Increasingly, the Construction Industry is being dramatically impacted globally by internal and external forces. These influences range from acute labor and skill shortages, demographic and urbanization shifts, as well as, the Industry’s conversion from analog-based processes to digital workflows. This presentation will overview ten significant trends which are uniquely affecting the Construction Industry, creating both new challenges and opportunities, while transforming the Construction Industry.
This presentation looks at buildings that are new or being rehabilitated and the impact on making buildings more energy efficient. Starting with the 2012 IBC, and specifically the 2012 IECC portion of the building code and newer versions, the presentation will look at three aspects of the building envelope: Water Resistance, Air Leakage, and Moisture Transmission. It will then compare to identical buildings, the first built in 2000 and the second constructed in 2020. Illustrations and calculations will show how controlling air leakage can have an enormous impact on the service life of the structure, initial cost of construction, and on-going operations. Lastly, the presentation will look at how incorporating simple additions during the repair/rehabilitation process can have a positive impact on the environment as well as the building owner and the building’s constituents.
Richard Miller Treatment Plant is a 240 mgd cap. potable water treatment facility located in the California area of the Cincinnati, Ohio, US. After installing an advanced ultraviolet (UV) disinfection treatment system in 2013, GCWW became the largest water utility in North America to use UV light following sand filtration and granular activated carbon. The concrete filter gallery building was originally constructed in 1907 with 26 filters, with a 14-filter addition in 1937 and 7 filters added in 1964. After over 110 years of service, the structures started showing significant signs of deterioration, most commonly concrete spalling and reinforcing steel corrosion. This case study will highlight the methods used to evaluate the structures that involved conventional methods such as sounding, crack mapping, chemical and petrographic examinations, along with technology such as Half-Cell Potential/ICOR, Impact-Echo, Ground Penetrating Radar, and UAS (Drone) services.
After only six years of service, a 6-foot long narrow piece of concrete spalled off an exposed slab edge of a 680-foot tall high-rise in Texas, and fell 160 feet to the podium below. The spall was attributed to premature corrosion at the drip edge. The building featured approximately 9,200 feet of exposed slab edge over its height. Given the potential risk to safety and property of additional concrete spalls, the Owner requested forensic investigations, which (1) identified other areas with signs of similar distress and (2) determined the underlying problem of low reinforcement cover at the drip edge was pervasive. In response, repair options were developed to address the problem and restore intended durability. Given the building height, difficult exterior-only access, downtown environment, and post-tensioning anchors along the slab edge, the repair design and construction both had unique challenges to consider and overcome.
Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR) can cause significant damage to concrete structures including bridges, roadways, airport runways, and nuclear power plants. When reactive aggregates are included in a mix, the presence of moisture initiates a reaction between the alkaline cement paste and reactive amorphous silica. The result is a gel that continues to dilate, which may cause cracks in the concrete mass. A research program was undertaken at the University of Toronto to investigate the effects of ASR on large-scale and small-scale concrete specimens. Several specimens were constructed using reactive (ASR) concrete and non-reactive (regular) concrete, and their short-term and long-term structural and mechanical behavior were compared. In this presentation, we will discuss the results of the research program, will offer best practices to minimize the risk of ASR in concrete during placement, and will propose several strategies for repair of structures that have been degraded due to ASR.
The case-histories based presentation will focus on the use of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods to detect flaws and damage in concrete construction. Case histories will be presented for detection and mapping of flaws and damage in concrete such as cracking, delamination, honeycomb, void, corrosion, fire damage, alkali-silica reaction and low strength concrete. The case histories for the concrete structures are anticipated to include parking structures, bridges, buildings and dams. NDE methods will include sonic/ultrasonic, infrared thermography, radar and corrosion technologies where the results in many cases were confirmed by coring. The use of some of the NDE methods for QA of concrete repairs such as epoxy injection and patching will also be discussed.
Repairing and extending the service life of concrete in severe environments first requires that one understands what may be considered severe why it may be considered so. This presentation will discuss the ways in which different organizations and technical committees around the world define ‘severe environments’ for concrete structures; types of deterioration mechanisms and materials-related distress that may severely and quickly deteriorate concrete, type of structures with potentially severe environments, and U.S. geographical considerations.
Post-tensioned concrete is a strong and durable material for construction of exposed parking structures. These types of structures are also fire resistant, but they can be damaged depending upon the severity of the fire. The structure in this presentation suffered significant fire damage early in its construction. The presentation will cover the discovery and testing methods used to determine the extent of fire damage, and the design of the repairs that were instituted to restore strength and allow construction to continue.
Arrowhead Stadium originally opened in 1972 and is known to be the home to the Super Bowl Champions Kansas City Chiefs. Renovations of the stadium completed in 2010 included adding luxury suites on the club level of the stadium. This meant that the upper seating bowl not only had to seat more than 34,000 Chief fans but also act as a "roof" for the new luxury suites. The upper seating bowl comprises L-shaped precast concrete seating risers spanning from cast-in-place concrete raker beams and is divided by sixteen expansion joints. In 2018, the planning for the upper seating bowl waterproofing program began. The goal for the repair project was to implement waterproofing upgrades to protect the concrete for the next 10 years. To add to the challenge of a large-scale waterproofing and structural repair project, the construction efforts had to include coordination with simultaneous seat replacement to be completed in a single off-season.
Due to improper design or implementation sometimes Part of the New projects are re-executed or repaired. Islamabad - Rawalpindi BRTS (Bus Rapid transit System) Consisted of 20 Stations Covering around 23 km path connecting twin cities. Each station Roof Consisted of ACP Sheets Fixed on Aluminum Frame with Steel supports. The joints of ACP sheets were filled by Silicon but improper materiel and workmanship caused leakage in joints. Total length of joints was over 400,000 RFT. Leakage was invariably from almost every area.