The American Concrete Institute (ACI) has formed a new committee mandated to develop and maintain structural concrete code requirements relevant to the design of precast concrete.

ACI Committee 319, Precast Structural Concrete Code, will host its inaugural meeting at the ACI Fall Convention on October 21, 2019, in Cincinnati, in the United States.

The committee will be chaired by Andrea Schokker, Professor and head of Civil Engineering at The University of Minnesota Duluth. The committee will respond directly to an industry need for building code requirements that address the unique aspects of precast and prestressed concrete design, a statement from the ACI said.

As per the ACI, although guidance documents for the unique design of connections and members can be found in the industry, code officials often require code documents that delineate minimum requirements in mandatory language that have been developed using an open consensus process. It is expected that the ACI’s new precast structural concrete code requirements will complement the requirements in ACI 318: Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete.

This committee and its future code document set a precedent for additional ACI code documents geared toward specific segments of the industry or construction types, the statement said.
An additional new committee, ACI Committee 320, Post-Tensioned Structural Concrete Code, is also in the process of being developed.