Stay Connected Magazine—The Canadian Concrete/Canadian Concrete Expo Magazine—created a list titled “Top 10 Concrete Stories of 2021”. Concrete and cement contributions make significant headlines! The list is comprised of concrete projects that stood out in 2021 and are decidedly worth a top 10 list. Please click on the headlines in the list below, to go to the page(s) in the Canadian “Stay Connected” Concrete Magazine:
The list of the top 10 concrete stories of 2021:
10 That’s a Lot of Concrete!
Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) contracted out a job to pave 19 miles of I-25 with concrete and widening the highway from 34 to 64 feet. The additional width will allow for an express lane to be added to either side and for wider shoulders. The project will require about 40,000 semi loads of concrete. The best guess estimate is that concrete alone will be around $65 million of the $750 million overall cost of the project.
Crews removed the old concrete and recycled all of it:
• 50% goes back into the new concrete mix as aggregate
• 40% becomes road base
• 10% becomes backfill for pipes
• Lanes are 11.5” thick
9 Pervious Concrete Proves Best
The $187-million Mukilteo Ferry Terminal project in Washington state uses pervious concrete for drainage. An area about the size of a football field was filled with pervious concrete, which collected all the storm water “like a bathtub,” without manholes, catch basins of piping, yet it filters and cleans water before releasing it back into the Puget Sound.
The new terminal building is designed to resemble a 30-foot by 100-foot Coast Salish longhouse with a large gathering hall, views of the water, photovoltaics, rainwater harvesting, and natural building ventilation.
8 Global Construction Technology Contest Winners Announced
The 2021 Construction Startup Competition, sponsored by Cemex Ventures, crowned a gold medal prize winner and awarded nine other top companies during the competition’s 6th annual “Pitchday” in November 2021. 10 winners were judged on their ability to offer the most promising solutions within 5 categories:
• Carbon footprint mitigation
• Supply chain optimization
• Efficiency in the jobsite
• Advanced building materials
• New construction methods
7 Concrete “Sky Mat” Pour a Success
Suffolk Construction recently completed a concrete pour 350 feet off the ground at the Winthrop Center in Boston, Massachusetts and formed the building’s 20-million-pound transfer mat—nicknamed “Sky Mat” because it is so high up. The sky mat:
• Required 1,200 tons of rebar
• Nine levels of shoring
• Marks the halfway point to the top of Winthrop Center
• Separates the office and residential components of the tower
The 52-story tower is slated to be the fourth-largest building in the city.
6 CO2 Consuming Concrete Technology Showcased at COP26
Technology developed by “Concrete4Change” can make concrete a carbon sink rather than a carbon producer. This technology was announced as the winner in the “Achieving Net Zero” category of the “2021 UN Climate Change Challenge Awards”.
The technology has the potential to mitigate 2 billion tons of CO2e emissions (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent which includes CO2 and other greenhouse gases)—the equivalent of 4% of global CO2e emissions. After 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, the technology is being trialed by researchers from the University of Warwick.
The sequestration of CO2 results in the strength enhancement of concrete, therefore, reducing the amount of cement required to produce equivalent-strength concrete. Both CO2 sequestration and cement reduction can contribute to the reduction of concrete’s CO2 footprint.
5 It’s a Beautiful Day in the 3D-Printed Neighborhood
A new property development in Austin, Texas is set to become the world’s largest communicate of 3D-printed homes. The project will feature 100 single-story houses—co-designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (a Danish architecture practice)—“printed” on-site using robotic construction and a concrete-based building material.
It is a collaboration between Lennar—a homebuilding company, and ICON—a Texas-based construction firm specializing in 3D-printed structures. ICON stated that it can produce homes up to 3,000 square feet in size, and has previously printed the walls of a house measuring 400-500 square feet in 24 hours, spread over the course of “several days”.
Photo: CCE Magazine, Dec 2021 Issue 8. Click to enlarge.
4 Trade Shows are No Go!
[In 2020 and 2021], Concrete and construction-related trade shows were either canceled or rescheduled, as were numerous annual conferences. In Canada, shows either canceled or went fully digital. In the US, shows were largely rescheduled, but remained in-person. In-person events, such as the Canadian Concrete Expo February 17-18 are returning in 2022.
3 Building Materials Shortage
Disruption in supply chains, combined with increased demand, and several other factors, have contributed to long wait times for some building materials, shortages, and significant price increases. All of these interruptions began at the start of the pandemic. Ultimately, disruptions in supplies, increased demand, high prices, and longer wait times are all expected to remain … at least for the first half of 2022.
2 Global Cement and Concrete Industry Announces Roadmap to Net Zero
In the summer of 2021, the Global Cement and Concrete Association (Members represent 80% of total production outside of China) published a detailed roadmap which set out the path that the industry will follow to fully decarbonize by 2050—a target aligned with the “Paris Agreement” to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F).
The roadmap to get there is built around a 7-point plan that relies on ambitious, yet achievable, actions to:
• Reduce the amount of CO2 intensive clinker in cement
• Significantly reduce fossil fuel use in manufacturing
• Accelerate innovation in products
• Process efficiency and breakthrough technologies including carbon capture
1 Canada Aims for Net Zero Concrete
In May 2021, the Government of Canada and the Cement Association of Canada (CAC) announced partnership to advance global leadership in low-carbon concrete production. The roadmap will provide Canadian industry with
guidance on technologies, tools and policies needed to reach net-zero carbon concrete by 2050, including on:
• Supporting the development of a low-carbon emissions supply chain
• Coordinating across the sector and government on high-potential research and investments
• Engaging with federal, provincial and territorial partners, manufacturers, providers of cleantech solutions, and other stakeholders to fulfill the vision of global leadership in low-carbon cement manufacturing