UK: Concrete admixtures developer Oscrete has expanded its concrete testing laboratory and doubled its trials service for customers. The expanded facility features additional mixing bays, wet production space and a new product development area.
Oscrete Technical and Development Manager Dean Clarke said “In addition to evaluating our admixtures with customers’ materials, the lab also plays a key role in evaluating cements and additives that help reduce the carbon footprint.”
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.”
New Zealand: Holcim New Zealand has received permission to build and operate a new ready-mix concrete batching plant in Dunedin. Local press has reported that the site will feature two silos: a 67t vertical cement silo and a 50t horizontal silo for supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs).
