Displaying items by tag: construction

North America: The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute announced the winners of its 2025 Design Awards for supply of concrete to challenging projects in the past year, FCP News has reported. Dukane Precast’s 43 Green Phase 1 supply project in Chicago, Illinois, won the All-Precast Concrete Solution Award. Unistress’ Teterboro ATCT supply project in Teterboro, New Jersey, won the Building Information Modelling Award. GATE Precast’s Baptist Hospital Campus supply project in Pensacola, Florida, won the Sustainable Design Award.

Kyrgyzstan: UK-based Concrete Canvas has announced plans to build a 5Mm²/yr concrete fabric plant in Osh Region. Concrete fabric is a concrete-containing, flexible, waterproof geosynthetic composite mat, developed for use in irrigation canals.

Kyrgyz Cabinet of Ministers Chair Adylbek Kasymaliev said “After the launch of the plant, instead of 100t of concrete, we will be able to use only 5t of this material, while achieving the expected result and significantly increasing the speed of installation.”

UK: Scotland-based Akela Ground Engineering has inaugurated a new plant in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Irish Construction News has reported that the plant will produce its ABeam precast concrete beam systems. The move purportedly aims to help overcome a local shortage of housing, thanks to Abeam systems’ rapid installation capabilities.

Spain: The National Association of the Precast Concrete Industry (ANDECE) has reported a 9% year-on-year rise in the total number of projects to use precast concrete during 2024. The association attributed this to ‘positive trends’ in construction activity during the final four months of the year.

Malaysia: Urban Empire Builders says that it has commissioned a new precast concrete plant to serve the on-going Kuching Urban Transportation System public infrastructure project in Kuching, Sarawak. The Sarawak Tribune newspaper has reported that the plant will supply precast concrete elements for construction of the 12.3km-long Red Line railway, of which 6.3km will be elevated.

Israel: Cemex has supplied concrete for the construction of the residential W Tower in Tel Aviv, including 3800m³ of ready-mix concrete in the building’s foundations. Noticias Financieras News has reported that Cemex developed a special concrete mix for use in the 156m-high building, and replaced conventional pumps and cranes with a third-floor fixed pump during construction.

UK: Construction firm Skanska is using 3000 planks of precast concrete made with 50% ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) for the upcoming 105 Victoria Street commercial development in Westminster, dubbed ‘London’s most sustainable office building.’ Engineering firm Laing O’Rourke will design and produce the planks at its Worksop, Nottinghamshire, concrete plant. Construction Management Magazine News has reported that the 105 Victoria Street building will include 2000m² of green space and terraces.

Singapore: A team at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has developed a new method for 3D printing concrete that incorporates steam and CO₂ from industrial by-products into the concrete mix. The team says that the process enhances the strength of concrete, while reducing the total volume used in construction.

UAE: Blackwell 3D Construction has launched a self-funded feasibility study to identify suitable locations for a large-scale 3D-printed residential construction project. Dow Jones Institutional News has reported that Blackwell 3D Construction is collaborating with companies in the Gulf concrete sector to develop a custom 3D printer for the project.

India: The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has released new guidelines for ready-mix concrete plants situated in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The Free Press Journal newspaper has reported that the new guidelines require new static plants within municipal limits to obtain special MPCB approval, while new and existing plants outside of municipal limits must establish a 500m buffer zone. New ready-mix concrete plants at building sites must have a minimum project area of 2000m² and existing ones must fully enclose their operations. Plants at building sites must dismantle their operations within a month after completing 70% of works at the site. Operators of ready-mix concrete plants in MMR must additionally provide new bank guarantees in favour of the MPCB.

The move purportedly aims to reduce air pollution in Mumbai. 11 of 26 monitoring stations in the city recorded poor air quality on 2 December 2024. Poor air quality indicates a high concentration of PM2.5 or PM10 inhalable particulate matter, which are present in smog.