Dallas City Hall and Plaza are recognized by many due to the opening scenes of Dallas, the television show. What is less known is that the structure is a significant early example of bonded post-tensioned concrete which was utilized throughout the superstructure and two-story parking garage constructed beneath the plaza. Opened in 1977, the parking garage is a two-way bonded post-tensioned concrete slab with unreinforced drop panels supported by flared circular concrete columns. The garage covers two city blocks, extends under two adjacent multi-lane streets, and supports mature landscaping, pool, fountain, and up to 11’-0” of soil. In 2017, several square feet of a drop panel fell from the structure and subsequent observations found multiple locations of drop panel and column capital failures. A structural investigation including destructive and non-destructive testing, and analysis of the existing structure was undertaken to determine the cause of the failures.
High Traffic Commercial/Light Industrial applications including light manufacturing, warehouse/big-box stores and high traffic retail applications present their own unique challenges in concrete repair. This presentation will review concrete repair options that a focused on those application that may require both fast application/turnaround time and strength/use durability for forklifts and trucks. High Traffic Commercial/Light Industrial applications including light manufacturing, warehouse/big-box stores and high traffic retail applications present their own unique challenges in concrete repair. This presentation will review concrete repair options that a focused on those application that may require both fast application/turnaround time and strength/use durability for forklifts and trucks. While there are many option for quick repair that can be open to use in a matter of hours, it is important to acknowledge he potential limitations of these options over the long term.
What happens when a building owner calls with leaks into a building they just finished? After verifying whether they want to file a lawsuit or not, the course of action is important. An investigation and preliminary testing are typically recommended to understand the original design and the quality and consistency of the construction. Design of remedial repairs and a pilot repair program followed by retesting to confirm results. How extensive are the failures and how invasive do the repairs need to be? Costs? What materials were used and were they compatible? Public perception and developer/owner reputation are important. The occupants have just moved in. Higher expectation of successful repairs. Can we involve the original design and construction team? These are just a few of the issues that need to be faced early in this process. One must communicate often and clearly with the owner and rest of the project team in order to manage expectations, costs and construction quality control.
A significant percentage of repairs are performed during the course of constructing new structures. Once a construction anomaly or error occurs the first concerns are for life safety and schedule impact. A review of the steps necessary to successfully perform repairs and minimize impacts to the ongoing construction. Examples of challenging problems and the traditional and non-traditional solutions to these problems will be discussed.
Historic 19th and 20th century buildings are currently facing the necessity of meeting contemporary needs such as adaptive re-use, energy efficiency, stability, and durability. The characteristics of architecture of these periods (i.e., material, design, details, maintenance, and functionality) increasingly make it challenging to maintain authenticity while incorporating new uses. Various strategies of technical interventions can be employed to achieve good results. This presentation will cover the case study of abandoned historic hospital pavilions from the early 20th century which are being converted into a high-end residential complex. The buildings face multiple challenges related to adaptive re-use, as they will be restored and connected with new infills and a glass connector and capped with re-creation of the historic cornices.
The application of nondestructive testing and evaluation for detecting existing defects and anomalies in concrete structures will be presented. Proper inspection and assessment is an integral part of a successful repair and rehabilitation. A well-defined inspection will help asset owners and their consultants in identifying the location and extent of existing defects, and enabling them in selecting proper repair materials and optimizing the area that needs rehabilitation. Moreover, NDT methods can help identify potential defects that are not visible to the naked eye, such as early-stage delamination, corrosion, and other durability related issues. In this presentation, several cases in Canada will be demonstrated, where the results of nondestructive testing and evaluation have been used to help consultants and contractors with cost-effective and reliable repair planning. Applications of ground penetrating radar, ultrasonic pulse echo tomography, seismic tomography, will be discussed.
The Ituango dam is an embankment dam that is currently under construction on the Cauca River in Colombia. The largest hydroelectric power plant in Colombia’s history. Three large diversion tunnels used to divert the water from the river around the construction site during construction collapsed as a result of heavy rainfalls. The nearly completed pump house had to be flooded to accommodate premature water build-up in the reservoir. These tunnels would need to be permanently sealed. “Pre-stoppers” would need to be constructed in place to serve as bulk heads between which would ultimately be excavated and back-filled with concrete to permanently seal the tunnels. Additional to standard anti-washout properties, the grout had to withstand swiftly flowing water and exhibit an extended working time at temperatures above 32 degrees C. A custom grout was developed for this application. In the end, hundreds of grout micropiles were tremied, consuming more than 1,650 tons of grout, to produce...
Two projects will be explored in this presentation. The first is a concrete structure which for 20 years was exposed to extreme heat. The second is a structure which was exposed to extreme vibrations. Both these structures were integral parts of manufacturing processes and required limited down time to repair. The questions needing to be answered were: what is the condition of the existing concrete and what are the repair options for these structures. We turned to non-destructive techniques to evaluate these structures. Non-destructive techniques can provide insight into structures when accompanied by experienced engineers and petrographic analysis. Repair options were provided at the end of our evaluation leading to reduced down time and well-planned repairs.
On August 9, 2019, Tyson Foods' Holcomb, Kansas beef plant experienced the first large fire in the meat processing industry in nearly 20 years. The long-burning fire precipitated the collapse of a portion of the high roof over the mechanical mezzanine, which housed equipment for numerous critical plant processes. This took portions of the plant, the second largest in the United States, out of operation for months. The pressures of substantial business interruption costs, as well as the market consequences for cattle feeders from the Southern Plains region, necessitated a rapid response. This presentation highlights the investigation into the extent of damage to precast members, including visual inspection, nondestructive and laboratory evaluations, testing, simulation, and analyses. Based on this investigation, members were identified for repair or removal and replacement.
The Avalon Mall parking facility is a four level above grade structure, consisting of three suspended parking levels (approximately 7,750sq.m. each) and one on-grade parking level connected to the existing mall with a new pedestrian bridge. RJC was the structural engineer of record. During construction of the parking structure extensive cracking of the suspended parking garage slabs was noted at two of the 24 pours. RJC undertook a visual assessment of the parking slabs in question to determine the extent of the noted cracking and determined over 750lin.m. of cracks ranging in size from 0.5mm to 6.5mm in width. Following the visual assessment destructive testing of the concrete was undertaken to determine its in-situ properties as well as to understand the full extent of the cracking.