Ed Gregory

Three one-day April workshops on hurricane-resistant concrete construction in the Gulf Coast states affected by Hurricane Katrina April, sponsored in part by Concrete Monthly and Concrete Homes magazines, drew 180 builders, architects, engineers and contractors.

The workshops - which were held in Hattiesburg, Miss., Baton Rouge, La, and Mobile, Ala. - will be followed up in the summer and the fall in at least 13 states.

The workshops began with a session on Fortified Homes, a program of the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), followed by sessions on building code requirements, concrete masonry, precast concrete, tilt-up concrete, removable forms and insulating concrete forms.

In addition to the magazines, the workshops were sponsored by Mississippi Concrete Industries Association, Concrete and Aggregate Association of Louisiana and the Alabama Concrete Industries Association.

The program was organized by the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association and presented by IBHS, Portland Cement Association, National Concrete Masonry Association, Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute, Tilt-up Concrete Association, Concrete Foundations Association, and Insulating Concrete Form Association. NACA members are currently planning additional seminars in other regions of the country.

Lionel Lemay, vice president of Technical Resources at the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, said early indications are that going forward this seminar is going to be very popular.

Nicole Maher at NRMCA had started contacting various state affiliates and 13 had already indicated they wanted to participate in the next round of seminars, which Lemay said will probably start in August and run through October.

Joseph Lyman, executive director of ICFA, said hurricane damage demonstrates clearly that benefits of concrete cannot be measured solely against first-cost.

"In many instances, communities were completely wiped off the map," he said. "Had homes and building been built using steel-reinforced concrete systems and properly designed, the number of families and communities that were displaced would have been significantly lower, helping to reduce the overall economic and emotional damage caused by Hurricane Katrina."

Those attending received seven professional development hours.