The Economic Boom I Expected

Last month, I wrote about the housing boom that I had been predicting, and since then, the National Association of Realtors released a report stating that construction of new housing in the past 20 years fell 5.5 million units short of long-term historical levels and called for a “once-in-a-generation” policy response. But a booming housing market rife with shortages is…

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The Horses Are Out of the Barn

Well, the barn door has been kicked open, and the horses are out. After more than a year of COVID-19-driven inactivity, a lot is starting to happen.  For openers, two major mergers rocked the aggregates industry, changing the landscape regionally and nationally. Vulcan Materials Co. and U.S. Concrete Inc. entered into a definitive merger agreement; and Martin Marietta Materials Inc.…

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First Look July 2021

TOP NEWS • USGS STATS • ECONOMIC INDICATORS • MSHA WATCH • ENERGY TOP NEWS  Bipartisan BillPresident Biden and a bipartisan group of senators have announced a deal on infrastructure spending. According to the White House, the price tag comes in at $1.2 trillion over eight years, with $579 billion in new spending. Other sources peg the legislation as a $973-…

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Trimble Insight

Productivity data is often late, unreliable or requires a manual process to gather. Managers often rely on tally sheets, spreadsheets or in-house systems to manage quarry operations, but this isn’t always efficient to manage large data sets. It can be difficult for managers and operators to make informed decisions during the shift that positively influences productivity or production. Now there…

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Pacific Northwest Not Built For Heat

July 1, 2021 – Very interesting story on Wired. On Sunday, as temperatures hit 105, the concrete beneath State Route 544 outside Everson, Wash., began to do what concrete does when it gets really hot: It expanded. By 5 p.m., the asphalt above it had softened and cracked, leaving a thick, humped seam across two lanes. To the south, in Portland, Ore., a road on the…

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