What is the International Concrete Repair Institute?

The mission of the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI) is to be a leading resource for education and information to improve the quality of repair, restoration, and protection of concrete and other structures.

Overhead Dry-Mix Shotcrete

In overhead shotcreting, it is important to first make sure that the reinforcing steel and/or mesh is tightly tied and anchored in place.

Overhead Shotcrete

When you say overhead, people invariably think of fixed costs, salaries, and the general costs of running a business.

Curing Silica Fume Shotcrete with Wet-Sprayed Cellulose

Chloride-induced corrosion is the primary cause of deterioration in many concrete bridges in Canada and the northern United States. For corrosion to take place, the chloride ions permeate through the interconnected pores of the concrete toward the embedded steel reinforcement and attack the passive layer that forms around the steel during the hydration process of concrete. Once this passive layer is destroyed, corrosion proceeds, resulting in a reduction in the structural integrity of the structure in addition to the onset of spalling of the concrete cover. To restore the serviceability of the structure and extend its service life, the deteriorated concrete is usually removed, the reinforcement is replaced if necessary, and the concrete is replaced with a durable repair material that has high resistance to chloride ion transport. In the province of Ontario, Canada, partially deteri-orated concrete bridge soffits are typically repaired with shotcrete containing silica fume.

Quality Management of Shotcrete in North America

As for all construction materials, a proper program of quality management should be implemented in shotcrete construction to protect the owner™s investment. This article briefly examines typical shotcrete Quality Management (QM) practice in North America. QM can be considered to be comprised of Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) functions.

Specified Dilemmas

On shotcrete sites, it is not unusual to hear comments starting with œIn a perfect world, … Of course, in a perfect world,there wouldn™t be any shotcrete because there wouldn™t be anything to repair or strengthen. Fortunately, there are plenty of imperfections in the jurisdiction where most of my work comes from. We find them on cracked and fissured rock slopes next to highways, in ground to be tunneled for infrastructure improvements, in old masonry walls, washed-out bridge foundations, and in marine piers where the chloride concentration at the rebar level in the concrete exceeds the reasonable limit set for the onset of corrosion.