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Macroeconomic and external costs caused by inefficient pavement management: Empirical evidence from the A9 motorway in Germany
Published in Andreas Loizos, Imad L. Al-Qadi, A. (Tom) Scarpas, Bearing Capacity of Roads, Railways and Airfields, 2017
Wolfgang H. Schulz, Lea Heinrich, Sebastian Scheler
On May, 2nd 2016, maintenance work began on the A9 in Germany in the direction of Berlin, between the junction Halle-Bitterfeld and Dessau-Süd in order to renew 13.5 km of three lanes. Regularly, the A9 is a motorway with 6 lanes (3 lanes plus one breakdown lane for each direction). The reason for the maintenance work was the heavy damage of the lanes because of the alkali-silica reaction also known as “concrete cancer”. Thus, from May (calendar week 21) two lanes in both directions were rerouted over the lanes in the direction of Munich. In total, the road capacity was reduced from 6 lanes to 4 lanes. As the A9 was constructed with 6 lanes because of the high traffic volume, it was clear that a total reduction in each direction from 3 to 2 lanes would significantly limit capacity. Furthermore, both the exit and the highway ramp of “Bitterfeld-Wolfen”, were closed, which has had a strong impact on both commuters and road freight transport.
United Kingdom and Ireland
Published in Ian Sims, Alan Poole, Alkali-Aggregate Reaction in Concrete: A World Review, 2017
At the height of the publicity over ASR discoveries in south-west England, one enterprising journalist coined the term ‘concrete cancer’ to describe ASR to lay readers (Coates, 1983). Although the term was misleading, because ASR is a scarring rather than a potentially terminal ‘disease’, and engineers rightly deprecated the use of such emotive terminology, it was interesting, because it revealed the level and nature of the public response to the apparently epidemic spread of ASR damage to concrete. Like all human fears of ‘diseases’ or other phenomena of unknown cause and uncertain remedy, the public response to ASR exaggerated the actual incidence of occurrence and the severity of damage to affected structures. However, the causation has now become much better understood, confidence has grown that future construction should be largely free of ASR, and it has become realised in the UK that most structures disabled by ASR can remain in service, with many being able to satisfy the originally intended lifespan.
Planning to live longer: A model for the maintenance-focused conservation plan of heritage building
Published in Koen Van Balen, Els Verstrynge, Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions: Anamnesis, Diagnosis, Therapy, Controls, 2016
A. Cruz, V. Coffey, T.H.T. Chan
The primary goal of this research was to enhance the current approaches in conserving our 'modern heritage'. Numerous literatures indicate that the 'modern heritage' buildings were disposable and have shorter user-by-date. There was also a phenomenal problem known as 'concrete cancer' which was almost evident in most of the buildings constructed during the 20th century. Those difficulties will be analysed with the current framework of CMP and exploring of the maintenance aspect of conservation.
The mechanism of alkali-aggregate reaction in concrete/mortar and its mitigation by using geopolymer materials and mineral admixtures: a comprehensive review
Published in European Journal of Environmental and Civil Engineering, 2022
Muhammad Usama Salim, Mohammad Ali Mosaberpanah
ASR (is also known as ‘Concrete Cancer’) occurs because of reactive silica which an important constituent in most of the aggregates. In 1923 several structures were exposed to severe types of cracking, but scientists were not aware of ASR at that time. Stanton discovered that the main alkalis are sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+), which are combined with silica to initiate ASR (Diamond, 1992). It has become a matter of interest everywhere in the 20th century for example in the UK (1971), Germany (1960), France (1976), and Japan (1983) (Fernandes & Broekmans, 2013; Nishibayashi, 1991; Sims, 1991).