Good report. However, it assumes that the “concrete remediation work ongoing at the Silver Spring Transit Center” (pictured in the photo) will "fix" the SSTC’s “significant problems and latent defects”. The photo shows a 2-inch thick concrete overlay being applied to the deck. How will this "fix" a 315 ft. by 580 ft. concrete building that doesn’t have any expansion joints?
The external steel braces that Montgomery County plans on installing on under-designed beams, because 3-inch thick pieces of concrete have fallen from them (according to reports in Engineering News Record), won't fix the extensive concrete cracking either.
The SSTC’s complete lack of expansion joints is a major defect identified in KCE’s March 15, 2013 report and is the likely cause of the SSTC’s extensive cracking. WMATA’s design and construction criteria, to which the SSTC was supposed to have been design and constructed, require expansion joints be spaced no farther than 100 ft. apart.
How does one "fix" an existing 315 ft. by 580 ft. concrete building that wasn’t designed or built with expansion joints spaced every 100 ft. or less? Is it even possible to do so?
The SSTC with its “significant problems and latent defects” is a lemon. The public should demand their money back.
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