Any day now, we expect the Biden Administration to announce the release of approximately $2B of funding connected to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for the purpose, in part, of prioritizing Low-Carbon Transportation Materials Grants to qualifying programs and projects. As this could be a nice opportunity for the concrete paving industry, stakeholders including the ACPA, CP Tech Center, and other qualified engineering professionals like Tom Van Dam of Wiss, Janney, Elstner (WJE) and Larry Sutter of Sutter Engineering have formed the Reduced-Carbon Concrete Consortium (RC3). The RC3 will disseminate funding information, facilitate application submission, provide technical assistance, and enhance contractor preparedness with critical next steps such as Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs).

This week, RC3 met with nearly 20 state DOT representatives to help with preparedness. We are ready to further assist when more information is provided by the Administration on these grants. Further, ACPA has partnered with an EPD provider to help contractors better understand EPDs and implement tools to assist with their creation. ACPA has already begun communicating with contractors and facilitating the download of EPD tools. As part of the IRA grant requirements, industry recipients must show substantial reductions in carbon. From the information the industry is gathering from EPDs, the industry can provide benchmarking information that demonstrates progress. For more information on RC3 and qualifying projects please contact Tom Van Dam at tvandam@wje.com. For more contractor information pertaining to EPDs please contact ACPA Senior Director Eric Ferrebee at eferrebee@acpa.org. ACPA will be conducting training sessions for contractors at ACPA’s Annual Meeting in Marco Island, FL from December 12-14th. Register today.

Last week, Ashgrove welcomed ACPA’s Board of Directors at its Overland Park, KS office so that the ACPA could pass its draft FY24 budget. In attendance were contractor members from Koss, Golden Triangle, and Milestone with Reade Construction and Hi-Way Paving participating virtually. Other industry representatives, who comprise the Board, also gathered, including dowel bar manufacturers, equipment distributors, and cement suppliers. All discussions were prefaced with reading of the anti-trust rules and were kept to association business.

ACPA’s FY24 budget priorities will include continued focus on quality state promotion and marketing materials, advocacy, and technical support to advance the application and use of concrete paving. FY24’s budget is projected to be ~$3.1M with expenses largely focusing on marketing materials that amplify long-life pavements and position concrete as a sustainable and resilient material. It’s been repeatedly noted that part of the value of ACPA are the technical services provided by the engineering team, which saved the contracting and cement industry more than $2M in FY23 Q2 through influencing specifications and dispute resolution with agencies. Final budget passage is expected in December.

Have a great week!

Cheers!