Blog

  • WIC Week 2020 Spotlights

    06 Mar 2020 10:21 AM | Deleted user

    Thank you to all of the amazing women that interviewed with us for our WIC Week 2020 Spotlights across our social media platforms!

    We interviewed (from top left to right) Supriya Gupte, NCCACI Vice President, Yvonne Nelson, NCCACI Past President, Jennifer Rouchard Vogel, NCCACI Speaker, Marisol Tsui-Chang, NCCACI Member, and Keila Lombardozzi, NCCACI Executive Director. 


    The work you do for the area and the chapter is absolutely appreciated! 

    Check out our Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn to read more about these strong women leaders in our area!

  • Olson Engineering NDE User Seminar March 10 - 12, 2020

    25 Feb 2020 1:59 PM | Deleted user

    Olson Engineering is doing a 3-Day Seminar covering NDE and Geophysics on March 10, 11 and 12, 2020 in Rockville, MD and we wanted to extend the invite to our members! It will be a great learning experience for people in our industry! PDH's will be awarded each day and classes will start at 8:30am and end at 5:00pm. Lunch, coffee, drinks and snacks will be provided by Olson. Please see below flyer for the event and registration can be found here:  
    http://www.olsoninstruments.com/training_userSeminar.php

    If you have any questions, please reach out to Seminars@OlsonInstruments.com or call 303-423-1212

  • Congratulations to the MGM National Harbor team for winning 2nd Place in the 2019 ACI Excellence Awards!

    26 Oct 2019 12:07 PM | Deleted user

    Please join us in congratulating the MGM National Harbor team for winning Second Place in the Mid-Rise Buildings category at the 2019 Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards Gala during The ACI Concrete Convention and Exposition, October 21, 2019, in Cincinnati, OH!! ACI recognized a total of 12 winners across the world!

    The National Capital Chapter nominates the winners of our Excellence in Concrete Awards to compete against concrete projects around the world at the ACI National level. It is a great honor to be among these outstanding leaders in our industry and even greater so to have a winning project!

    Project Details:  The MGM Resort at National Harbor is a 3.4 million ft² (315,900 m²) project that includes a 5000-space parking structure. A podium on top of the parking structure is angled and clad with white precast panels so that it looks like the monuments around the National Mall. The hotel is a 24-story, narrow structure that is meant to evoke images of the Washington Monument. The project required 2.9 million ft² (269,400 m²) of cast-in-place elevated deck supported by architecturally exposed columns and walls.

    Project Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=EqbK-cGoNWU

    Project Team Members: Owner: MGM Resorts International; Architectural Firm: SmithGroup JJR; Engineering Firm: Cagley & Associates; General Contractor: Whiting-Turner; Concrete Contractor: DGS Construction; General Supplier: Schuster Concrete Ready Mix.

    Congratulations again the MGM team and best of luck to our nominees for our local NCCACI awards on November 12th!


  • Our Amazing Student Chapters at the ACI Convention in Cincinnati

    26 Oct 2019 11:30 AM | Deleted user

    Please join us in congratulating the University of Maryland ACI Student Chapter in placing 12th out of 50+ schools around the globe in the FRP Composites competition! They also placed 6th against the US teams. This is an outstanding feat and the students worked very hard after hours in labs and brainstorming sessions to come up with an optimal mix design and construction for their beam.

    The FRP Composites Competition is where students design, construct, and test a concrete structure reinforced with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) to achieve the optimal load-to-cost ratio, predict the ultimate load, and predict the load that will result in a piston deflection of 3.5 mm (0.14 in.).

    Also, this was the first year that students from the Howard University ACI Student Chapter attended an ACI Convention, so congratulations in taking such a great leap forward into immersing yourselves into this wonderful concrete industry and taking the initiative to attend!

    Thank you to all of the mentors and NCCACI members for helping our student chapters grow, learn and be successful in our industry!

    For more information about becoming a FREE Student Member of ACI, please go to https://concrete.org/membership/studentmembership.aspx


  • Glenstone Tour was a hit!

    01 Oct 2019 1:09 PM | Deleted user

    Thank you to all of those that attended our tour last week at the award-winning Glenstone II Museum! We hope you all learned some valuable things about how the Pavilions were built and thank you for your wonderful questions! Also, a special Thank You to Steve Dare and Everett Zaluski with Clark Concrete Contractors for running the tour!

    For more information on the NCCACI Awards, please register here to submit one of your great concrete projects! Deadline is October 15th, 2019.

    For more information on Glenstone, please go to their website at https://www.glenstone.org/


  • Great Turn Out for the 2019 NCCACI Annual Golf Outing!

    16 Sep 2019 6:43 AM | Deleted user

    On behalf of the chapter, we would like to thank all those that joined us for a wonderful day of golf at the University of Maryland Golf Course on Monday Sept. 9, 2019!

    First Place Team (56):  Adam Hibshman, Ken Kosteva, Lance Conley, Matt Salzer
    Second Place Team (57): Brandon Myers, Dan Hess, Butch Housekencht, Rob Doody
    Third Place Team (58):  Marc Granahan, Brendan Quinn, Paul Fisher, Mike Kavka

    We especially want to thank our sponsors for helping make this event possible: 

     Baker DC  Euclid  Lafarge Holcim  Sika 
     Cagley & Associates  Holcim  Lehigh  Superior
     Clark Concrete  Lehigh Hanson  Luck Stone  Tobar
     Doka  Kiewit  Miller & Long  Valcourt
     ECS  Kline Engineering  Schneider Contracting  Vulcan
     Essroc  Lafrarge  Separation Technologies  

    Hope to see you all next fall for another great golf tournament!



  • Univerity of Maryland Student Chapter in the NEWS

    09 Feb 2018 11:04 AM | Anonymous

    Article below was in the October 2017 Concrete International Magazine

    OCTOBER 2017  |  Ci  |  www.concreteinternational.com

    Maryland and National Capital Chapters – ACI Award $55,0000 in Scholarships In 2015, the Maryland Chapter – ACI decided to revamp its student scholarship program. This was driven by a desire to interest young people in the field of engineering, to educate future engineers in the science of concrete, and to develop relationships with graduating engineers who might want to join our industry. The plan was to develop a competition between local universities that would drive the students to learn some basic concrete principles. Scholarships would be awarded based on the student’s grasp of these principles, on their enthusiasm, work ethic, and school spirit. To fund the scholarships, $25,000 was set aside. Participating schools would be required to start ACI student chapters. For the competition, students were provided with a three-point curve that they used to develop a mixture design to meet a specified strength. They were taught the basics of running a trial batch and trained in all the ACI Concrete Laboratory Testing Technician – Level 1 tests for plastic concrete—temperature, air, slump, unit weight, and molding cylinders. Lectures focused on concrete design, strength, and durability were provided. The National Ready Mixed Concrete Association (NRMCA) allowed the use of its lab for the test day and Stuart Sherman, NRMCA’s Lab Manager, helped with the judging. The University of Maryland fielded a team and Morgan State University fielded two teams of five people each. The winning team for 2016, Morgan State University’s “Morgan Nation,” came within 20 psi (0.14 MPa) of the required strength. The trophy “The Maryland Cup,” a chromeplated slump cone atop a mahogany base, was awarded. The members of the Maryland Chapter – ACI were so impressed with the students from both schools that it increased the scholarship amount to $38,000. Earlier this year, the Maryland Chapter – ACI and the National Capital Chapter – ACI decided to combine resources to promote the competition. Yvonne Nelson, National Capital Chapter – ACI President, helped with the judging and the National Capital Chapter – ACI added $10,000 to the scholarship fund. The Maryland Chapter – ACI voted to award $35,000 and then added an additional $10,000 after witnessing the superior caliber of the students in the competition (total scholarship award was $55,000). This year, the University of Maryland fielded two teams, the “Diamondbacks” and the “Terps,” and Morgan State University came back with the “Morgan Nation” and the “Morgan Bears.” All four teams were extremely strong and, at the end of the day, Maryland’s “Diamondbacks” won the cup for their university. For the past 3 years, the Maryland Chapter – ACI has also awarded scholarship money to the Roland Park Country School (RPCS) as part of an outreach to high schools. This school performs research projects in concrete and the top students are awarded scholarships. The award is called the “Miran Award of Excellence,” after Blaire Miran, who was the first recipient. Miran is now a freshman at Villanova University and is assisting in research on deflection of fiber-reinforced polymer concrete sections. This year, seven students from RPCS received awards. Putting this program together was one of the hardest things the chapter has ever done, but it was also one of the most rewarding. Next year, Howard University has expressed interest in participating and Johns Hopkins University may be interested as well. On a sad note, Dmitri Clemons, one of the founding members of Morgan’s Student Chapter – ACI and a member of the 2016 winning team, passed away at the beginning of the school year. He had a great sense of humor and an incredible competitive spirit. He would have made a great engineer and we are shocked and saddened at his passing.  Click on the link to see the article in CI Magazine:   UMD CI October 2017.pdf


  • Night at the NATS

    28 Aug 2017 3:14 PM | Anonymous

    Thank you to all who came out to join us for the "Night at the Nats"  

    THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:  

                               


  • Message from the President - August

    09 Aug 2017 12:15 PM | Anonymous

    Building the Global Concrete Community

    08/01/2017

    The topic of relevance is a core aspect of ACI's strategic plan. Actually, the first task assigned to new ACI Board of Direction members is to read Race for Relevance by Harrison Coerver and Mary Byers. Questions about relevance impact all standards development organizations (SDOs) like ACI.

    In a world driven by a superfast technology train, how can SDOs be as impactful tomorrow as they have been in the past? Isn't it easier to find a quick (and free) answer on Google, YouTube, or Wikipedia, rather than purchase and dive into hundreds of pages of codes and standards?

    The new dynamics of unpredictable technology change prompted ACI in 2015 to assign a task group the mission of developing an outlook for ACI in 2030. The result was ACI Vision 2030, which identified the megatrends in the world and our industry and recommended responses and actions ACI should take to maintain its relevance in the future.

    In discussing the current and future roles of ACI, we need to consider data, information, and knowledge and the relationships between them. The following chain from Making Sense of Data and Information (Elsevier, 2007) explains it best:

    Let's apply this to the data, information, and knowledge developed around properties of concrete production and supply. As shown in the table below, data are finite descriptions of the concrete delivered to the project, and information includes the application and the interpretation of the data. Knowledge results from the processing of the information as needed to manage or enhance the project schedule, cost, and quality.

    ACI has been developing consensus-based documents to equip the concrete industry with the tools to structure the data, transform it into useful and reliable information, and finally, and most importantly, model the information to develop consensus and universally trusted knowledge. While data is precise, information can take different shapes or forms, whereas useful knowledge must be based on consensus for it to be a universally accepted agent for improvement. Because of its rigorous consensus-based system, ACI provides a unique platform to build trusted and assured knowledge, something that Internet search engines fall short of guaranteeing.

    Having random information does not necessarily lead to correct knowledge. Knowledge implies deep understanding of data and information, experience in using and developing them, prior research, and continuous validation. This is exactly what our volunteers and staff bring to the industry. And that is how our Institute brings tremendous value in different critical areas of concrete construction, whether that value is life safety, durability, or constructability.

    While this noble mission will surely survive the test of time, as validated by ACI Vision 2030, it may still not address tomorrow's requirements. The industry also needs quick access, smart and customized information, and direct answers—not just consensus-based documents, as valuable as they will always be.

    ACI has over 200,000 Facebook followers and around 60,000 members on its LinkedIn page, with most of our 21,000 active members participating. There are huge numbers of people on ACI social media channels who are not only seeking information, but also yearning to enhance their knowledge of concrete and its applications.

    ACI is therefore evolving from disseminating consensus-based knowledge to empowering a global concrete community, able to successfully address the challenges of concrete construction. Assuming this new responsibility will maintain ACI as one of the most relevant associations on concrete and its uses.

    Khaled W. Awad

  • Leading By Example - ACI Research and Innovation

    13 Jul 2017 12:12 PM | Anonymous

    Leading by Example—ACI Research and Innovation

    07/12/2017


    Strut Efficiency-Based Design for Concrete Deep Beams Reinforced with FRP Bars: ACI Structural Journal

    For more than 110 years, the American Concrete Institute has been the global authority on concrete knowledge, moving the industry forward by innovation, research and development, proper design and construction, and sustainability.

    To continually improve the quality of concrete knowledge, research is needed on a continual basis. Research has always been part of ACI’s mission. From its committees who incorporate the latest research into new documents, to the newest research published in ACI’s Structural and Materials Journals, to ACI Foundation’s  Concrete Research Council (CRC).

    CRC works closely with its sister councils – the Strategic Development Council (SDC) and the Scholarship Council – to explore and put into motion opportunities to support research that is essential to ACI and the concrete industry. CRC also works closely with several foundations and other organizations to fund, coordinate, and promote research initiatives.

    This year the ACI Foundation will provide $200,000 of research funding through four $50,000 research grants. The awarded projects are:

    • “An Experimental Study on The Effect of Wall-Slab Connection Details in Liquid Containing Structures”
    • “Minimizing the Effect of Pumping on Self-Consolidating Concrete Workability and Freeze-Thaw Durability”
    • “Benchmark Tests on Anchoring Columns to Foundations”
    • “Evaluating the Performance and Feasibility of Using Recovered Fly Ash and Fluidized Bed Combustion Fly Ash as Concrete Pozzolan”

    More details on the projects can be found here.

    Earlier this year CRC announced two new completed research products. The first, a two-part study, was conducted to help define both feasible and structurally acceptable mechanical properties of high-strength steel reinforcing bars—“Low-Cycle Fatigue Performance of High-Strength Steel Reinforcing Bars (Part 1)” and “Defining Structurally Acceptable Properties of High-Strength Steel Bars through Material and Column Testing (Part 2).”

    The second research product evaluated the use of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete to allow the design of coupling beams that no longer require the use of diagonal bars. “Evaluation of Seismic Behavior of Coupling Beams with Various Types of Steel Fiber-Reinforced Concrete,” was funded by CRC and several other financial supporters.

    The ACI Foundation, through its Councils' Work, has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to worthy research projects designed to advance the technologies and practices within the concrete industry. This year’s proposal submittal will open late summer 2017 and continue through December 1, 2017.

    ACI produces two bi-monthly technical journals – the ACI Materials Journal and the ACI Structural Journal. The peer-reviewed Journals, edited for professional and technical personnel in engineering, construction, design, research, manufacturing, and education, contain technical, archival papers from around the world. ACI Structural Journal offers cutting-edge, investigative, and/or potentially transformational research papers on topics such as analysis of buildings and bridges, shear and torsion, and structural concrete. Similarly, ACI Materials Journal offers “innovative papers on” topics such as mixture proportioning, creep and shrinkage, and materials research.


    Seismic Response of Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Coupled Walls: ACI Structural Journal

    The ACI Foundation’s SDC facilitates advancement of concrete technology by providing a forum for visioning and prioritizing key challenges facing the concrete industry, assisting ACI in timely adoption of innovative technologies, problem solutions, and best practices, and providing a framework for development of programs that respond to industry opportunities to accelerate technology acceptance.

    Every new technology that is introduced and presented through SDC is offered several options to gain exposure and to address barriers or obstacles that are preventing or slowing adoption of the technology within the concrete industry.

    ACI ITG-9R-16, “Report on Design of Concrete Wind Turbine Towers,” is the result of cooperation between the ACI Foundation’s Strategic Development Council and industry leaders, who identified concrete wind turbine towers as an industry-critical technology for the concrete industry.

    ACI also conducts Research in Progress sessions at its conventions, featuring presentations of original, unpublished results from ongoing research projects and leading-edge concrete technology and research throughout the world. The sessions discuss recent techniques, research methods, and describe emerging ideas in concrete research.

    ACI is a global authority in research and innovation in concrete, and is committed to leading the way in disseminating research knowledge to benefit all participants in the concrete industry, with the vision to provide everyone with the knowledge needed to use concrete effectively to meet the demands of a changing world


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