Earlier this week, Saint John, N.B., city council was told the parking commission dropped plans to put an epoxy coating on the floors of the new Peel Plaza Parking garage, shaving $350,000 off the structure’s $16.5-million price tag.
The chair of the parking commission said the garage is being built to last 50 years and it doesn’t make sense to spend money trying to make it last any longer.
But according to Professor Doug Hooton (CivE), who provided his expert comment to the CBC, it is possible to build a garage that lasts a century.
Professor Hooton, an expert in concrete durability, contends that there have been many innovations to concrete construction in recent years that allow designers to predict life spans even beyond 100 years.
A well-built and well-maintained structure, such as a bridge, or parking garage can be made to last a century “if you know the type of concrete, and you know how far the steel is in from the surface, and you know what kind of surface coating you have and how long that will last,” he said.
Read the full story at CBC.ca
