News Detail

Your Technical Questions Answered

12/1/2016

The ACI website is one of the most frequently used ways that people interact with ACI and the vast array of information on concrete that is available. Committee members access the website to perform committee work. Students access the website to perform research. Contractors search for current specifications and construction guides. Craftsmen check on the latest information for certification, and engineers visit the website for continuing education.

However, people from all of these groups, as well as the general public, also come to the website for a common reason: to search for answers to their questions regarding concrete construction, materials, and design. Making that process easier and more likely to meet with success was the focus of some recent changes to the website that I'd like to make sure you're aware of.

At the bottom of every ACI webpage is a list of several tools. One of these tools is the frequently asked technical questions (FAQ) page, which answers common questions related to over 40 concrete-related topics. Recently, the FAQ page was reorganized and updated to make it simpler for people to find the questions and answers they are looking for. The page now organizes information based on key topics. These topics are the same as those used for the Topics in Concrete page on the ACI website to provide better coordination between ACI's various resources for finding information on particular subjects. Under each topic is a listing of titles, each with a question, an answer, a list of related references, and links to related Topics in Concrete pages.

The questions and answers have been gathered from a number of sources, reviewed, and updated as necessary. These sources include inquiries received from ACI's technical inquiry service, ACI documents, and Concrete International articles that have been answered by committee members, ACI members, and ACI staff. Recently, staff reviewed the answers and updated them to reflect the information in ACI's latest resources. During this process, several additional FAQs were added to fill in gaps in the information and to expand the range of topics covered. Additional FAQs are being added to the page on a regular basis, and existing FAQs are updated as new documents are published.

The answers to the questions are typically succinct: most are less than 500 words. When the user wants to find additional information or develop a deeper understanding, the list of references provided for each answer can be used to guide users to ACI documents and periodicals that will help them better understand the topic.

Similarly, a list of related Topics in Concrete is provided with each question. These links take the user to the related Topics in Concrete page where there is a quick overview of all the different formats that ACI provides on that topic. These formats may include committee documents, journal articles, online educational courses, or free online education presentations, just to name a few.

If you are unable to find what you are looking for after scanning through the list of topics, you can also use the search function built into the page. This search restricts the results to those found on the FAQ page. Many people also use the search in the header of each page of the ACI website to perform a global search of the ACI website.

While the FAQ page may not contain the answers to all of your questions, I highly recommend you take a look to see the types of questions that are covered. No matter what segment of the industry you're from, chances are you will eventually run across a technical question where you will find the information on this page helpful.

Michael J. Schneider