Last month I attended the Concrete 2029: Roadmapping Workshop hosted by the Strategic Development Council of ACI. This was the fourth of such meetings that began last year. The goals of these strategic meetings are simple:
- Improving quality performed by the contractor
- Improve workforce supply
- Improve quality of concrete – long term durability
- Improve contractor productivity
- Improve concrete industry/product image
- Building standards/code – industry operating
Of these, goals one through five were established in May 2016 at the first meeting. In this session, over 60 attendees were present to listen, learn and brainstorm ideas to satisfy the established goals. This session in particular, focused on durability.
While there are multiple definitions of durability, it can generally be distilled to: “The capability of structural systems, members and their constituent materials to meet or exceed performance requirements for a set period of time in their service environment.”
To open the session, three guest speakers were on hand to discuss various aspects of durability. Claude Bedard, VP, Global Admixture Business Development (Euclid Admixture Canada, Inc.) discussed “Durability Design – International Codes”. Tracy Marcotte, Principal (CVM) presented “Durability in Canadian Codes” and Jacques Marchand, CEO (SIMCO Technologies Inc.) offered his thoughts on “Designing Structures for Durability.”
While each of these presentations offered insight as to what the durability of concrete is and how to define durability. There is no standard or code in place to dictate how durability should be defined. Later in the day, attendees were assigned to break-out groups for further discussion as to how Concrete 2029 can address the topic of durability. While these break-out groups produced a healthy discussion, the end result seemed to produce more questions than answers.
The main question at hand as it relates to durability is: “What is the cost of doing nothing versus the cost of addressing durability and implementing a solution?”
Stay tuned, as there is plenty of work to do, before a formal presentation is on the table.
The latest Concrete 2029 session could not have been timelier. In this month’s issue of Concrete Contractor, Kevin MacDonald and Joe Nasvik have put together an article addressing this very issue. Turn to page 22 to see their conclusions when we ask: “Can we design and build structures we know will last a hundred years?”
To achieve long life requires a special effort on the part of owners, architects, engineers, contractors and material suppliers. The authors explain how current technology is contributing to increasing lifespan, despite lagging questions which don’t seem to have any answers at this point in time.
While the concrete industry continues to combat other issues such as finding a qualified workforce and increasing contractor productivity, I’m certain, durability will be a constant theme in 2017.
