ford F-250 XLT 4x4 pickup truck.
Citing pent-up demand, Portland Cement Association chief economist Edward Sullivan say he expects to see a 5% growth in portland cement consumption in 2016, with a further 5.7% growth of growth in 2017. This is an improvement over the growth rate from 2015, which was only 3.5%.
Like modern chefs tweaking classic techniques, concrete industry insiders are experimenting anew with ingredients—additives and aggregates such as fly ash, slag and quarry waste—and “plating,” which includes methods such as two-lift paving and real-time smoothness monitoring.
Two Israeli marine biologists have joined that country’s start-up craze, using $1 million in new investor cash to develop their innovative, environmentally friendly concrete for marine infrastructure and expand their company, ECOncrete Ltd., into the booming U.S. coastal-upgrade market.
If not for a family trip to his parents’ native Greece in 1997, when he was a civil engineering student in Germany, concrete mix master Andreas Tselebidis would have missed his life’s calling.
Cross-laminated timber panels are becoming commonplace in small buildings in continental Europe, but the technology now is reaching new heights in the U.K.