Industry News

• Work can continue on Calif.'s $68B high-speed rail project
  Site surveys, geological testing and design work can continue for California's $68 billion high-speed rail project after a judge denied a request by a group of farmers for an injunction to halt work. The California High-Speed Rail Authority "acted reasonably and in good faith" in observing the state's environmental rules, said Timothy Frawley, Sacramento County superior court judge. The case will be heard in the spring, and construction is expected to start in July. Google/The Associated Press (11/17)     

• Fla. DOT advances $675M express lanes project
  Construction is set to start early in 2014 on the Florida Department of Transportation's $675 million upgrade to Interstate 75 and the Palmetto expressway. The project involves the addition of express lanes along a 27-mile stretch of the expressway and the erection of sound barriers. The design-build project will be financed from state funds. Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) (11/16)     

• Other News

• Bids sought for 2 hotel projects at Boston convention center
  American City Business Journals/Boston/BBJRE Daily blog (11/15)     

Technology & Trends

• Concrete product among top 10 building materials for 2013
  Using CarbonCure's carbon-sequestration technology in Atlas' concrete masonry unit-block has caused the product to be listed on BuildingGreen.com's Top 10 building products for 2013. The product's use of the technology "improves their strength, reduces the amount of portland cement required, and speeds curing," according to this piece. BuildingGreen.com/GreenSpec blog (11/13)     

• Concrete crushing tech: Turning debris into reusable building material
  Transforming demolition debris from the Dallas Fort Worth Connector project into usable building material not only saves the state money but has a positive environmental impact. NorthGate Constructors' concrete-crushing plant chews up 200 tons of debris per hour and has saved more than $2 million on the Connector, said Kristen Schropp, spokeswoman for NorthGate, and was reused as road bed for other projects. Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas) (11/17)     

Sustainability & Green Building

• LEED v4 aims to "push the envelope"
  The proposed LEED v4 rating system from the U.S. Green Building Council has been criticized for its credits that encourage chemical ingredient labeling of building materials. However, Scot Horst, senior vice president of the USGBC LEED program, said at last week's Greenbuild that the standards would promote transparency in the green-building process, and Rick Federizzi of USGBC says "we are right." SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Leadership (11/19)     

Leadership & HR

• CEOs should follow customers in the pursuit of change
  Much has been debated about how fast or slow a CEO must move to bring about change, writes Michael Schrage, a research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business. However, that is not the correct question. Rather, one has to ask, how quickly are the customers willing to change, he writes. Harvard Business Review online (11/14)     

• Other News

• How to teach your workers to be more upbeat
  SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Leadership (11/14)     

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by Concrete SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• Concrete: A better way to store solar heat (EarthTechling.com)

• Calif.'s $68B high-speed rail: The "project of the century" (Los Angeles Times)

• Pervious concrete key to award-winning Ikea project in Canada (Journal of Commerce (Canada))

• Slide show: Calif.'s Bay Bridge construction in progress (The Huffington Post)

• Designers, engineers weigh in on 2012's 25 "coolest" buildings (Business Insider)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Policy Watch

• Budget deal looks promising, leadership says
  Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama are promising to act quickly to avert a "fiscal cliff" and reach a budget compromise. An agreement for a two-phase plan is likely to trim some entitlement programs and increase some taxes. "This isn't something we're going to wait until the last day of December to get it done," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. National Journal (11/16), The Wall Street Journal (11/16)     

ACI News

• Get Certified from ACI!
  ACI offers 17 certification programs designed to form a minimum qualification for personnel employed within the concrete construction industry. Certification examinations and optional training courses are conducted through an international network of over 100 Local Sponsoring Groups. Since 1980, ACI has administered exams to over 350,000 individuals, with over 90,000 certifications currently maintained by ACI. Learn more and get certified.     

• Join the Concrete Legacy Society
  The Concrete Legacy Society, established in 2008, is a special group of individuals passionate about the concrete industry who have chosen to make a planned gift to ACI or the ACI Foundation. These donors are helping to ensure that future generations will have access to continued advancements in concrete knowledge -- advancements that ACI has been providing since its inception in 1904. Learn more.     

SmartQuote

Nothing is too small to know, and nothing is too big to attempt." --William Cornelius Van Horne, Canadian railway executive