Photo courtesy Chevron Australia Pty Ltd of infrastructure may be less obvious, such as sewer pipes or water tanks, but often must deal with high hydrostatic pressure and the corrosive elements that are brought in by seawater nonetheless. How water attacks concrete structures Since nature cannot be ‘stopped,’ design/construction professionals must instead direct careful attention to how nature operates and plan accordingly when designing, constructing, and maintaining concrete structures. Not all damage is the result of spectacular floods, storms, or newsworthy global-warming events—some are slow and unseen, but the outcome can be just as damaging. All concrete infrastructure found in or near marine environments will face reduced life spans unless steps are taken to protect them. They are at a higher risk of corrosion due to the constant wet-dry-wet cycle that forces water through capillary tracts and micro-pores found in the concrete. When adding in the extreme freeze/thaw weather conditions experienced throughout Canada, the protection of these structures must be of utmost importance. Water permeability ultimately determines the rate of deterioration, with some of the deterioration mechanisms threatening marine concrete infrastructure being: The liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tanks above are nearing completion at the Wheatstone Project in Australia. Coastal concrete construction must be enduring. • steel reinforcement corrosion; • chloride attack; • sulfate attack; • alkali aggregate reaction (AAR); and • freeze/thaw cycles. awwcommercial.com CURTAINWALL | STOREFRONT | ENTRANCE SYSTEMS | INTERIOR GLAZING | SKYLIGHTS & SLOPED GLAZING AllWeatherWindows_H2.indd 1 www.c ons truc ti o n c a n a d a . n e t CC_June_2016.indd 29 2016-04-21 9:46 AM June 2016 29 4/29/16 10:59 AM