News Detail

A Global Concrete Community

9/1/2014

As part of ACI’s new strategic plan, an objective ACI wishes to achieve is to collaborate on a global basis with other concrete organizations to share technology. In keeping with our goal to be one of the sources of concrete knowledge, we should be open to sharing knowledge from other organizations that develop concrete information. Why shouldn’t we proactively develop and share the resulting information so the entire concrete community can benefit? Little did we know how much this is desired by all the concrete professionals around the world. Even though we have some examples of past collaborative efforts with our international partners, the initiative to expand these past efforts is in full swing.

Among the examples of this effort, an all-day joint seminar was recently held in Kona, HI, with members of ACI and the Japan Concrete Institute (JCI) on the topic of tsunami and seismic events. Following this event, ACI and JCI met to develop further collaboration and workshops. They also discussed how to take the knowledge that was shared and incorporate it into the documents, codes, and standards developed by each organization. At the same time this event was taking place, a joint workshop with ACI and fib was held in Montreal, QC, Canada. This well-attended event on fiber-reinforced concrete also provided an opportunity for both organizations to exchange knowledge gained in the hopes of sharing this information in our documents. ACI will meet with fib again to continue the work on further collaboration and workshops in the future.

On a recent trip to Manila, Philippines, ACI had the opportunity to meet with the Philippines Chapter – ACI and the Structural Engineers Association of the Philippines (SEAP). Both of these groups discussed their desire for future collaborative efforts. SEAP also expressed interest in efforts on the further use of the 318 Building Code in the Philippines and possible use of ACI 332-14, “Residential Code Requirements for Structural Concrete and Commentary.”

After visiting the Philippines, a visit to Singapore and our chapter there followed and resulted in very similar discussions. ACI met with representatives of the Singapore Chapter – ACI as well as the Chapter Presidents of Malaysia and Indonesia. ACI also became aware of an organization called the Asian Concrete Construction Institute (ACCI), which is a technical, professional association made up of concrete professionals propagating concrete knowledge in Asia. This group of concrete professionals also approached ACI to explore collaborative efforts and technology exchanges. The common theme of all these recent interactions was a wish to collaborate on technical exchanges with ACI.

A host of other ACI partners and organizations—including the Italy Chapter – ACI, India Concrete Institute, India Chapter – ACI, Korea Concrete Institute (KCI), and others—have also reached out to ACI requesting workshops and other ways to share technology and information. As a result of these requests, at the summer ACI Technical Activities Committee (TAC) meeting, TAC approved the sponsoring of regular sessions at the ACI Spring and Fall Conventions to host these workshops as part of the regular convention format to permit wider access to this information.

What is truly remarkable in this movement is that while it is a stated goal in our strategic plan, these organizations are reaching out to ACI as a partner in these efforts. It speaks to the desire of concrete professionals worldwide who want to create a global knowledge base from which all can create better concrete construction. This is an historic time for the Institute as we truly become part of a global concrete community and look to find more ways to engage and reach out to concrete professionals regardless of where they reside.

William E. Rushing Jr.