Structural Preservation Systems' (SPS) Detroit Office recently completed repairs to a hotel parking garage located in downtown Indianapolis, IN. In close proximity to sports arenas, restaurants, shopping and convention centers, the hotel has more than 375 guest rooms, providing needed accommodations in the heart of the city. Parking is an essential amenity for this facility. Built in the 1950s, a six-story parking garage is located below the hotel structure. The owner had noticed that two ramps in the parking garage had exposed steel and falling concrete. SPS was contacted to give a proposal to perform the repairs on the ramps. While this process was occurring, a third ramp experienced a localized failure.

It was crucial to the owner that the parking garage remained open during the repairs. Therefore, SPS had a preplanning meeting with the owner to review traffic flow requirements and other project conditions before beginning the repairs. To protect vehicles and pedestrians, barricades were installed at the working level and the level below. Crews used hammer and chain-drag sounding methods to determine the extent of the delaminations - defining locations where repairs were required. A consulting engineer provided information detailing and prioritizing which areas of the ramp decks needed full-depth replacements.

A detailed repair plan was developed for each ramp. To begin, the existing reinforced concrete beams that remained on the ramps, and applicable embedded reinforcing steel, were salvaged for necessary composite beam/slab connections. For proper mechanical bonding, crews then thoroughly cleaned and prepped the exposed concrete substrate and reinforcing steel. The existing reinforcing steel that remained after the demolition had an anti-corrosion zinc coating applied. New reinforcing steel was epoxy-coated. The new lightweight concrete had a minimum 28-day compressive strength of 5,000 psi and included shrinkage compensating admixtures and an integral corrosion inhibitor. A total of 12 ramps that were 900 square feet each were repaired. 

To ensure the safety of the crew, shoring and a false floor were erected. This eliminated any open holes, and the crew was able to use the false floor as formwork. Because the owner was concerned about the noise that would be generated from the project, SPS developed a detailed repair schedule, so the owner knew when any noisy demolition work would occur. Detailed communication with the owner was a crucial factor for success on this project. Work began in August 2007 and was completed in August 2008. The owner was extremely pleased and is using multiple SPS branches all over the country for additional repair projects at other facilities.