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Concrete Excitement

3/1/2011

I am writing this shortly after returning from World of Concrete and, by the time you read it, I’ll be back in Las Vegas for CONEXPO-CON/AGG. People from a broad cross section of our industry attend these major events where the excitement of concrete materials, design, and construction is demonstrated and celebrated (the ratio of demonstration to celebration varies widely).

It was exciting this year to be part of the team at World of Concrete because the ACI booth had a new look. Many old and new friends stopped by to chat with our knowledgeable staff, browse our publications, and relax in the midst of the trade show. I was proud to be a small part of it. Such gatherings are always a reminder that it takes a lot of people with a wide range of interests, skills, responsibilities, and occupations to meet the goals of our industry.

But when associating the word "excitement" with "concrete," we realize that the exhilaration that keeps us doing what we do is, to a large degree, in the eye of the beholder. Believe it or not, there are misinformed folks who rate "waiting for concrete to set" equal to "watching paint dry" in entertainment value. We know the conversation-stopping power of talking about hydration or slump to a layperson. How soon the masses forget the prophetic words of the Monty Python troupe: "Cement is more interesting than people think."

The popular media have made a few attempts to get the word out about the edge-of-your-seat excitement of the concrete industry. Those of us over 55 recall the immortal words of Corporal Maxwell Klinger of M*A*S*H: "I know cement, and it's not that hard." In the movie Rising Sun, the bad guy falls into a freshly cast concrete footing, and as the crook sinks beneath the surface, a wise Sean Connery dissuades Wesley Snipes from a rescue attempt by warning, "That cement dries fast and there's no way they're going to rip open that foundation." And don't forget Bruce Willis' daring jailbreak in a hijacked concrete truck followed by a high-speed (and high-performance?) chase in the movie Bandits.

But sooner or later (after the 1000th attempt to explain the difference between cement and concrete), you realize that excitement is where you personally find it, and in the "concrete business," there's plenty to go around. These examples might remind us of others:

• Getting in early on the overall design scheme and steering decision makers toward the most effective structural configuration, or figuring out a detail that will solve both a design and a construction problem.
• Writing a specification and finding just exactly the right wording to clearly and concisely convey your intent.
• Watching a concrete structure take shape and knowing that you were part of the process.
• Seeing both the science and the economy in a well-engineered, well-assembled forming system, and observing that the reinforcing bar crew installed the steel like precision artwork.
• Watching a placing and finishing crew hit its stride with the right number of people, the right equipment, and on-time arrival of workable concrete with consistent set time, and seeing them just get to the end of the slab as the drum of the last truck starts to rattle.
• Being part of the team that supplied materials, produced, and delivered a concrete mixture that meets the requirements of the contractor, the designer, and the owner.
• Pushing technology by designing a concrete with a higher strength than used previously in the local market, pumping concrete to a record height, repairing a concrete runway overnight, or successfully placing concrete in subzero temperatures.
• Being part of the testing crew and being confident that your data can be used to support important decisions about the quality of the work.
• Measuring elongations on PT tendons and finding out that Δ really does equal PL/AE.
• Taking a class that makes you want to learn even more and to get out there to put the lesson into practice.
• Teaching a class or being part of a research team that adds to what we understand about concrete.
• Contributing to an ACI committee document that will help the industry.
• Hearing a presentation at an ACI convention or chapter meeting that gives you a new idea or helps you solve a nagging problem.
• Having an edge because of ACI publications, committee or chapter participation, or networking with fellow ACI members.

Kenneth C. Hover
American Concrete Institute
kch7@cornell.edu

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