Webinar Archives

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Concrete is used in nearly every structure we build today, including buildings, bridges, homes, and infrastructure. With greater emphasis placed on sustainability, design professionals are faced with the challenge of meeting traditional design criteria with evolving criteria that support green building and efforts to reduce impact on climate change. When looking at the environmental impact of a building, it is important to assess every stage of the environmental life cycle, from material extraction and product manufacturing to building operations and maintenance through to end-of-life. Concrete offers many environmental attributes that help reduce the overall environmental life cycle impacts of a building. This learning session explores how life cycle assessment can be used to measure and lower the environmental impacts of concrete buildings.

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Part of the Sustainable Structures Webinar Series: This one-hour program is intended for professional designers and engineers. The attributes of precast concrete will be presented, demonstrating how these qualities may be applied to the design and construction of safe and efficient storm shelter facilities. The versatility and resiliency of precast concrete will be further highlighted by a video demonstration, and a series of case studies.

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WJE carried out independent studies related to the 2018 collapse of the FIU Pedestrian Bridge in Miami. Most significantly, WJE developed and tested full-sized specimens to evaluate the significance of the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB’s) finding that the construction joint between the northernmost diagonal and deck was left in an as-placed condition, rather than intentionally roughened as required by the project specifications. The webinar also describes WJE’s independent review of shear friction strength in accordance with the AASHTO Code.

The presentation describes the details of the experimental program that demonstrated that, had the construction joint been roughened as required by the project specifications, the collapse would not have occurred. Contrary to NTSB’s findings, the contractor’s failure to roughen the surface was the primary cause of the collapse.

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The concrete industry has a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.  In response to this goal, many industry organizations are tasked with getting their message related to decarbonization and sustainability to their customers, specifiers, and employees.  Transparency and recognition of goals and achievements are vital.  Kimberly will discuss a variety of methods and materials that should be used to effectively communicate progress.  Kimberly will help you identify key ways to communicate the steps your organization is taking, whether that be in the form of a new product or innovative process, that will help your organization reach your sustainability goals.

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Engineering ethics is a set of ethical standards for engineers to follow which can apply to most circumstances that arise on the job. These ethical standards are the engineers’ obligations towards the public, employers and the profession. The purpose of engineering ethics is to identify specific ethical issues that may arise in order to avoid a potential problem.

The presenter will be David Schultz, Professor of Political Science (Hamline University).

No credits will be awarded for viewing recordings of the webinar. 

The webinar is being sponsored by the Iowa Ready Mixed Concrete Association, the Minnesota Concrete Council, the North Dakota Concrete Council, the Oklahoma  Ready Mixed Concrete Association, the South Dakota Ready Mix Association, and the Wisconsin Ready Mixed Concrete Association.