Worldwide

The Global Rental Alliance (GRA) held its 16th annual meeting at The Rental Show® 2018 in New Orleans. The Alliance reported its latest review of its global survey initiative, which estimates fiscal year 2016 combined rental revenue among the seven GRA associations was US$96.96 billion. This figure represents a 6 percent increase over 2015 rental revenues, as calculated by IHS Markit™ on behalf of the group.

Africa

The World Economic Forum (WEF), the Global Infrastructure Hub (GI Hub) and Meridiam launched May 2, a new partnership to help governments across Africa build infrastructure procurement capabilities within their civil services. The Africa Infrastructure Fellowship Program (AIFP) aims to bring governments and the private sector together to support an innovative capability building programme for public sector infrastructure professionals.

Germany

Business magazine Brand eins and statistics company Statista have awarded PTV Transport Consult GmbH, headquartered in Karlsruhe, one of the Best Consultants 2018 for transport specialists in the fields of transport, traffic and logistics. For the report, market researchers scrutinized approximately 16,000 companies. PTV Transport Consult was spun off from PTV Group in 2012, and the range of its services includes transport and traffic planning, road safety management, and more.

United States

The Asphalt Pavement Alliance (APA) announced in April the Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington State departments of transportation are winners of the 2017 Perpetual Pavement Award celebrating long-life asphalt pavements.

Illinois

At the end of March, LafargeHolcim, Chicago, announced its partnership with the U.S. Army’s Partnership for Youth Success (PaYS) program to provide opportunities to veterans in the American workforce after their service. The partnership is part of a recruitment option allowing students to simultaneously serve and prepare for their futures. The program allows LafargeHolcim employees to work alongside Army recruiters and ROTC programs in grassroot initiatives to mentor future soldiers and professionals. PaYS partners guarantee job interviews and possible employment to future soldiers and ROTC cadets after their time in the Army.

Iowa

Team Asphalt raised over $11,300 for the Special Olympics of Iowa with the Polar Plunge Saturday, April 14, in 35 degree weather and an icy cold downpour.

North Carolina

Martin Marietta Materials Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina, announced April 30 the successful completion of its acquisition of Bluegrass Materials Company, which was the largest privately-held, pure-play aggregates company in the United States, for $1.625 billion in cash. The transaction, which closed April 27, provides a portfolio of more than 125 years of strategically-located, high-quality reserves across Georgia, South Carolina, Maryland, Kentucky and Tennessee. The company also announced that it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which has been submitted to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia as a proposed court order. The agreement, embodied in the proposed order, resolves all competition issues with respect to the acquisition. Under the terms of the agreement with the DOJ, Martin Marietta divested its Forsyth aggregates quarry north of Atlanta, and will divest Bluegrass’ Beaver Creek aggregates quarry in western Maryland. Martin Marietta expects to realize annual synergies of approximately $15 million within 12 months of the transaction’s close date. Source: ir.martinmarietta.com

Washington

Zonar, based in Seattle, has entered an agreement with Child Check-Mate System to sell the company’s technology and integrate it with Zonar’s fleet management solutions. School district fleets may leverage this technology to be compliant with the Paul Lee School Bus Safety Law, which requires busing fleets to be equipped with a child safety alert system to help ensure all students have exited the bus. April 16, Zonar announced it is again jointly sponsoring the annual Don Carnahan Memorial Grant opportunity, alongside the National School Transportation Association (NSTA), for up to $50,000 in smart fleet hardware tech to bus contractor members.

Wisconsin

A new initiative led by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM)’s Ag Sector Board aims to increase the number of equipment-specific courses being taught in high schools today, to help expand awareness of and enthusiasm for the equipment manufacturing industry. With help from the Equipment Dealers Association (EDA), the two organizations have awarded 32 educators from 15 states partial scholarships for certification in equipment courses starting this summer. The courses, offered through the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education (CASE), will qualify teachers to begin teaching the courses this coming fall and reaching over 2,200 students in the 2018-2019 school year. Since the launch of the CASE curriculum, more than 2,500 teachers have achieved certification to teach its classes. The teacher certification initiative is just one piece of AEM’s broader, comprehensive workforce development initiative crossing the agriculture equipment and construction industries.

Wyoming

The 55th Annual Petersen Asphalt Research Conference (PARC), hosted by Western Research Institute, takes place July 15 through 18 in Laramie. Visit www.petersenasphaltconference.org.