Concrete provides strength and stability to structural members of buildings, bridges, water retaining structures, sewerage treatment plants, wharves, etc. Therefore it is very important to protect concrete and any deterioration or damages must be repaired promptly in order not to compromise the stuctures integrity.
Concrete rehabilitation specially in critical infrastructures is as important as any other maintenance activity and must be carried out in a timely manner. Repairs performed at early stage would save extremely expensive remediation’s that may become necessary at latter stages.
Deterioration of concrete can be broadly categorized into cracking, spalling and corrosion. There are several causes for concrete deterioration and the main cause can either be carbonation or chloride induced corrosion of steel reinforcements or both.
Rehabilitation or repair involves the removal of deteriorated, damaged or defective concrete and then carrying out an appropriate repair procedure. Recommended repair procedures for controlling reinforcement corrosion are classified as follows:
• Cathodic protection, chloride extraction and re-alkalization systems;
• Coating of steel reinforcement;
• Crack repair (epoxy/chemical/cementitious grout injection)
• Moisture barrier system (protective coating);
• Patch repair system using an epoxy or cementitious repair mortar
The solution to these defects are, the reaming of the blocked holes to remove the lime deposition, leveling the old jetty stone base with Leveling in Stones or with gravel and repacking the area with new and old removed stones in order to have a uniform surface, and treat the Masonry Structures.