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. 

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. – The ACI Foundation has announced the establishment of a scholarship fund in honor of the late Dr. W.Gene Corley, who passed away March 1.

CYPRESS, CA – CTS Cement Manufacturing Co. now offers CTS Type-G expansive mineral additive for use in shrinkage reduction and shrinkage compensation in portland cement concrete. The Type-G additive can be used in any application where regular portland cement concrete is used, including: slab on grade (flatwork), bridge-decks, parking structures, topping slabs and pre-cast elements.

LAVAL, QC – BONE Structure is the winner of the prestigious Dunamis Award in the Innovation category, awarded by the Chamber of commerce and industry of Laval. More than 500 people from the business community met at the Château Royal on March 27 for the 32nd Dunamis Gala.

YORK, Pa. – Following two days of filming and interviews at Architectural Testing, Inc's (ATI) York, Pennsylvania headquarters, Discovery Channel aired two segments showcasing ATI's threat resistance assessment services on the science news show, Daily Planet. Both segments were filmed inside ATI's Security Research Center where viewers got an inside look at Blast Resistance Testing and Forced Entry Resistance Testing. Daily Planet producers observed and interviewed engineers from Architectural Testing throughout every stage of the testing, as well as representatives from ASSA ABLOY, who donated products for the project.

MT. 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 approval of the first two organizations in its Company Certification program.

WHITTIER, Calif. – The ICC Evaluation Service (ICC-ES) has updated its acceptance criteria to reflect revisions to the 2012 International Building Code® (IBC) and 2012 International Residential Code® (IRC). Many manufacturers have updated, or are in the process of updating, their ICC-ES evaluation reports (ESRs) with the most current technical data, showing compliance with the 2012 I-Codes. ESRs updated to the most current codes demonstrate to code officials, designers, architects, engineers and others in the construction industry that they can confidently approve or specify products based on the most current information.