To implement the State Council’s guidance on resolving contradictions of serious overcapacity and its plan of action on green building, Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development and Ministry of Industry and Information have recently established an instruction group for popularization and application of high performance concrete technology and held the first meeting. This is another close cooperation of these two sectors after the previous one of reinforced steel bar.
High performance concrete has important roles to play in four fields: to promote energy-saving and emission reduction, to improve construction quality, to enhance the development and progress of construction technology, to achieve the structural adjustment, transformation and upgrading of concrete production.
It is informed that this work has been launched in January 2013 jointly by aforementioned two ministries. They have visited eight provinces and cities for field research, including Shanghai and Anhui, with 23 provinces, municipalities and regions giving feedback on production and application of ready-mix concrete. At present, the two departments have drafted Several Opinions on Promoting the Application of High Performance Concrete (Draft), and clarified the guiding ideology, basic principles, main objectives, tasks and measures. Next, the two departments will do several works to guarantee the realization of this project especially through policy support and optimizing the development of environment, these works include: announce several opinions and establish coordination mechanism, speed up the standard setting, perfect relevant specifications, complete technical guide, carry out propaganda and training, build the development platform, promote green production, and improve industry management.
Two departments have established technical steering groups by gathering enterprises and associations specialized in concrete and raw materials production, building design and construction; research institutes; universities and other experts and technical strength. There are three specialized groups including material and products, structure design and construction, policy and standards, which are responsible for the collection and analysis of technical issues of high performance concrete, the establishment of joint research and development platform, providing technical support to develop revised standards for long-term support.
Besides, it is also informed that in the future, the use of high-performance concrete will be taken as a criterion for assessment activities, such as selecting or awarding good architectural design, and green buildings. High performance concrete is expected to be initially used in green buildings, affordable housing, and government investment projects.
(Excerpted from China Construction News)