Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program has been established to monitor completed coastal projects. Reports have been made to date for 12 projects, evaluating their functional and structural performance. Projects monitored are located on the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf, and Great Lakes coastlines. Project monitoring includes: jettied inlets, including inlet hydraulics and sedimentation, and evaluation of jetty structures; harbors, including harbor waves, currents, and resonance; breakwaters, including wave and shoreline interaction and structural stability; and beach fills, including longshore and cross-shore sediment motion. Major conclusions from the monitoring efforts are enumerated. In addition to functional and structural performance, there are several findings related to modeling inlets and harbors. The program has proved effective in identifying improvements to design criteria and methodology, construction practices, and maintenance techniques.

The primary function of a drainage culvert—to convey the design flow effectively—is often greatly impaired or completely lost due to the presence of deposited sediments. The effect of sediments on the total head loss within the culvert may be quite significant. A case study is presented that describes the performance of a roadway drainage culvert designed for clear-water flow conditions in an alluvial stream carrying sediments. The actual capacity of the culvert is approximately only 20% of the presumed design capacity, as a result of sediment deposition not accounted for in the design. The case study reviews design errors and demonstrates the necessity of sediment-transport calculations when designing roadway drainage culverts in ephemeral alluvial streams. Ignoring sediment transport may have adverse effects, including significant road and adjacent-property flooding as well as continuous and costly maintenance problems. It is more economical to undertake a complete sediment-transport study before design than to deal with continuous maintenance after the project is built.

A case study of the settlement of gravelly sand backfill is presented. Flatwork, which had been constructed on top of the backfill, was damaged due to the settlement. It is likely that the cause of the settlement was improper compaction methods and/or too low of a compaction standard. Laboratory tests were performed to investigate the settlement behavior of the gravelly sand. If the gravelly sand had 0–20% oversize particles, there were not enough oversize particles to interfere with compaction and the settlement behavior depends on the matrix dry density. For 20–40% oversize particles, they begin to interfere with compaction, but the settlement behavior still depends on the matrix dry density. For 40–70% oversize particles, they continue to interfere with compaction, and the settlement behavior is very complex and depends on the proportion of vertical stress carried by the oversize particles. For 70–100% oversize particles, the compaction energy is absorbed by the oversize particles and the settlement behavior depends on the compression behavior of the oversize particles.

Over the last two decades, Saudi Arabia has experienced an unprecedented boom in construction. This construction has included major infrastructure, along with private and public building facilities. Because the construction of most of these facilities has been completed, their maintenance problems have become mainly the responsibility of the owners and maintenance contractors. The objective of this paper is to study the relationship between owners and maintenance contractors in terms of the interface problems between them. A questionnaire has been developed to determine the main problems between the two parties and to rank the importance of these problems. The questionnaire includes the assessment of the following main problems: lack of accuracy in specification and standards, owners' low budget, unspecified labor skills in the agreement contract, lack of a penalty clause in the contract, inappropriate schedule of payments, lack of a training program for the maintenance team, lack of cost indexes for materials, labor, and equipment to be used by the owner for cost estimation, lack of labor incentives and inaccurate estimation of maintenance costs by contractors. The result of the survey indicates that the lack of direct supervision by the contractor, lack of accuracy in specification and standards, and owners' low budget allocations were ranked the highest in terms of interface problems, while laborers illiteracy was ranked the lowest.

There has been a growing interest in research in the field of the service life of structures due to a perceived lack of performance of built structures in the last several decades. To address this issue, it has been suggested that more emphasis should be given to in-service performance of a structure that could possibly be based on design-life concepts. Applying such concepts, with the numerous variables and parameters involved, is a complex issue. The present paper summarizes the findings of recent research, showing possible approaches to the consideration of design-life concepts as well as some discussion of the difficulties associated with them. The life span of a structure is broken up into the typical stages of progression, that is, conceptual design, final design, construction, and maintenance and repair, with the various influences identified and discussed at each of these stages. It followed from our research that quality-control and quality-assurance procedures at the design and construction stage have considerable influence on the design life of a structure. It was found that further developments in these areas are needed if the durability of a structure is to be predicted.

Cast-iron columns were used extensively in the past, and many buildings remain standing with cast iron as part of the structure. Retention of the columns during renovation is often necessary for esthetics, historic preservation, and economics. During renovation, the live load required may change because of changes in occupancy, and the dead load may change due to floor replacement. Using the original column design assumptions, a typical interior cast-iron column in a typical late 19th century industrial building is analyzed using the original design loads, modern live loads and the original dead load, and loads after renovation. The original floor system analyzed is flat tile arches with cinder fill; the modern replacement floor system is lightweight concrete on composite metal deck. It is demonstrated that under certain circumstances, reducing the floor dead load can increase compressive stress and induce tensile stress in the columns in an unconservative manner.

Research was conducted to evaluate the viability of using Oklahoma timber species in glued-laminated panel designs for bridge-deck replacement. Panels were fabricated from southern pine, red oak, and cottonwood. Laboratory tests were conducted to determine the mechanical properties of panels fabricated from the three different species, and allowable spans were computed based on test results. Panels were installed on seven in-service bridges ranging in width from 4.82 to 6.89 m (15.8 to 22.6 ft), and in length from 9.45 to 37.19 m (31 to 122 ft). Advantages of timber panels relative to other decking materials include reduction in out-of-service time, easy installation, reduced dead loads, increased resistance to road chemicals, and a wider tolerance to weather conditions during installation.