Concrete’s Recent Evolution

The past couple of decades have led to many advances in concrete design and technology. Today, concrete not only offers improved performance for a broader range of applications but it has also become “greener”.  P. Kumar Mehta, an author of numerous papers on the properties of concrete and cementitious building materials as well as a recently retired Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley commented on the emerging developments in concrete technologies.  He noted that, “It is not surprising that much of the advancements in concrete technology have occurred as a result of two driving forces...the speed of construction and durability of concrete.”  

Concrete’s evolution includes using new materials in the production process, a greater acceptance to recycling, mixture proportioning, and improved durability.  Recently introduced concretes such as high performance concrete (HPC), ultra-high performance concrete, and geopolymer concrete offer many advantages over traditional concrete and few disadvantages. 

AggregateResearch.com states that one of the benefits of HPC’s is that it contains industrial waste by-products such as fly ash and silica fume that is not only readily available but helps to keep the material out of landfills.  Also when a concrete mix uses more of these products, it allows the concrete to be produced with less Portland cement, which in turn reduces the carbon dioxide emissions that are released during the production of cement.  Furthermore, the industry by-products offer the advantage of typically being less expensive than cement. 

Other technological advancements continue to improve the longevity of concrete.  It is believed that the concrete produced today will last for hundreds of years not just decades.  AggregateResearch.com adds that, “new concretes have better corrosion resistance, equal or higher compressive and tensile strengths, higher fire resistance, and rapid curing and strength gain. In addition, the production and life cycle of these new concretes will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 90%.”

Sources: aggregateresearch.com/articles/19247/Advances-in-new-concrete-technology.aspx

The Conco Companies’ mission is to be the best supplier of concrete services in the Western United States and to bring expertise and unsurpassed quality to each project. We continue to upgrade and expand facilities to better serve the growing market for public works projects, commercial, parking structures, educational, and other construction development.