Category: Construction Materials & Concrete Durability, Training & Education
The project consisted of the construction of a 5,000 cubic yard mass concrete mat foundation for a medical facility in Houston, TX. CA’s work consisted of working with the Structural Engineer of Record, General Contractor, Concrete Sub-Contractor, Independent Testing Laboratory, and the Ready-Mixed Concrete Supplier to develop a construction plan for the placement, curing, and protection of the mass concrete to ensure the quality of the concrete in-place. CA developed a plan for the preparation and placement of the mass concrete including monitoring internal concrete temperatures after several meetings with all parties involved in the construction; review of plans, drawings, and specifications; developing mixture proportions using fly ash as the supplementary cementitious material; casting and evaluating the performance of a mock-up; and field testing. CA’s work also included developing the quality control program for accepting the fresh concrete delivered to the job, temperature monitoring plan, concrete specifications, curing methods, and early age protection to prevent distress in the fly ash concrete. Through daily monitoring of the ambient and internal concrete temperatures, CA was able to provide the General Contractor with guidelines for proceeding with construction as quickly as possible while ensuring that the concrete did not experience any thermal cracking.
