The Leon County Courthouse Parking Garage is a cast-in-place concrete structure with a capacity of more than 500 vehicles. The garage consists of five below-grade parking levels and a five-floor office structure above the parking levels. In addition to providing parking for the courthouse and nearby businesses, the garage also is home to a memorial honoring World War II veterans. Weighing approximately 135 tons, the statue sits on top of the courthouse's plaza deck, which also serves as the roof of the parking garage. Prior to construction of the memorial, tests revealed that the provided reinforcement was not adequate to carry the load from the monument. Additional inspection by the engineer revealed that the garage was already showing serious cracking on all floor levels, leading the owner to pursue and implement a comprehensive structural evaluation and strengthening program.

SPS proposed a solution that involved pin-pointing each crack individually -- by location, size and the nature of the crack -- for epoxy injection. Full-depth cracks were pressure-injected, while other cracks were injected by the gravity feed method. For the 35 locations identified as having shear deficiency, steel collars and cast-in-place drop panels were installed. Finally, slabs were strengthened using either a carbon reinforced polymer strip system or span reduction using cast-in-place beams.

Because of the demand for the parking structure, only a limited number of spaces could be taken out of commission at any given time. To meet the need of the client, SPS scheduled the project in phases and all work was performed at night and on Saturdays. Since the building was occupied, a special "poly-envelope" was constructed to create a dust-free environment. Special filtration equipment also was used to control dust. Regular meetings with the owner ensured open communication with the courthouse occupants and allowed for a successful completed project and minor disruption to the parking facility.