Envisioning Streamlined and Coordinated Concrete Code Development

2/2/2026

by Guest Authors Mary Beth Hueste, Andrea Schokker, and Michael Tholen

We are pleased to have an opportunity to reach out to ACI’s membership as the President’s Memo guest authors and share the latest information regarding an initiative to envision the future of ACI codes.

ACI Standards Development

ACI documents are developed through a rigorous consensus-based process. That process is even more rigorous for codes and specifications (the ACI standards) with the opportunity for public commentary on each new edition of a standard before it is published. Another factor that separates ACI standards from other ACI documents is the use of mandatory language.

ACI codes are a result of the dedicated efforts of ACI committees working solely on code documents, but often rely on other ACI technical committees’ consensus-based recommendations. The ACI Technical Activities Committee (TAC) plays a key role in overseeing and supporting ACI technical committees during their work, while also reviewing each document and standard developed prior to publication. ACI staff is involved throughout this process to guide and support the committee volunteers to ensure consistency of standards development and publication. In addition, ACI staff supports code advocacy to facilitate the appropriate adoption of ACI codes and standards. Finally, the concrete community plays a critical role in providing public comments for new codes prior to final publication and feedback when codes are put into use.

ACI has updated the document naming system to clearly identify codes using the designation “CODE.” Currently, there are 31 ACI standards with this designation. This number reflects significant progress in the release of new codes in the past several years, along with mature codes updated on a regular cycle. Additional specifications and codes under development include a range of topics such as durability, pools, formwork, fiber-reinforced concrete, and precast tunnels.

ACI Board Task Group on Code Envisioning

To support the continued evolution of the ACI Suite of Codes, the ACI Board of Direction, under the leadership of President Maria Juenger, recently appointed a Board Task Group on Envisioning Streamlined and Coordinated Concrete Code Development. The Task Group’s mission is to “Develop a long-term strategic vision for the coordination and streamlining of concrete codes to facilitate use and innovation in an increasingly complex concrete industry.” Key to this effort is focusing on user needs to ensure codes are coordinated, streamlined, and easy to navigate, while continuing to promote innovation and standards that meet present needs and anticipate future needs.

This Task Group will rely on interfacing with the stakeholder groups involved in code development and the use of ACI codes to develop a vision for the future of ACI codes.

Task Group Focus

While there are ACI standards that cover critical topics such as thermal, test, and qualification requirements, this Task Group primarily focuses on ACI standards related to structural design. Figure 1 provides a snapshot of the 21 ACI design codes that are the focus of this Task Group.

Concrete Community Engagement Activities

The goal of the Task Group is to engage with the concrete community to collect feedback that will help shape future ACI codes. This will be accomplished through two stages:

• Stage 1 consists of an online survey that will encourage participation from all key stakeholder groups and provide a systematic collection of user feedback; and
• Stage 2 will include user forums, consisting of both in-person and online focus group meetings. These forums will be an opportunity to share the survey results and allow for more in-depth discussion and feedback.

Participation in the online survey will be requested broadly. Invited participants will include ACI members and ACI code users from around the world. Different user groups will be contacted, including licensed design professionals, producers, contractors, building code officials, architects, higher education faculty, researchers, and students. To increase participation, ACI partner organizations will be asked to send the survey to their membership as well. Once completed, the survey results will be shared with the concrete community and user forums will be conducted.

The survey results will help guide areas for deeper discussion through the user forums. These focus group meetings will be used to gather feedback on code coordination aspects and preferences regarding streamlining codes as well as potential platforms to support the use of ACI codes. Approaches to coordinate and streamline the ACI Suite of Design Codes will also be discussed.

Next Steps

The Task Group activities will be used to develop a strategic evidence-based and user-oriented proposal for future code coordination and streamlining of ACI codes that reflects current code-use patterns and desired future improvements. This proposal will be provided to the ACI Board of Direction for further consideration for implementation.

We hope that you will participate in this important effort and provide your input to help shape the vision for the future of ACI codes. The survey will be released in spring 2026. Following the survey, we will be reaching out to set up user forums.

The Task Group is looking forward to hearing your feedback and sharing the results with you. Thank you in advance for your participation.

Fig. 1: Snapshot of ACI Suite of Design Codes

Note: Thermal, test, and qualification standards, along with specifications and codes in progress, are not shown.