2025 Award Winners and Nominees
Project Name
TVRM's 'Proving Grounds' for Low-Carbon Concrete
Description
Titan Virginia Ready-Mix (TVRM) is the NRMCA member company that provided the concrete for the test paving site at Roanoke Cement Company’s (RCC) Norfolk Terminal in 2023 and 2024 provided from TVRM’s Campostella and Port Norfolk plants. TVRM and RCC, both part of Titan America, have long been leaders in developing and scaling innovative, high-performing, resilient, and low-carbon building materials. Examples include GreenCrete low-carbon concrete mixes, Titan Edge low-carbon cements, marine-grade concrete, AI-generated concrete mix designs, and digital tools to enhance customer service.
When RCC moved to build a new $40 million cement storage dome to meet the growing demand for resilient and low-carbon cement at their marine terminal in Chesapeake, VA it was a bold and confident decision to use this major investment as an opportunity to prove out the latest cement technology at scale and under harsh conditions.
TVRM engineers developed a concrete mix with RCC’s Type IT ternary blended cement, which has 24% less embodied CO2 compared to the industry-wide value for ordinary portland cement while maintaining performance. Although Type IT cement includes supplementary cementitious material (SCM), TVRM chose to incorporate additional fly ash in the concrete mix, further driving down the CO2 while improving durability. Both the Type IT cement and the concrete mix are VDOT approved. The mix is also air entrained and fiber reinforced, fully eliminating steel reinforcing.
RCC and TVRM have used Type IL portland limestone cement since 2015. Type IT was first introduced by the companies in 2023 and represents the next generation of cement, marketed under the company’s “Titan Edge” product line with the tagline “Where Sustainability Meets Performance.”
After more than one year, the site has proven Type IT to be a success. The concrete placed and finished normally, achieved strength at all ages, and has withstood heavy truck traffic, freezing and thawing, and salt application.
TVRM will continue to use the site to prove out new materials and technologies. In 2024, RCC was awarded a $61.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) to build a first-of-a-kind calcined clay product line in the Commonwealth of Virginia, enabling the company to produce limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) with high-performance, low CO2, and made with widely available local materials and greater energy efficiency.
Evidence
TVRM is motivated and committed to work along with the industry to help limit global warming to 1.5°C and deliver net-zero concrete by 2050. The instant project was an example of turning aspiration into action.
The new dome facility offered an ideal proving ground for the new cement. The paving met the harshest conditions on site, with loaded cement tankers entering the facility 24/7. The site is adjacent to the brackish waters of the Elizabeth River and receives deicing salt through the winter to cope with frequent freezing and thawing cycles. In addition, the site demonstrated how the concrete handles, consolidates, and finishes, all of which are of keen interest to TVRM’s flatwork customers. TVRM technicians and engineers were on site and took samples to test the concrete on key performance variables.
Type IT cement provides a carbon impact reduction of over 20% from ordinary portland cement. The decarbonization of cement manufacturing requires a partnership with customers who have specific performance needs to be met. The Chesapeake terminal paving -- 26,000 sq. ft. at a depth of eight inches -- provided a vigorous test to establish the low-carbon concrete as a viable material for mission-critical performance.
Type IT cement has been shown in tests to produce a strength profile comparable to Type I/II and Type IL based products. Shrinkage and abrasion resistance of the low-carbon material is comparable to ordinary portland cement. Surface resistance of Type IT product results in better resistance to the penetration of water, chloride, sulfates, and other aggressive substances that are encountered in uses such as an active storage center on the water. See attached data sheet.
The Type IT cement composition, with Titan-branded ProAsh fly ash, provides improved durability associated with SCMs. The double-barreled benefit of the material is both the simplification of SCM sourcing plus enabling the addition of conventional SCM’s at the batching stage, beyond the fly ash in the cement, for further improvements in durability and CO2 reduction. TVRM has AI-supported mix formulation techniques that take any guesswork out of the equation.
The attached technical guide details the codes and specifications met using Type IT paving. Titan America was the first producer to obtain VDOT specifications for Type IT.
The care and attention TVRM applied to the successful completion of all the terminal site paving area is commendable and indicative of its expertise.
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