Concrete innovation: voided biaxial slab slashes weight, saves concrete

ProHealth Care’s 76,140-sf D.N. Greenwald Center, completed earlier this year in Mukwonago, Wis., houses a medical walk-in clinic with emergency services, an ambulance garage, and an expanded imaging services unit.

The slab construction employed BubbleDeck, which precisely sets recycled plastic “void formers” that look like bowling balls in the hollow deck to displace concrete along the neutral axis. This reduced the slab’s non-axial dead load by 30% while maintaining biaxial strength, and saved 786 cubic feet of concrete on the job.

GRAEF (engineering services) completed the fabrication drawings, saving eight weeks. Other Building Team members: Eppstein Uhen Architects, Pearson Engineering (MEP), and Mortenson (CM).