December News Letter
by Robert Piceno
Download the full December news letter (.pdf)
As we prepare ourselves for the 2009 year we look back at the hurdles we had to get over and the hurdles that will present themselves in the coming New Year. Hopefully with the programs we had offered you were able to walk away with some good information and ideas on how to get over those hurdles in 2008 and how to prepare for the hurdles in 2009.
Putting 2009 in front of us we must ask what changes are looming? At a quick glance we see further advancement on Green Concrete and Sustainability, more changes that will affect the industry due to Assembly Bill 32, new specifications and requirements and a continued down economy thus making the market that much more competitive.
Now planning for the hurdles that we must prepare for in 2009… reflect back at the programs that ACI San Diego offered…
- In February we had Mr. Bruce Carter of Hanson Aggregates speak on Material Specifications. He discussed future trends for concrete and concrete material specifications. The role of Portland cement, supplementary cementious materials, aggregates, recycled materials and admixtures as they relate to sustainable building and ongoing efforts to mandate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
- In March we had two guest speakers Mark A. Bury of B.A.S.F and Christina Palpal-latoc of T.B.Pennick and Sons for our “From Gray to Green” program. While Mark touched on subjects such as Pervious concrete and Sustainable admixtures Christina talked about the LEED program and how concrete can benefit your project.
- in July “ACI 360 – Design of Slabs-on-Ground & Cost Effective Slabs on Ground” presented by Jeff Ferris of Propex Concrete Systems and Robert Waggoner of PNA was focused on the potential ways of reducing construction cost while enhancing the quality of your concrete floor or pavement.
- In September Jay Thomas and Nils fox presented “Engineering 101 for the Non-Engineers”. This program gave the audience a general understanding of how Reinforced, Post Tensioned and Precast concrete structures are built from a design perspective and more importantly, what are the basic but critical aspects of concrete structures that a contractor must understand during construction.
- In November Mr. Tom Pyle of Caltrans spoke on the new Assembly Bill 32 and how CO2 will be regulated in the concrete industry due to the Governor’s climate action team activities.
If you had attending any of these programs you will have a good start and idea of how to get over the hurdles of changes for our industry in 2009. I will once again preach as I did in September, that programs and seminars can be what you make of them and can provide an excellent opportunity to catch up on trends and to take the pulse of others in our profession. Also with programs and seminars companies are investing in the education of their employees. Employees come and go, but good employees are hard enough to find so keeping them trained helps both them and the company, as it seeks a competitive edge. I would like to encourage everyone to put as goal in 2009 to attend an ACI program so that you can see the benefits of being a member and added value that you and your company can get from these programs to present to your customers. So please come and join us and if you would like to get a good start on goal accomplishments in 2009 we’ll see you at our January program on Concrete Petrography.
We’ll see you in 2009…
January 13th—We will have a guest speaker talking about the Petrography of Concrete.
So please come and join us and if you are not a member and are interested in becoming a member and seeing the benefits the ACI has to offer please contact our San Diego office at (619) 579-1940 or email us.
Season Greetings!
