The American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) anticipates a significant increase in square yards of concrete pavements used for highway applications in calendar year 2019.
At a press conference held at World of Concrete in Las Vegas, the association also announced that James W. “Jim” Mack, Director of Market Development-Commercial Strategy for CEMEX, has been named the 56th Chairman of the ACPA Board of Directors.
The current projection is for 56.2 million sq yd of concrete pavement use for 2019, an increase of 7% compared to 2018. The increase also marks the largest market volume in the past six years.
“Looking back at the past two years, 2017 was a challenging year for paving volume, but 2018 projected volumes indicate a strong rebound,” said ACPA President and CEO Gerald F. Voigt. “Estimates for the remainder of 2018 indicate a market volume of 52.5 million square yards of concrete paving nationwide.”
For many years, many public agencies deferred major capital improvement projects in favor of pavement preservation, according to Voigt, adding the situation has been largely attributable to uncertainty about federal funding for highways. Voigt noted the projections and actual square yards are drawn from several sources, included carefully analyzed state bid tabs and data provided or corroborated by executive directors/presidents of ACPA’s network of 20 chapters throughout the U.S. Although the data is applicable only to state highway department projects, Voigt said municipal and county road projects historically follow the trend line, based on observations from various industry sources.
Newly selected ACPA Chairman Jim Mack assumed his role as a successor to Chuck Niederriter, the association's 2018 Chairman, who also is COO of Golden Triangle Construction Co. Mack is the first Chairman in the history of ACPA to have served with a cement company, a regional shipper’s group, an ACPA-affiliated Chapter, ACPA National and PCA.
Mack described his major objectives as 2019 Chairman. “The first is the implementation of the industry pavement promotion plan,” he said, adding, “The second item I want to focus on is the continuation of the ConcreteCOMPETES initiative started by Chairman Niederriter.” The initiative is about aligning resources at the national level to scale up pavement promotion and to support the local promotion network.
Mack has had an extensive career in civil engineering and in the cement and concrete industries. He is the first person to serve as ACPA Chairman who has worked in both the cement and concrete pavement industries; in an engineering firm; and at both national and regional trade associations. He has served with CEMEX since September 2007. Prior to his service with CEMEX, he served with the Cement Council of Texas as Director of Concrete Paving from 2005 to 2007. Previously, he served at Quality Engineering Services as a Senior Engineer. He also has served as Executive Director of the ACPA-Northeast Chapter; the American Concrete Pavement Association as Director of Engineering, Education, and Product Development; and the Portland Cement Association as Paving Engineer.
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Source: ACPA
