100-year study mirrors U.S. history of concrete

Almost since the beginning of recorded history, people have used concrete substances in everything from infrastructure to artwork. In the second century B.C., for example, the Romans combined powdery volcanic ash, lime, stone aggregate and water to form hydraulic concrete, an extremely hard, strong material that revolutionized their architectural designs and literally became the foundation of the massive Roman maritime infrastructure. While pieces of some of these early Roman harbors, breakwaters, bridges and other structures still exist, as recently as the early 1900s, there had been little scientific research of concrete and only a few standards existed to guide its modern-day mixing and implementation. In fact, what now is the American Concrete Institute formed when editors of the publication Municipal Engineering noted in September 1904 the need for an association to deal with unsatisfactory concrete conditions. More than 600 people attended its first convention and exposition. Shortly thereafter, Owen Withey, a professor of mechanics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had the vision and ambition to begin what likely is the longest-running university concrete research project in the country. "The project uses materials that were available at the time," says Steven Cramer , a UW-Madison professor of civil and environmental engineering.