Foxhall Square Garage

Post-Tensioned Cable
Repair and Replacement
By Michael K. OMalley

F oxhall Square is a large medical office building

with retail space located in northwest Wash-
ington, DC. Parking for tenants and patrons of this
restoring adequate concrete cover to the spalled and
delaminated concrete, and undertaking further
destructive testing.
facility is provided in a 325-space parking garage The engineer performing the structural analysis
that is adjacent to the office building. The garage conducted his own visual survey of the garage,
was built in 1972 and features post-tensioned con- chain-dragging of the slabs, and an evaluation of
struction in the parking deck slabs. selected post-tensioning tendons through destructive
Due to the very high volume of traffic frequenting investigation. Several exposed cables were
the medical office building and retail shops, there observed on the top parking slab and numerous
is heavy usage of this parking facility. Maintenance instances of exposed cables on the soffit underneath
of the parking structure has been an ongoing were identified. The chain-drag investigation
process, and the building management company revealed approximately 800 ft2 (79 m2) of slab
has performed structural repairs to the garage on an surface spalls and 120 ft (37 m) of soffit spalls.
as-needed basis for many years. Repairs were During the investigation of the post-tensioning
focused on areas where public safety for pedestrian cables, potential replacement of cable hardware was
and vehicular traffic was the greatest concern. considered. To demonstrate the ability to replace
While this approach was effective at addressing these components, a mockup of the replacement
basic safety issues, the mosaic of repair efforts over operation was constructed. The exposure of the
time did not effectively serve the long-term health tendons in the mockup phase revealed corrosion
of the parking structure. After recognizing that along the entire length of the cables and this condition
parking revenue was being negatively impacted by now required complete cable replacement along the
the frequency of repair and restoration efforts and length of the bundle. Further testing was authorized
the increasing costs associated with performing the and revealed that corrosion along the entire cable
repairs, a long-term asset enhancement program length was prevalent in every opening. Given this
was decided on for the garage. condition, complete cable replacement was recom-
mended by the engineer. The owner had initially
Evaluation requested a 3-year phased schedule for the project;
In the spring of 2007, the property management but as the first phase of the work progressed, it was
firm representing the building owner explored discovered that a significant percentage of the cables
options for a long-term, low-maintenance solution were detensioned and the project schedule was
to the ongoing garage repairs. An engineering firm accelerated to 2 years.
was retained to perform a structural analysis of the
parking garage and was also asked to provide input Project Execution and Challenges
on how to expand the vehicular capacity of the Upon approval of funding for the structural
parking deck. repairs by the building ownership and management
As part of the project evaluation, the engineer groups, the contractor proceeded to mobilize for
was given a report prepared by another firm in 2005 the project per the phasing plan recommended in
that was based on a visual survey of the garage. the report prepared by the project engineering firm.
That firm noted numerous locations in which post- The building management was responsible for
tensioning cable hardware was visible overhead and coordinating tenant and visitor notification
on the slab floor. It noted that the cables appeared regarding the impending project. To accommodate
to be tensioned and identified 650 ft2 (60 m2) of the high volume of pedestrian and vehicular traffic,
spalled and potentially delaminated concrete.The a well-coordinated traffic control and parking plan
recommendations in the 2005 report included was crafted between the parking operator, contractor,
replacing the exposed post-tensioned hardware, and building management firm. The parking operator

8 Concrete Repair Bulletin May/june 2013 www.icri.org

was directed by the building management to the rain in addition to enduring long days through
increase valet personnel because of the number of stifling summer heat.
parking spaces that would be taken out of service The concrete demolition proceeded quickly, with
on the garage roof level. A total of 15 valet drivers openings made throughout the upper deck that
were staffed on site during the project. exposed previous repairs and anchor locations
A shoring plan was designed to support the upper (Fig. 2 and 3). While certain crews continued on
level of the garage, and construction fencing and demolition and slab openings, others were busy
dust barriers were installed (Fig. 1). To maintain installing new cables (Fig. 4 and 5). A steady
the owners construction schedule, a crew of 20 workers progression was maintained by using remaining
was deployed to the site; they worked 6 days per personnel to install the intermediate stressing
week, 10 hours per day. Construction personnel anchorage and splice chuck repair hardware for the
were required to work during inclement weather, upcoming cables that were slated to be stressed
resulting in the physical challenge of laboring in (Fig. 6 and 7). As the project moved forward and

Fig. 1: Temporary shoring and dust control measures Fig. 2: Workers exposing tendons with small
chipping hammers

Fig. 3: Exposed anchor locations Fig. 4: Newly installed cables

Fig. 5: Simultaneous operations Fig. 6: Spliced cables

www.icri.org May/June 2013 Concrete Repair Bulletin 9

 Fig. 7: Spliced cables ready for tensioning Fig. 8: Tensioning new cables in stairwell

Fig. 9: Tensioning new cables on deck Fig. 10: Newly stressed tendon

the full extent of the cable deterioration became New area drains installed: three.
evident, the owner contracted with a firm that Some of the challenges faced during the construc
specializes in corrosion mitigation to have it conduct tion process were:
a cable corrosion evaluation. The firms findings No as-built documents from previous repair
validated the extent of the cable corrosion and the efforts;
repairs proceeded as planned. Original structural drawings that were not
Stressing of the new post-tensioned cables entirely accurate;
(Fig. 8 and 9) was initially performed as planned; The building was heavily visited and noise
however, the project engineer had to make adjust- restrictions allowed for only 4 hours of demolition
ments to the stressing tension after a few cable each day from 7 to 9 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. Work
tendons ruptured during the tensioning operation. was limited to the summer months and was
A completed stressing of an intermediate stressing completed in two consecutive seasons;
anchorage with the wedges seated is shown in Post-tensioned cable and end anchorage repairs
Fig. 10. Following the tensioning operation, concrete were performed over a restaurant, requiring
was placed in the repair cavities (Fig. 11 and 12). shoring and dust protection within the restaurant
The newly placed concrete was finished to match to be set up;
the surface and texture of the adjacent concrete as Even though parking of vehicles was largely
closely as possible (Fig. 13). performed by valets, it became clear that when
The work items for the Foxhall post-tensioned one of the ramps to the upper deck was closed,
cable repair project included: a flagman was needed to direct the one-way flow
New cable installed: 67,000 ft (20,420 m); of traffic on the remaining single-lane ramp. This
New end anchors: 1156; control was critical when a front-end loader had
New intermediate stressing anchorages: 386; to use the ramp to move construction debris to the
New lockoffs: 200; dumpster adjacent to the garage entrance; and
Partial-depth repairs: 1500 ft2 (140 m2); Large planter boxes that ran along certain areas
Full-depth repair: 5000 ft2 (465 m2); of the upper deck perimeter had to be removed
New reinforcing steel: 4500 ft (1370 m); and completely, including the soils and all vegetation.

10 Concrete Repair Bulletin May/june 2013 www.icri.org

 Collaborative Effort Yields
Positive Results
In a collaborative effort of commitment to meet
or exceed the expectations of the owner, the project
engineering firm and contractor emphasized and
practiced open communication from the incipient
stages of the project. Every attempt was made to
turn challenges into opportunities to creatively work
through the issue. This combined effort kept the
Fig. 11: Pouring concrete repair material project moving forward on schedule and to the
satisfaction of the client. Considering the scope of
work performed in the given time frame, the owner
expressed appreciation for the site being closed for
only a modest period of time and was grateful that
the parking structure will be structurally sound for
years to come and that the previous ongoing repairs
are now a past headache.

Michael K. OMalley is the Vice

President and CEO of Concrete
Protection & Restoration, Inc., a
Baltimore, MD-based specialty
Fig. 12: Consolidating patch material contractor providing structural
repair and renovations to the Mid-
Atlantic marketplace. OMalley
received his BS in mechanical
engineering from the University of Maryland School
of Engineering and his MBA from the University of
Baltimore Merrick School of Business. He is a
member of the ICRI Board of Directors, ASME, PTI,
ACI, the American Builders and Contractors
Association (ABC), the Parking Association of the
Virginias, the Mid-Atlantic Parking Association, and
the Steel Structures Painting Council (SSPC).
Fig. 13: Final surface of patch repair

www.icri.org May/June 2013 Concrete Repair Bulletin 11