Located directly on the Atlantic coast in South Palm Beach, the Le Chateau Royal Condominium Complex consists of two high-rise buildings and a parking garage. The East Building has eight floors with 64 units, and the West Building has 72 units on nine floors. A four-story post-tensioned parking garage is centered between the two buildings. Constructed in 1973, the structures had never had a formal maintenance or restoration program. All work performed on the facility was completed by maintenance personnel. In addition to lack of preventive maintenance, the corrosive nature of the coastal environment resulted in damaged concrete in the form of visible corrosion, spalling and delamination. Structural Preservation Systems (SPS) was hired to handle the necessary repairs. 

Repair work included full balcony removal and replacement, waterproofing, railing removal and replacement. Garage repairs included full-depth slab, post-tensioned cable and columns repairs; the installation of more than 2,300 sacrificial anodes; and placement of a metalized zinc cathodic protection system on two structural columns. Although the initial investigation of the balconies indicated approximately 4,300 square feet of partial- and full-depth repair was needed, once the demolition began on the East Building, the repairs became only full-depth, and quantities rapidly increased to full balcony removal. Further, destructive testing conducted on the West Building indicated that its corrosive condition was equally as severe. As a result, the scope for the West Building was altered, and a plan was formed to perform full balcony removal and replacement on this building as well. Finally, destructive testing of the building columns indicated that two columns on the East Building were deteriorated beyond 50 percent of the column dimension. This level of deterioration required restoration to full capacity.

One unique approach used by SPS was an alternate shoring system for the second building that resulted in an increase in production by 21 percent. This led to a six-week reduction in the duration of the 20-month project and an overall cost savings for the owner. Additional savings were realized when SPS worked with an expert in cathodic protection to develop a value-engineered solution for the extensive repairs on the structural columns of the East Building. The innovative use of cathodic protection, along with the well-thought-out repair methods, will ensure the longevity of the repairs and provide a beautiful and structurally sound property for many years to come.

SPS was recently honored with an Award of Merit for this complex project by the International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI) in the High-Rise Category.