Raising the Roof: Precast Takes Sports Stadiums to New Levels

When designing a 21st century sports stadium, architects and engineers must create a multi-purpose facility that can meet a wide range of needs. To accomplish this, designers and contractors have turned to precast concrete building components for both architectural and structural applications. Precast concrete provides a consistent, durable solution that increases productivity for all phases of the construction process.

By Kirk Stelsel

For four weeks in June and July, the world’s focus was on South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Soccer’s global draw is immense. It’s estimated that 700 million viewers tuned in for the final match – all of whom saw the flexibility and beauty of precast concrete, even though they probably didn’t realize it.

Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa, was designed by Populous and Boogertman + Partners to be a symbol of the host country and the continent. Meant to resemble a traditional African pot known as a calabash, the unique look required an equally unique product to bring the design to life (see Figure 1). Read More »

Tech Topic: Manhole Sizing Recommendations

By Claude Goguen, P.E., LEED AP

Round manholes are the most widely used maintenance utility structures to provide access to buried pipelines for inspection and cleanout. Manholes are typically used for connecting two or more converging storm or sanitary sewer lines, or pipes, which may be of different diameter and may enter the manhole at various angles and elevations. It is important, therefore, that sizing design ensures structural integrity for the required number of pipe openings for a given junction. Manhole sizing design includes not just the outer diameter or dimensions of the structure itself, but also the thickness of its walls and the distance, or leg, between pipe openings.

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Precision Precast: Box Culvert Performs in NYC

The high water table at the site of the new Imagination Playground in New York City’s Historic South Street Sea port  district is a valid test for the connection integrity and watertightness of the precast concrete box culvert combined sewer system.

By Sue McCraven

The Big Apple isn’t for everyone. Not many construction contractors are tough enough to compete in New York City (NYC). Some national and international firms will not work in NYC for a number of reasons, including multiple regulatory agencies; onerous permitting requirements; congested underground utilities; and last – but certainly not least – notorious traffic.

Contractors who succeed in NYC need to be pretty savvy, like Garden State Precast located in New Jersey, who fabricated, tested and supplied the precast concrete box culvert tunnel system. This precast tunnel carries the combined sewer and stormwater flow under lower Manhattan’s Imagination Playground (see Figure 1), a new and innovative public space designed by architect David Rockwell of Rockwell Group to encourage child-directed, unstructured free play (see Sidebar A). The subsurface of the playground’s historic seaport site complicated excavation work and precast culvert assembly with a nasty assemblage of garbage, high water and potential archeological artifacts. Read More »

Contemporary Appeal for University Gateway Building

When Marquette University started planning for the construction of Zilber Hall, the welcoming facility for prospective students and their parents, precast concrete inlaid with brick offered a structure with the right mix of traditional and contemporary appeal.

By Deborah R. Huso

One of the greatest challenges of institutional architecture, particularly when working in a historic university setting, is making sure that new buildings complement older ones – no small feat when contending with structures spanning more than 100 years. At Marquette University in Milwaukee, however, architectural precast concrete has come to the rescue on more than one occasion. Most recently, precast was used for the construction of the university’s Student Services Building, Zilber Hall, which opened for business last fall.

Blending with existing architecture
“Because of where the building is located on Wisconsin Avenue right across the street from some of the oldest buildings on campus – all of them brick – we really wanted it to fit in,” says Tim Hansmann, Zilber Hall’s design architect with The Kubala Washatko Architects. Zilber Hall is also one of the focal points of the campus with 12 college departments occupying space there, including the admissions department and the president’s office. “The university wanted the building to be inviting, welcoming and dignified but not ostentatious,” Hansmann adds. Because it serves as the Student Services Building, Zilber Hall is the first place on campus that prospective students and parents visit. Read More »

ASTM C 1613: Clearing Away the FOG

Experienced inspector and engineer explains why it is critical to understand grease interceptor standards and watertightness testing protocols.

By James Baginski, P.E.

The term FOG often describes the streets of London during the early morning hours. Sorry ole’ chap, but this term has become an acronym that strikes fear in the hearts of wastewater collection system managers. Or does it?

Over the past few decades, after all our wastewater treatment plants were upgraded, the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) began to focus on observed fats, oils and grease (FOG) discharged to public sewer systems. FOG had arguably become the No. 1 cause of costly sanitary sewer overflows that can result in adverse impact to public health and the environment. Well, that will not do. Surely municipalities require restaurants and food service establishments (FSEs) to control FOG discharges. Or do they? Do FOG-removal devices such as grease interceptors take care of this nasty problem? Read More »

Heavy Lifting: Precast Shells Require World’s Largest Equipment

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lifts and transports heavy precast concrete shells for one-of-a-kind Ohio River lock and dam project with the largest gantry crane, catamaran barge and strandjacks in the world.

By William Atkinson
All photos courtesy of The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District.

You have to see this dam to believe it: the view of a new, one-of-a-kind navigation project being built on the Ohio River near Olmsted, Ill., is, to say the least, spectacular. Large precast concrete shells are built on the shoreline at a specially created concrete batching plant, precast concrete facility and storage yard. Precast shells are lifted and carried by a  heavy-duty gantry crane to a ramp that transports them down into the river, where a catamaran barge lifts the shells and floats them to their final location in the river. Once in place, the space under the shells is filled with tremie concrete. Then, more concrete and steel structures are built atop the underwater precast shells. Impressive? What is even more impressive is the size and scope of the project, including 4,700-ton (4,260-tonnes) precast shells and the lifting capacity of the equipment, some of which is the largest in the world.

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Maximize Design Options: Innovations in Precast Security Barriers

Innovations in precast concrete materials and impact resistance mean more design alternatives for urban security barriers.

By Marc Caspe , P.E., S.E.; Jun Ji, Ph.D., P.E.; Lin Shen, Ph.D., P.E.; Qian Wang, Ph.D., P.E., LEED AP; and Yanzhi Zhai, P.E.

As a worldwide threat, terrorism is among the top concerns in infrastructure protection design. Vehiclular bombing has proved to be one of the most disastrous of terrorist attacks,  especially in densely populated urban areas. Functional and efficient perimeter security barriers have become extremely important for shielding critical facilities and, more importantly, safeguarding human life.

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Fly Ash – A Hazardous Material?

By Claude Goguen, PE, LEED AP – Photos Courtesy of DTE Energy

By now, you have probably heard of the controversy brewing about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) reclassification of fly ash, a coal combustion byproduct, that would make it a hazardous material. So, why does this matter and what are the facts?

First, let’s see how we got here. Currently, about half of the electricity produced in the United States comes from coal (fossil fuel) power plants. These plants produce byproducts like fly ash, silica fume and blast furnace slag. These and other “coal combustion products” were originally treated as waste and disposed of in landfills.

Fly ash is known as a supplementary cementitious material, or SCM. The use of SCMs dates back to the ancient Greeks who incorporated volcanic ash with hydraulic lime to create a cementitious mortar. The Greeks passed this knowledge on to the Romans, who constructed such engineering marvels as the Roman aqueducts and the Coliseum that still stand today.

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Geothermal Heat Pump Systems: Integration with Precast Concrete

A brief primer on geothermal systems for engineers and architects.

By Robert Mancini, P.Eng.

Geothermal energy systems use the earth as a heat source, a heat sink and as an energy-storage device. Geothermal systems are also known as ground source heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps and earth energy systems or geo-exchange systems. Geothermal heat pump (GHP) systems represent a mature technology that has been in use for more than 50 years. GHP systems not only can reduce a building’s carbon footprint but also its total operating costs.

The GHP systems in North America were mostly installations for single-family residential buildings and typically were small in scale, with only two or three vertical boreholes into the ground. Today, however, the size of these geoexchange systems is limited only by the area available for the installation of the ground exchanger. Read More »

Plants and Precast are a Natural Solution

Evergreen precast retaining walls support vegetation to deliver strength and beauty.

By Mimi Rainero Coles

What structural product securely holds back tons of earth for infrastructure projects, boasts long service life and low maintenance, deters graffiti, absorbs sound and heat, supports plant growth, is sustainable and beautifies the environment? Hint: It is used all over the world! Any ideas?

It’s the Evergreen Wall!

The Evergreen Wall is comprised of precast concrete elements stacked in horizontal columns that quickly and easily fit together. The wall includes voids that accommodate soil and support vegetation, from flowers and vines to groundcovers like January jasmine and other low-spreading evergreens. The wall’s design promotes deep root growth that can withstand freezing temperatures and hot, dry weather conditions.

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