There’s still time to get involved with the Minnesota Statewide Concrete Homes Open House!  Event sponsorships are still available and the home registration deadline has been extended!  Well over 30 homes have been posted to the chooseconcretehomes.com website and the list keeps growing every day.  Now’s your chance to showcase your involvement with the ICF industry in Minnesota.

The first-of-its-kind statewide concrete open house is scheduled to coincide with Severe Weather Awareness Week.  The event, slated for April 22-23, 2006, will highlight and promote insulated concrete form (ICF) construction around Minnesota and will include existing homes as well as those under construction.

For additional information, contact the ARM office at 952-707-1250 or go to www.chooseconcretehomes.com today!

ARM Staffer Dan Frentress, PE will train ready mix producers and others to use the new concrete pavement design guide that has been included on the MnDOT State Aid for Local Streets website which dramatically changes the specifications for concrete pavements on local streets.  The training will take place Friday, April 21 from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm at Degussa Admixtures in Eagan.

Participants in the course will learn to use the new concrete pavement design guide that has been included on the MnDOT State Aid for Local Streets website and gain insight on how to use NRMCAs Concrete Pavement Analyst Software in parking lot promotions.  John Garrity, MnDOT Bituminous Engineer will also give a presentation on asphalt specifications.

There is a $75 registration fee.  Lunch is being provided by Holcim (US) Inc.  The registration deadline is Friday, April 14, 2006.

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The ARM Board of Directors met on March 2, 2006 to act on a number of issues including appointing Mike Toomey, Aggregate Industries, as the new ARM Treasurer; reviewed priorities for 2006 including the MVST Amendment effort, ARM relations with the cement industry, ARM Training programs and exploring building a new ARM office and Training Center; support for retaining the current EQB threshold for preparation of an EAW at 40 acres; appointment of a Finance/Dues Task Force to review ARM cash flow and reserve fund levels; approved ARM becoming a local sponsor group for NRMCA Pervious Concrete Training; approved a Producer only pervious training course to be held prior to starting contractor training; reviewed the new ICF www.chooseconcretehomes.com web page and a report on the April 22-23 Statewide Concrete Homes Open House; and President Chad Sauer reported on the Executive Committee annual meeting with Lieutenant Governor Carol Molnau and Deputy MnDOT Commissioner Doug Differt

ARM lobbyists Becca Pryse and David Ewald reviewed the upcoming legislative session and ARM issues for ARM members at the annual legislative breakfast held in St. Paul on March 2.  Representative Denny McNamara (R-Hastings), the author of ARM legislation (SF1800/HF2220), reviewed his bill to preserve aggregate resources by clarifying property tax treatment of aggregate reserve property; Representative Mike Beard (R-Shakopee), the author of ARM legislation (HF1667/SF1849) reviewed his bill to increase road weight limits; and Representative Dan Dorman (R-Albert Lea) reviewed the bonding bill which will approach $1 Billion given the budget surplus announced earlier; and Betsy Parker from MnDOT reviewed the truck weight and size legislation including permits for 45 foot straight trucks and 90,000 lb. semi-trucks.  ARM is also working for passage of the MVST Amendment, eminent domain reform and theft of copper and other scrap materials from ready mix plants and aggregate properties.
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ARM has been invited to participate in the Wetland Conservation Act (WCA) Assessment Stakeholder Advisory Committee in response to a request by Governor Tim Pawlenty and the Clean Water Cabinet to identify and discuss options to do more to limit the loss of wetlands through the regulatory process.  The assessment will address: Issues listed in the Governor’s letter dated September 7, 2005 include improvements to the accounting and reporting systems for wetlands, and alternatives to the existing WCA exemptions and replacement ratios; issues identified in discussions with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that would reduce the differences between state and federal regulatory programs and other regulatory simplification measures; and opportunities to reduce the administrative burden of the WCA without compromising wetland protections and enforcement.
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Dan Drexler of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recently spoke to a meeting of the Minnesota trucking Association regarding confusion over federal rules relating to the need for truck drivers required to obtain a tank endorsement to their CDL license. Apparently Minnesota has not enforced this rule properly in the past and will be changing the way they enforce this rule in the future in accordance with the attached guidance from Drexler’s office in St. Paul.

Ready-mix concrete trucks are exempt from this rule.  The Ready mix concrete and aggregate industry would likely be confronted with enforcement issues involving trucks used to control dust or spray finished pavements, as well as maintenance trucks over 26,000 lbs. He stated that any truck with a permanently mounted tank of 119 gallons or more, that is 26,000 lbs and otherwise requires a CDL license must have the water endorsement on the driver’s license.  For more information, call the ARM office.

There is no apparent relief in sight for concrete pricing as demand is expected to continue to outpace supply, according to Edward Sullivan, chief economist for the Portland Cement Association (PCA), Skokie, IL.  Cement consumption is anticipated to reach more than 130 million metric tons this year, which is 3.7 percent more than in 2005. PCA expects to see a 2.5 percent year-to-year increase through at least 2009.

This year, nonresidential construction and public construction are expected to rise 7 percent and 4 percent, respectively, with industrial and office buildings, hospitals and water supply systems among the most active markets.  The increases are needed to offset an expected 2.2 percent decline in residential construction because rising mortgage rates will forestall single-family housing starts. Single-family housing accounted for nearly 31 million metric tons of cement consumption last year, or 26 percent of cement's total consumption.

Source:  PBF News Brief 3/2/06

Each year, truck traffic is increasing along with the number of trucks registered in Minnesota. There are more highway improvements and more routes are being paved. As a result, damage to routes from overweight trucks is a concern of state, county, city, and township transportation authorities.  The possibility of truck weight enforcement may need to increase as transportation agencies want to protect their highway investments from the heavier truck traffic. The program promotes voluntary compliance to significantly reduce damage to public roads and highways and the resulting repairs and expense due to overweight vehicles.

Who Should Attend?  Trucking entities that want to load to the maximum legal weight possible. Scale operators, farm truck owners and operators, aggregate haulers, truck manufacturers who configure truck axles and tires, township and county authorities who influence truck route weights, any company representative who influences the purchase or alteration of new trucks, out-of-state companies that need to understand and comply with Minnesota’s legal weight limits, and truck driving students.
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In 2004, the PCA’s Regional Cement  Promotion Groups and many of their promotion partners asked to re-instate the popular Professional Promoters’ Workshop (PPWS) – the only national forum offering unprecedented networking opportunities, support programs, and sharing of best practices in the local promotion of concrete.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW FOR THE 2006 EVENT… Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday April 10 -12 at the Sheraton City Center Hotel in downtown St. Louis.  The program will begin at 1:00 pm on Monday and conclude at noon on Wednesday.  The Workshop programming will again be established by those who attend… local promoters with practical know-how and expertise that attendees can incorporate into their local promotion efforts immediately.
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