Entries for 2025

Written By: Jim Klinger, Concrete Expert Question:  We have an opportunity to bid a portion of the reinforced concrete scope on an upcoming industrial/manufacturing plant and adjacent support building project (e.g. parking garage and two steel office buildings) which is slated to break ground next month. The Owner is releasing the work in phases (aka "bid packages") driven by str...

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Written By: Joe Whiteman, CSP, CHST, Director of Safety Services August is recognized as National Traffic Awareness Month—a timely reminder of the critical role traffic safety plays on and around our jobsites. For concrete contractors, managing traffic hazards extends beyond the open road; many of our most significant risks occur where public roadways meet active construction zones. The m...

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Greater Degree of Collaboration on Next Generation of Blended Cement Written By: Michael Hernandez, Technical Director Excited to announce that ASCC has already received agreement from more than ten of the largest cement manufacturers in the U.S. to openly communicate, through ASCC, with member contractors about any future blended cement introductions. Each new blended cement will be unique ...

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From: Phil Diekemper, Executive Director – PRO: An ACI Center of Excellence for Advancing Productivity  Poorly coordinated and/or incomplete design drawings result in inaccurate bids, and they force contractors to complete the needed coordination and design through multiple requests for information (RFIs). The disjointed process leads to delays, added costs, change orders, and a gene...

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Tom Pelo, Jeff Huff, Tarek Khan, and John Luciano (Retired) Master Builders Solutions Admixtures US LLC – June 2025 Introduction Given the recent interest in low-embodied carbon concrete (LECC), there are new cementitious materials, multiple supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) and admixture chemistries available to reduce the embodied carbon content of concrete. For example, Typ...

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Jim Klinger, Concrete Construction Specialist The Slab Newsletter July 2025 Question:  We just returned to our office from a mandatory project kick-off meeting with major project stakeholders, including the Owner (a well-known, high-profile winemaker), the architect, the structural engineer, and the general contractor (GC). Based on a few of the meeting discussion topics, we now find ou...

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Jim Klinger, Concrete Construction Specialist The Slab Newsletter June 2025 Full Disclosure: On 18 May 2025, Dr. Ward Malisch--The Original ASCC Hotline Operator--passed away after a long battle with cancer. The following morning, a memorial tribute summarizing and showcasing Ward's extensive concrete industry accomplishments--including his significant contributions to the ASCC--was publ...

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Mike Hernandez, Technical Director The Slab Newsletter June 2025 ASCC contractors may need to revisit material prices considering recent tariffs, including the 50% tariff on steel announced last month. In the near term, rebar prices have been rising since January. From June 2–9, four major rebar manufacturers raised prices by $60/ton. If bids were submitted this spring and not yet awar...

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Jim Klinger, Concrete Construction Specialist The Slab Newsletter May 2025 Question: We have been asked by the general contractor (GC) to place cementitious slurry backfill in a MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) trench containing a group of 2-inch diameter CPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride) pipes. Our scope of work is to pump, place, and finish cementitious slurry to cover CPVC pipin...

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Mike Hernandez, Technical Director The Voice Newsletter May 2025 Several weeks while attending the Annual Conference of the Design & Construction Excellence Exchange (The DCX) it hit me that ASCC Contractors should strive for a Culture of Quality like the Culture of Safety has been developed for the last few decades. Why? Let’s start with safety. Surprisingly, two ENR top 20 con...

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