New edition of Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete available

The American Concrete Institute has released ACI 318-19 Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete.

The document includes:

— Major technical changes in higher reinforcing steel yield strengths

— The addition of shotcrete and deep foundation provisions

— Seismic requirements for deep foundations and other applications

— Vertical seismic motions

— Nonlinear analysis for seismic design

— Modification to development length equations

— Updated shear design provisions and equations

The document also identifies qualification training programs for inspectors/installers and lists certification requirements. The final code requirements of ACI 318-19 are expected to be referenced in the 2021 International Building Code.

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.