Farmington Hills – The Post-Tensioning Institute (PTI), a nationally recognized standards development and credentialing organization, was recently accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a national certifying body for its certification program for plants producing unbonded single strand tendons.

CHATFIELD, Minn. – Strongwell Corporation recently partnered with the Chatfield Economic Development Authority to develop, build and install an ADA-compliant handicap access ramp for the Chatfield Center for the Arts. Located at the historic 1916 and Potter Auditorium Buildings, this ramp is one of many changes taking place as the area is being transformed into a modern, sustainable, regional destination for the arts.

NEW YORK – Infrastructure bonds, used to finance essential services such as roads, schools and bridges, appear attractive because of their potential to offer higher after-tax income than comparably rated general obligation bonds and historic resilience during weaker economic conditions, according to Standish, the Boston-based fixed income specialist for BNY Mellon.

SAN RAMON, Calif. – Autodesk, Inc. is expanding AutoCAD 360 (formerly AutoCAD WS), a line of easy-to-use web and mobile drafting and documentation applications that let users view, create, edit and share drawings – anytime, anywhere.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – To recognize the important work code officials are charged with, week two of the International Code Council’s Building Safety Month 2013 campaign, May 13-19, focuses on disaster safety and mitigation. Sponsored by BASF–The Chemical Company, disaster safety and mitigation in the built environment is the result of the work of Code Council Members and others who create the building codes and standards used to design and build safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures.

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. – The American Concrete Institute (ACI) introduced its 2013-2014 president, vice president, and four board members during the ACI Spring 2013 Convention in Minneapolis last month.

Anne M. Ellis was elected to serve as president of the Institute for 2013-2014.

Sharon L. Wood has been elected ACI vice president for a two-year term, and William E. Rushing, Jr. is now the Institute’s senior vice president, which is also a two-year term. Additionally, four members have been elected to serve on the ACI doard of direction, each for three-year terms.

NEW YORK – Arup, a multidisciplinary engineering and consulting firm with a reputation for delivering innovative and sustainable designs, announced that its structural engineering design for the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts has won the coveted Grand Conceptor award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) in its national Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) competition. Arup also won seven additional EEA awards from the Massachusetts and New York Chapters for the John W. Olver Transit Center in Greenfield, Massachusetts; the Kauffman Center in St. Louis Missouri; +Pool on the East River in New York City; Pier 15 on New York’s East River Waterfront; and Haeundai I’PARK City, in Busan, South Korea.

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Acrow Bridge, a leading international bridge engineering and supply company, has opened a new office and storage facility in Vancouver, Wash. to better serve the growing market for rental bridges in Washington, Oregon, Northern California, Montana, Idaho and Utah. Rental bridges are typically used as temporary detours during bridge repair or replacement to maintain traffic flow and stay on construction schedule, while providing safe and predictable passage around work sites.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Trimble announced today that the Abu Dhabi General Services Company (Musanada) will implement Proliance capital program and management software from Meridian Systems, part of the Trimble Buildings Group. Musanada is responsible for delivering shared services for Abu Dhabi government entities (ADGEs). Musanada manages the design, procurement and construction of hundreds of projects for the Abu Dhabi government.

WASHINGTON – The American Wood Council (AWC) and Canadian Wood Council (CWC) have announced the release of four new environmental product declarations (EPDs) for North American wood products, including softwood lumber, plywood, oriented strand board, and glue-laminated lumber.

BUDAPEST – GRAPHISOFT announced ArchiCAD 17, the latest version of its award-winning building information modeling (BIM) software. The new release delivers capabilities that greatly simplify the modeling and documentation of buildings even when the model contains a high level of detail. ArchiCAD’s end-to-end BIM workflow allows the model to stay live until the very end of the project.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation declaring May as Building Safety Month.

“When natural disasters and other hazards put American lives at risk, robust codes and standards for our buildings play an important role in keeping us safe,” the President states in the proclamation. “They ensure our homes and businesses are resilient to the challenges of our time -- not just by making them structurally sound, but also by boosting their energy efficiency.”

HAYWARD, Calif. – ConXtech, a sustainable structural steel building technology manufacturer, announced that its ConXR and ConXL Chassis Based Modular structural steel building systems have been Cradle to Cradle Certified at the Silver level.

SKOKIE, Ill. – Five cement plants received special recognition for their commitment to improving the environment and their communities at the 12th Annual Cement Industry Environment and Energy Awards, presented by the Portland Cement Association (PCA) and Cement Americas magazine at PCA's Spring Meeting in Chicago, April 29, 2013.

RENO, Nev. – After dominating the competition in five canoe races and winning two of three academic categories, the University of Nevada, Reno concrete canoe team took the overall win in the annual Mid-Pac Concrete Canoe Competition held April 19-20 in San Jose, Calif.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Central Concrete Supply, Inc., a U.S. Concrete, Inc. (NASDAQ-USCR) company, and the leader in delivering low CO2 concrete to the San Francisco Bay Area, announced that it is the first ready mix supplier in the United States to offer Concrete EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations) and the first to receive external verification of the EPDs in accordance with ISO 14025 and ISO 21930.

MOUNT VERNON, Iowa – The Tilt-Up Concrete Association (TCA) – a non-profit international organization that serves to expand and improve the use of tilt-up as the preferred building system – has announced the call for entries for the 23rd installment of the Tilt-Up Achievement Awards.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. – MTS Systems Corporation, a global supplier of high-performance test systems and position sensors, announced it has developed the world's most advanced, large-scale, privately owned seismic test system for Kajima Corporation Technical Research in Tokyo, Japan.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – LNA Solutions, Inc. announced that its BoxBolt is the first blind fastener to receive an International Code Council (ICC) Evaluation Service Report for use as ICC-ES ESR-3217. ICC is an accrediting association dedicated to developing model codes and standards used in the design, build and compliance process to construct safe, sustainable, affordable and resilient structures.

ATLANTA — Tekla and RISA Technologies have partnered to bring together two leading steel design solutions. Available this month, the new RISA-Tekla Link gives users the combined benefit of the design, detailing, and collaboration strengths of Tekla Structures and the comprehensive steel connection design features of RISAConnection.