Displaying items by tag: US

US: Geneva Pipe and Precast has commenced full-scale operations at its new precast concrete pipe and manhole plant at its Salt Lake City site in Utah. The new plant features Austria-based Schlüsselbauer Technology’s Exact 2500 dry cast concrete production system and Transexact crane robot, Germany-based MBK Maschinenbau’s cage welding machine and Advanced Concrete Technologies’ batching plant.

The Financial Times newspaper has reported that parent company Northwest Pipe Company President and CEO Scott Montross said “The demand for high-quality infrastructure products continue to grow, and we are committed to expanding our precast manufacturing capabilities.”

US: Construction firm PNK Group has unveiled a 111,000m² manufacturing, warehousing and distribution facility in McDonough, Georgia, that showcases its new proprietary precast building system. The system enabled PNK Group to rapidly assemble the facility from high-precision reinforced precast concrete structural frame and other standardised elements, produced at its plants in Georgia and Pennsylvania.

US: Knife River has completed its acquisition of North Dakota-based ready-mix concrete, aggregates and asphalt producer Strata Corporation for US$454m. Strata Corporation employs 900 seasonal workers and commands 28 ready-mix plants, three asphalt plants and 30 years of aggregates reserves, supported by a logistics fleet of seven trains and 400 railcars. It also includes a contracting services division. Strata Corporation will merge into Knife River's Central Region operations.

US: Illinois-based Point Ready Mix will launch new branding for its concrete mixer trucks featuring the 988 Lifeline phone number and the suicide prevention slogan You Matter Big Time!! from April 2025. The message jointly targets workers at building sites and the general public, especially those using main roads.

Local press has reported that Point Ready Mix President David LaPointe said "Our trucks are travelling locally all the time. In a way, we’re interacting with everybody driving through traffic. There could be a person sitting at a stoplight who needs to see it." He continued “The construction industry has been hit especially hard by this dilemma. They’re finding it’s a combination of long, unpredictable hours and time away from home. There are many struggles in construction. Most families know somebody [affected by suicide]."

US: Representatives of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) have testified before a congressional appropriations subcommittee that their organisations are investigating ways of incorporating ‘advanced construction methods’ into their operations. These methods include mass timber construction, as well as the use of carbon fibre-reinforced polymers, geosynthetics, ‘high-performance’ concrete mixes and composite materials. The stated aims of the investigations are to improve resilience, reduce costs and accelerate construction timelines.

NAVFAC Chief Engineer Keith Hamilton said that NAVFAC is currently piloting hybrid mass timber exterior envelope construction, including cross-laminated timber walls and diaphragms, at a childcare facility for Navy families. USACE Director of Military Programmes Dave Morrow said that USACE has designed a barracks featuring mass timber structural elements.

US: The concrete industry has lost ‘legendary’ leader Ed Sauter, who died on 21 February 2025 at the age of 76. Sauter served as executive director of the Concrete Foundations Association and the Tilt-Up Concrete Association from 1992 - 2014, and has featured among Concrete Construction Online’s 10 Most Influential People in the Concrete Industry.

20 year-long business partner James Baty described Sauter as “Highly regarded throughout the domestic concrete industry as a passionate, trustworthy and engaging servant-leader, friend and mentor to a great many who were privileged to work alongside him or be educated by him.”

US: UK-based Breedon Group has acquired Missouri-based roadbuilding firm Lionmark for US$241m. The group says that the acquisition will double its US revenues. The Daily Mail newspaper has reported that Breedon Group currently faces a construction sector ‘slowdown’ in its home market of the UK.

Breedon Group first entered the US through its acquisition of ready-mix concrete producer BMC Enterprises in March 2024.

US: CarbonQuest has secured US$20m in funding to scale its modular CO₂ capture system. ESG Today News has reported that the funds will help the company to explore additional markets. It currently has systems deployed at six sites in New York City, where it supplies captured CO₂ to local precast concrete producers for sequestration in concrete blocks.

US: Titan America has awarded BCMI Corp. a contract to supply its cloud-based despatch system across its ready-mix concrete operations, including Titan Florida and Titan Virginia Ready Mix. By integrating the system with its existing suite of BCMI products, Titan America aims to increase its efficiency and data flow and streamline order placement in order to meet growing demand.

BCMI Corp. says that this deal more than doubles its installed despatch systems footprint.

US: Australia-based FBR has supplied its Hadrian X robotic bricklayer for the construction of homes in Charlotte County, Florida. Local press has reported that FBR partner CRH Ventures supplied concrete blocks for the project. Hadrian X is able to lay 300 blocks per hour.

FBR’s Hadrian X previously built nine houses in Charlotte County and Lee County in 2024.