Aggregate Committee Co-Chair Don Vry and Executive Director Fred Corrigan met with members of AGC of Minnesota’s Aggregate Committee on February 28 to discuss common legislative issues impacting aggregate mining and movement in Minnesota.

AGC and ARM are seeking to better define aggregate materials that are subject to the aggregate tax in counties imposing the tax. The basis of the aggregate tax was originally to tax materials from commercial aggregate pits that used the public roads for delivery of the material.  The tax was not intended to include materials moving within a project.  AGC members have recently had counties assessing the tax on projects after the fact through an audit of the project, leaving the contractor in the position being responsible for paying a tax that had not been anticipated in the bid process.

ARM and AGC will move forward in seeking a better definition of “commercial aggregate pit” and will attempt to exclude materials moved within a project or from project to project. The associations will also continue to work together on the issue of defining “borrow” materials including attempting to remove the term “borrow’ from statute entirely. The two organizations will also work together to support efforts to simplify and clarify property tax assessments of aggregate property in Minnesota.

The ARM Parking Lots and Local Roads Committee met on February 21 and approved a Parking Lot Promotions plan for 2005.  This aggressive plan will include ready mix producers and associates working together to increase the market share for concrete parking lots in Minnesota. The plan focuses on four groups – Minnesota Ready Mix Concrete producers, Property and Project Owners, Designers/Specifiers, and Contractors.

The new NRMCA Concrete Pavement Analyst (PCA) software has made presentations to all of these groups more organized and the committee will be working with committee members and ARM members to reach out to these groups in 2005.  ARM members are encouraged to attend Parking Lot and local Streets Committee meeting held monthly.  Presenters are available to make presentations with ARM members to prospective parking lot consumers.
(Click Here to View Plan)

Last week in Cincinnati, the International Code Council (ICC) approved a proposal to modify design tables for concrete basement walls in the International Building Code (IBC) that will result in more economical concrete wall construction. Lionel Lemay of NRMCA worked with Ed Sauter of the Concrete Foundation Association (CFA) and code expert Jim Messersmith of the Portland Cement Association (PCA) provided the technical background for the proposal.

The new code provision creates a concrete wall design table separate from existing tables that combine both concrete and masonry. The resulting designs take full advantage of concrete strength for unreinforced concrete walls and reinforcement location for reinforced concrete walls. In the past, concrete walls were limited by hollow concrete masonry strength and dimensions. The new table also includes designs for 10-feet walls which were previously not included in the code. In addition, a subsequent proposal from another group that would have severely limited the use of the new table was defeated.
Source: NRMCA

To view a copy of the code change proposal submitted by NRMCA, click here
or contact Lionel Lemay at LLemay@nrmca.org or 1-847-918-7101.

There are five counties – Itasca, Meeker, Stearns, Mille Lacs, and Olmsted- in which the aggregate resource maps and data are in progress at this time. The Itasca county map has been released for public comment and will be finalized soon. The MN Department of Natural Resources plans to complete the remaining four counties in the next 6 to 8 months.

Seven additional counties have requested this work: Aitkin, Kandiyohi, Becker, Swift, Yellow Medicine, Beltrami and St. Louis county. The list is presented in the sequence that we plan to do the work, based upon the date each county passed a board resolution. Aitkin, Beltrami, Becker, and St. Louis are very large counties, in terms of square miles, and will require much more time than the average-sized county to complete.

This status update was provided by Dennis Martin at the MN Department of Natural Resources.  It was current through February 25, 2005.

With sustainable development becoming more mainstream in today’s construction industry, Midwest field promoter Brad Burke reports that he and his colleagues are finding that numerous municipalities are encouraging National Accounts such as Lowe’s, Wal-Mart and others to consider sustainable construction practices. Due to concerns over stormwater management, several communities are making strong suggestions that these National Accounts consider pervious concrete on their proposed projects.

NRMCA’s field promoters have been contacted directly by these city officials after these officials viewed various links on NRMCA’s website.

Source: NRMCA

For more information, contact NRMCA’s Michelle Barringer at 1-888-846-7622, ext. 1143 or by e-mail, mbarringer@nrmca.org

Margaret Mills, ARM Communications and Residential Promotions Director, recently gave a presentation on ARM’s ICF promotions as well as the Concrete Home Specialist program at the Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete Association’s annual convention.

The Concrete Home Specialist designation, which has been receiving national attention, was created with the idea of identifying qualified concrete home builders who are interested in forming a partnership with both the ICF and ready mix industries.  To date, seven builders have received the designation.  The ICF Committee is confident that the number of Concrete Home Specialists will reach 25 by year’s end.

Notice and Opportunity to Repair is a statutorily prescribed process whereby homeowners and builders work to correct residential construction defects before the attorney’s, insurance companies and litigation get in the way.

Too often, homeowners don’t have a clear process to compel a builder to address their problems without initiating litigation. Builders often are barred from entering and fixing a problem due to insurance policy restrictions (particularly duty to defend for voluntary fixes) and unknown future liability. NOR is a communications and repair process. It may also serve as a cooling period before third parties become involved.

NOR is a national effort to bring timeliness and communication between the parties into the construction defect litigation arena. The need for NOR is driven in large part by the general liability insurance crisis.

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Source: Builders Association of the Twin Cities

John Rashid, an architect from Minnesota, has again proposed a code change (RB 129) to mandate the use of view ports in ICFs, this time to the International Residential Code. The ICFA, its members and ICFA's allies the United Brotherhood of Carpenters (UBC) and Aggregate & Ready-Mixed Association of Minnesota (ARM) successfully defeated the same proposed rule change this past March to the Minnesota Residential Code.

The proposal calls for the mandatory use of two "view ports," a piece of PVC pipe with a glass or plastic lens on the end, to be field installed on every 4 foot section of ICF block and panel. Marketed at the cost of $3 each, the view ports would increase the cost of ICFs and job site labor dramatically. "With many ICF projects using hundreds and even thousands of blocks and panels, this could seriously affect the price of using ICFs. If successful, the proposed rule change could mean the end of the ICF industry," says Joseph Lyman, Executive Director of the ICFA.

The inspiration for the view ports came from an architect (Rashid) in northern Minnesota that recently experienced a poor ICF install during the installation of a 400 square foot addition. Although no specifics about the job were revealed during the Minnesota hearing, it is known that the contractor failed to use proper methods of consolidating the concrete in the wall, and potentially the wrong design mix.

Source: ICFA Informer