New Chairman: Schulze passes on the baton to Braun
In early April, the German trade association for concrete components with lattice girders - Fachvereinigung Betonbauteile mit Gitterträgern, BmG) - elected a new Chairman at their members’ meeting in Leipzig. Wolfgang Braun, Managing Director of the quality association Qualitätsgemeinschaft Doppelwand Bayern, based in Garts am Inn in Bavaria, was unanimously elected as new Chairman. Braun thanked the 28 attending BmG members for the trust placed in him.
Executive Board, management, and members subsequently thanked Gerhard Schulze, who as predecessor had headed the BmG trade association since 2008 and who was not again available for this office. Schulze had been active in the specialist group Lattice Girder Floor Slabs in the German Precast Concrete Association (BDB) since 1995 until its dissolution, and thereafter continued his engagement for BmG. The members’ meeting appointed Schulze unanimously as Honorable Chairman of BmG.
Positive development of the construction industry
In the course of the meeting, Dr.-Ing. Jens-Uwe Pott, Managing Director of BmG, informed the members about the development of the construction industry in recent years, as well as about the association’s development and activities: the provisional balance sheet of the Federal Statistical Office for the German Construction Industry for the year 2015 is positive. Real construction investments increased by 3.1 % to around 309.6 billion euros (2015: 295 billion euros). Housing construction as growth driver increased by the nominal amount of 6.2 %. Investments in public works increased by around 4.0 %; growth of commercial building ranged at approx. 2.2 % and, of civil engineering, around 3.9 %.
In 2014, 40 member companies belonged to BmG. The accession of the association Qualitätsgemeinschaft Doppelwand Bayern GbR, with 15 production facilities, brought the total number of such plants organized in BmG to 72. The company BV Bauelemente Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG left BmG trade association at the end of the business year 2016.
BmG participated, among other events, in the BetonTage in Ulm, with presentation of the results of the AiF research project “Fatigue of lattice girder slabs,” which was co-initiated by BmG and carried out jointly with RWTH Aachen.
WU waterproofing code and EC 2
In addition, BmG trade association is active through its Technical Committee in the areas of technology and standardization in the relevant committees on German and on EU levels, as explained by Dr.-Ing. Johannes Furche, Co-Chairman of BmG and Arbitrator of the Technical Committee.
Special mention is made of the work on the new WU waterproofing code to be published as a standard at the end of this year. BmG and Doppelwand Bayern probably succeeded in preventing the minimum thickness of precast double walls in waterproofed areas from being officially increased to 30 cm. In addition, the Technical Committee, together with RWTH Aachen carried out the already mentioned AiF research project “Fatigue of lattice girder floor slabs.” The results, according to Furche, can be used to promote the market for lattice girder floor slabs: e.g., in bridge construction and floor slabs trafficked by forklifts.
Next meeting in Regensburg
The BmG trade association members’ meeting accepted the annual report 2016 as well as the proposed budget and the contribution scheme for 2017, without dissenting votes. Both management and Executive Board were unanimously approved.
The next members’ meeting is planned for 17 March 2018 in Regensburg, Bavaria.
