University Towers consists of two 15-story condominium buildings in Silver Spring, MD. The building are constructed with a lightweight reinforced concrete frame and were built approximately 51 years ago.
TCE was contacted due to extensive deterioration of the elevated garage slab. The damage in the garage was due to corrosion of the reinforcing steel in the concrete. The corrosion was due to high chloride concentrations found in the concrete.
TCE developed a repair program to restore the original structural integrity of the garage slab and install protection systems for the repaired slab. Due to amount of slab deterioration and level of chloride contamination, the garage was repaired by wall-to-wall hydrodemolition to remove and replace the top 4" of the 8" thick slab. Following the repair of the slab, the slab was coated with a urethane coating to prevent future water and chloride intrusion into the slab.
