American Concrete Institute offers new guide for repair of concrete buildings

The American Concrete Institute has released a new publication for concrete industry professionals—Guide to the Code for Assessment, Repair, and Rehabilitation of Existing Concrete Buildings.

The guide is a companion to ACI 562-16 Code Requirements for Assessment, Repair, and Rehabilitation of Existing Concrete Structures and Commentary. The publication provides assistance and examples to professionals for the repair of concrete buildings and is available as a printed and digital book.

Although specifically developed for licensed design professionals, the guide also provides insight into the use and benefits of ACI 562 for contractors, material manufacturers, building owners, and building officials. The publication provides information pertaining to how to interpret the performance requirements in ACI 562, and how the requirements may be applied to a broad range of projects.

Included is information on:

• Applicability of ACI 562

• Selection of the building code for the repair design

• Preliminary evaluations to determine a compliance method for meeting the code requirements

• Strength reduction factors and load combinations both during and after the repair

• Requirements for evaluation, determination of material properties, and load testing

• Considerations for design of structural repairs

• Durability requirements

• Construction considerations

• Quality assurance

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.