CP- A balcony's best friend

The Florida coast is a particularly harsh environment for concrete structures, combining heat, humidity and high concentrations of chloride. Concrete balconies in the region are especially susceptible to corrosion of reinforcing steel, requiring major repair and maintenance.

Condo owners recognize that repeating patch maintenance cycles are disruptive and increasingly expensive. However, property managers don't always implement methods for corrosion prevention out of ignorance or because of the cost.

But, applying cathodic protection (CP) can lengthen the lifecycle of the reinforcing steel and concrete, delaying the need for maintenance. CP is a viable long term solution to protect these vulnerable concrete structures, but applying CP to condominium balconies is not easy. The evolution of cathodic protection, as applied to concrete balconies in Florida, has been an evolutionary process. Many systems have been tried with varying degrees of technical and commercial success. In ture Darwinian fashion, some of the solutions took the path to extinction, others evolved and have flourished, and some technologies moved to other, more favorable applications.

Many structural engineers now recognize the benefits of cathodic protection (CP) to stop the corrosion process and how to apply the right system in a given environment. This long-term solution extends the life of these important concrete structures and protects residents who own condos with balconies.

I just hope condo owners and property managers do their due diligence to find out what available technologies will keep residents safe.


Bill

A little humor goes a long way

There's always an air of apprehension clouding the entire exhibition hall on the last day. (If you've exhibited at the conference before, or any other conference for that matter, you know what I'm talking about.) Vendors eye one another waiting for the great tear-down.

But vendors not in plain sight tear down around lunchtime, ignoring show organizers' instructions to stay open until official close at 2 p.m.

And then comes the domino effect. By 1 p.m., half the exhibitors are demolishing their booths and crating their stuff. By 2 p.m., the fork lifts arrive to cart stuff away, and the exhibit hall staff begins pulling up the carpets.

Joe Pikas provided some levity to the long week. Yesterday, at our booth, he had us rolling in the aisles with his "Professor and the Driver" joke. This telling won't do it justice, but here it goes anyway:

A professor came up with a revolutionary technology to solve global warming. He decided to tour the country presenting his idea to investor groups to fund his start-up company.

He hired a chauffeur to schedule his talks, take care of the arrangements, and drive him to meetings.

At each stop, the chauffeur would stand at the back of the room while the professor gave his presentation and answered questions. After the first half-dozen lectures, the driver said to the professor, “I’ve listened to your talk so many times I could give it.”

The professor, feeling a little run down, called him on it. At the next presentation, he stood at the back of the room while the driver presented.

When someone asked a very pointed technical question that the driver had never heard before, he hesitated for a moment. The driver then said, “That question is so easy, my driver will answer it for you.”

A little humor goes a long way at the end of a grueling week.

Note to self: Language is important

Today was a day of drama for our crew. I, for one, was feeling under the weather. After taking care of some things in the morning, I spent the rest of the day in bed.

But I got off lucky. Someone else in our group was sent to the hospital with a rather nasty-looking elbow. Turns out it was infected.

As for conference news, Joe Pikas of our Houston office moderated the (ECDA), one of Corrosion/2007's most popular forums. The forum focuses on External Corrosion Direct Assessment (ECDA)). This direct assessment process uses sophisticated above ground tools, called Indirect Inspection Tools (Indirect Inspection Tools), to find areas along a buried pipeline that are corroded or are at risk for corrosion. Gas pipeline operators generally use this process.

The forum spent the bulk of the day discussing changing the language on a footnote to an appendix chart in RP 0502. The footnote says (and I'm paraphrasing here) these tools shouldn't be used without special consideration. Unfortunately, these considerations aren't detailed, and the Department of Transportation (DOT), which regulates pipelines, focuses on the “not to be used” language.

The writers of the regulation, many of whom were at the meeting, didn't intend to preclude these tools from being used. They merely wanted to note that special considerations might be warranted.

After two hours of discussion, the members decided to change the language to “these tools may be used with special considerations.” Another hour was spent deciding how to implement a change within NACE’s standards process.

Where's efficiency when you need it?