ACI President David A. Lange recently spoke in Washington, DC, at a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Subcommittee on Research and Technology, on the topic of “Composite Materials – Strengthening Infrastructure Development.” The hearing was motivated by a workshop held at National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2017 that generated a roadmap document addressing barriers to adoption.
“FRP is a high-strength, low-weight, and durable material that can be fabricated in wide array of shapes and properties,” states Lange. “The attractive aspects of FRP have motivated significant investment in research and many funded demonstration projects over the years. Despite attractive attributes and a successful track record in field demos, we do not see wide-spread adoption of FRP in construction today. The adoption of FRP depends on a wider effort to harmonize material systems.”
Lange also says, “Concrete and steel technologies are not standing still. Large organizations like the American Concrete Institute work tirelessly to advance those technologies. A century of commitment at ACI assures that today’s concrete is not your father’s concrete.”
Lange told the hearing that he wanted to encourage use of a proven mechanism available to the federal government, that is, research centers that incubate partnerships between academia and industry.
