Silver Spring Transit Center: common sense

Consider two identical brand new concrete structures. Both are built with the same plans at the same time in the same location--right next to each other.

One of the concrete structures cracks during construction. The other doesn't crack during construction; but, it cracks after construction, when external loads are applied.

What does this tell you?

The cracks that occur in the structure when external loads are applied are obviously load-related. Such would be the case if the structure is inadequately designed for torsion. The external loads would cause the inadequately reinforced (for torsion) structure to crack. In such a case the cracks are more likely to be local. For example, cracks resulting from inadequate reinforcement for torsion will typically appear near a free edge, where external walls or adequately reinforced (for torsion) edge beams are not present. Such cracking would typically not spread beyond the free edge to interior columns.

However, cracks that occur in the other identical structure during construction, before external loads are applied, are obviously due to something other than external loads. Such would be the case if the structure was inadequately designed for temperature change, i.e. has NO expansion/contraction joints. Cracking in a large structure without expansion/contraction joints would not be restricted to just one part of the structure, e.g. slabs or beams, but would be present throughout--slabs, beams, girders and columns.

Cracks in the yet-to-be-opened Silver Spring Transit Center appeared during construction before external loads are applied. They are extensive. Slabs, beams, girders and columns are severely cracked. It's obvious that these cracks are not the result of torsion. Torsion occurs when external loads (fully loaded buses) are applied. The widespread cracking in the unopened Silver Spring Transit Center are the result of something else: temperature changes and the complete lack of expansion/contraction joints, bad concrete, poor construction, woefully inadequate design (inadequate reinforcement for the structure to hold itself up), or all of the above.

SSTC logo

Silver Spring Transit Center: more questions

http://www.actfortransit.org/purple_transit_center.html

• April 7, 2010 - County building inspector George Mavroumatis asks whether design will cause concrete to crack at edge of bus deck. (KCE attachments, vol. 2, p. 84.)
• May 11, 2010 - Design engineer (Parsons Brinckerhoff) says cracking is not expected, but concrete contractors should be consulted before proceeding. (pp. 80, 83)
• June 3, 2010 - Concrete contractor says transit center's unique design means that past experience is no guide to cracking at edge of deck; county must rely on analysis by PB. (p. 77)
• August 2010 - Concrete pouring begins.
• Oct. 28, 2010 - Cracks seen at edge of concrete deck. (KCE attachments, vol. 2, p. 76)
• November 2010 - Workers report to county and Metro that concrete is too thin.
• Nov. 16, 2010 - County says construction is “still on track” and transit center will open in October 2011.

More questions: 
1. Why didn't Montgomery County halt construction in October/November 2010 until the cracking problem was satisfactorily addressed?

2. Why instead did Montgomery County report that construction was "on track"?

Mr. Mavroumatis raised the cracking issue in April 2010--MORE THAN FOUR YEARS AGO!!! Congratulations, Mr. Mavroumatis! Good catch! It's good to know that someone is "on the ball" at Montgomery County--too bad that no one else is.

• July 12, 2012 - ACT calls on the County Council to hold a community meeting so that the public can learn the facts about transit center delays.
• Jan. 9, 2013 - On the first anniversary of the public revelation of the concrete problem, ACT renews its call for a public meeting to air the facts.

3. Why hasn't Montgomery County held public meetings to explain the delays and to allow the public to ask their questions and to make their comments on the public record?

This is an outrage! The public, US (53%), MD (11%) and Montgomery County (36%), are "paying through the nose" for this lemon! The public asks (TWICE!) for a public meeting and Montgomery County IGNORES the request and just keeps pressing ahead with this lemon! This is OUTRAGEOUS!

• April 9, 2013 - County announces how it will try to fix Transit Center, based on KCE remedy approach. PB and Foulger-Pratt will do work, leaving arguments about who pays for later. Balter (county oversight contractor) has not yet agreed to participate.
• April 12, 2013 - WMATA tells county it will not accept ownership of the transit center, even after proposed fixes.
• July 9, 2013 - County says replacement of concrete “pour strips” built without steel reinforcement will start within a week and remaining repairs will be permitted by end of month.
• July 16, 2013 - WMATA, county argue about pour strip repairs.
• Sept. 6, 2013 - Pour strip fix under way. County, PB propose covering remainder of decks with latex-cement.
• Sept. 10, 2013 - Foulger-Pratt says latex-cement won't work, center can't open before summer 2014.
• Sept. 19, 2013 - County issues Foulger-Pratt a Notice to Proceed, ordering them to begin latex-cement work.
• April 8, 2014 - Silver Spring Transit Center facing another delay - opening pushed back to late 2014 at the earliest.
• April 30, 2014 - A new report warns of risk from falling concrete chunks unless interior beams and girders are reinforced before transit center is opened.

4. Why is Montgomery County proceeding with "repairs" to the SSTC, especially in light of the fact that the public paid more than retail for a brand new, unflawed transit center, and is getting a severely flawed lemon instead?

5. Why are the Federal Transit Administration and the Maryland Transit Administration funding these "repairs"?

6. Why does Montgomery County, the Federal Transit Administration and the Maryland Transit Administration continue to ignore the public, even though the public is paying for this lemon?

So many questions; so few answers.

Mr. Shalleck has called for state and federal investigations. What is MD and the US government waiting for?

The untold story of the Silver Spring Transit Center

In March 2013 Montgomery County posted a report on its website that documented serious design and construction flaws in the yet-to-be-opened, $130+ million Silver Spring Transit Center. The 315 ft. by 580 ft. glorified concrete parking garage's decks, beams, girders and columns are seriously cracked.

Other serious design and construction flaws are identified in the report, including deck slabs more than an inch thinner than what they're supposed to be, exposed reinforcement, missing reinforcement, the SSTC's total lack of expansion/contraction joints, etc. Montgomery County's report blames the SSTC's serious design and construction flaws on "errors and omissions" by the SSTC's builder/contractor, design engineer and concrete inspector/tester and special quality inspector.

Much of the media's (print, TV, radio, internet) coverage of this story has revolved around politics--Republicans blame Democrats, etc. However, the SSTC isn't a story about politics. 

• The SSTC is a story about serious failures in design and construction of a public work. 
• The SSTC is a story about how government has wasted taxpayer money. (53% of the funding for the SSTC are federal funds, meaning ALL taxpayers, from coast to coast, are paying for this seriously flawed lemon. 11% are MD funds and the remaining 36% are Montgomery County funds.)
• The SSTC is a story about public safety for those who will use it--if it ever opens.
• The SSTC is a story about government accountability in protecting the public's investment and their safety.
• The SSTC is a story about how government deviated from the tried and true, competitive methods for selecting a contractor (bids) and for selecting a design engineer and a concrete inspector and tester (multiple firms competing for the project).

The REAL story of the SSTC has yet to be told in the hundreds of media reports over the past year and a half. The real story of how and why Montgomery County selected the SSTC's contractor/builder, the design engineer and the concrete inspector/tester and special quality inspector has not been made pubic.

Another BIG public works project is proceeding on the heels of the SSTC--METRO's Purple Line. Like the SSTC, the Purple Line is proceeding as a public-private partnership, where builder, engineer and inspectors will be selected by politicians and bureaucrats, rather than competing for the project. 

Will more taxpayer money be wasted on the Purple Line with its public-private partnership? 

Time will tell.

Ray Koenig Jr. was born Dec. 30, 1946 in Washington DC. He is the oldest son of Ray Koenig Sr. and Mary Elizabeth Kammerer Koenig, who raised their six children (4 girls and 2 boys) in Arlington VA. Ray Koenig Sr. had a land surveying business in Bethesda Md. 

Mary Elizabeth Kammerer was born and raised in Washington DC, as were her parents. In his later years Adolph Kammerer, Mary Elizabeth’s father, lived with her sisters, Emma and Mildred, at the corner of Spring Street and Fairview Rd. in Silver Spring MD. After Adolph died Emma and Mildred moved to nearby Ballard St.

Ray Koenig Jr. graduated from Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington in 1964. He graduated from Villanova University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering in 1968. In 1973 he was first licensed as a professional engineer (PE) in Washington DC. He was subsequently licensed to practice engineering in eight other states (VA, MD, SC, PA, DE, WV, NC, GA). In 1974 he was first licensed as a professional land surveyor (PLS) in Virginia, and in 1975 he was licensed to practice land surveying in Maryland. During most of his 40+ yr. career Ray Koenig Jr. worked for consulting engineering firms in metropolitan Washington DC. From 1973 to 1976 Ray Koenig Sr. and Ray Koenig Jr. worked together at A. Raymond Koenig and Sons in Bethesda MD.

Ray Koenig Jr. married Jenny Marie Johnston of Arlington VA in 1966. They raised their four children (Michelle, Ken, Karen, and Cheryl) in northern VA. Ray and Jenny are now retired and live in northern Virginia near their three daughters. They have two grandsons, Kyle (19) and Jeremy (2).

Ray Koenig Jr. has several blogs in which he uses his pseudonym, PEretired.

Kyle T. Evans and grandfather Ray Koenig Jr. at Nats Park

The Silver Spring Transit Center and the professor

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/as-repairs-continue-still-no-opening-date-for-long-delayed-silver-spring-transit-center/2014/08/16/09eeaeac-22f4-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html#

My reply to "OldestMan"'s comment to the article:

"...protecting the public interest..."?  Uh, that would be no one. 

Such a deal! Not only do county (36%), state (11%) and federal (53%) taxpayers get a “repaired” transit center for what’s supposed to be a brand new, unflawed transit center; but, they also get to pay for the repairs too. And, taxpayers also get to pay increased annual operation, maintenance and inspection costs resulting from the “errors and omissions”. Taxpayers even get to pay for remedial Structures 101 starring the venerable old professor and his "errors and omissions" students.  The SSTC is the gift that just keeps on giving.

A question for the professor: Your report says that the 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC has no expansion/contraction joints, despite the fact that WMATA requires expansion/contraction joints be spaced no more than 100 ft. apart. And, despite the fact that the SSTC was supposed to have been designed and built to WMATA standards. The question is: Will the repairs that you are making “fix” the SSTC’s lack of expansion/contraction joints, and the resulting cracking, or will the SSTC continue to crack after your “repairs” are made?

and, the follow-up:

"uncompassionate", or "misinformed"? no thanks to politicians, bureaucrats (e.g. MoCo (including their consultants), WMATA, Federal Transit Administration, Maryland Transit Administration) and media who keep saying that "the SSTC will absolutely be safe" despite the fact that they can't predict the future and despite the fact that they lack the qualifications to speak on such matters. particularly galling is the media who tout that they cover the news "in depth" and "ask probing questions". There's been none of that with the SSTC. Not once in all the coverage of this story have I seen media question how and why the SSTC wasn't bid for construction, as most large public works projects are, or why the engineer and the concrete inspector/tester and special quality control inspector were selected without using the normal open competitive process for selecting professional service firms for public works projects. "Public-private partnership", a.k.a. crony capitalism. If the media doesn't report these things, then how is one to know? ... Oh, that's right! The government will tell them. ... or not.

and another follow-up:

The County can't have it both ways. 1. The County took on construction management for the project with a full time team of County employees on site during construction. If the County felt that construction management for this project was beyond their capability, then the County should have hired a construction manager before construction began, instead of waiting until the problems show up and then say that the project is too much for their expertise. 2. A basic County responsibility is to approve all construction within the County. This is true everywhere.

and:

I made my share of mistakes during my career; I owned up to all of them. … For the design engineer (PB), the builder (Foulger-Pratt), the concrete inspector/tester and special quality inspector (Balter), the owner (MoCo), WMATA and the construction manager (MoCo) to overlook expansion/contraction joints in a 315 ft. by 580 ft. outdoor structure that’s supposed to have expansion/contraction joints spaced no farther than 100 ft. apart (a WMATA and contract requirement) is a real whopper.

and:

As someone who's been involved in projects costing $100+ million, you're aware that it's commonplace to have a qualified construction management firm, who is neither the design engineer nor the GC, manage the construction of the project for the owner, in this case Montgomery County. The person or persons at Montgomery County who decided not to hire an independent construction manager for the SSTC (choosing instead to place a team of fulltime County employees on the site during construction) made a horrible decision that cost taxpayers millions. That person or persons should be held accountable for their poor decision.  

Why the Silver Spring Transit Center cracked, and will continue to crack

updated 8/7/14

Why did the Silver Spring Transit Center crack?
Why will it continue to crack?
The answers to these questions are really quite simple. They were known long, LONG before the SSTC was designed and built.

http://nrmca.org/aboutconcrete/cips/42p.pdf

"Thermal cracking occurs due to excessive temperature differences within a concrete structure or its surroundings. The temperature difference causes the cooler portion to contract more than the warmer portion (or the warmer portion to expand more than the cooler portion), which restrains the contraction (or expansion). Thermal cracks appear when the restraint results in tensile stresses that exceed the in-place concrete tensile strength."

"Concrete members will expand and contract when exposed to hot and cold temperatures, respectively. Cracking will occur if this bulk volume change resulting from temperature variations is restrained. This is sometimes called temperature cracking and is a later age and longer term issue."

"Expansion joints and spacing between joints have to be designed to withstand such temperature induced expansion and contraction to prevent cracking."

"The key to reducing thermal or temperature-related cracking is to recognize when it might occur and to take steps to minimize it. A thermal control plan that is tailored to the specific requirements of the project specification is recommended. ... A large part of the responsibility to minimize thermal cracking lies with the designer and contractor. Steps include establishing the concrete mixture, specification limits for temperature of concrete as delivered and in the structure, insulating the structure and termination of protective measures, and in critical conditions, post-cooling of structural members."

"The key to reducing thermal cracking is good communication between the designer, contractor, and concrete producer."

WMATA design and construction standards, to which the SSTC was supposed to have been designed and constructed, require expansion/contraction joints to be located no farther than 100 feet apart. The 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC has NONE.

Montgomery County's "fixes" for the severely cracked SSTC are a latex concrete overlay and exterior reinforcement for under-designed beams. These "fixes" do not address the source of the cracking problem--the SSTC's complete lack of expansion/contraction joints. 

The SSTC's severe cracking was made public in a report released by Montgomery County in March 2013. Since then hundreds of news media reports (print, TV, radio, internet) have failed to report that Montgomery County's "fixes" do not address the source of the cracking problem--that is, the SSTC's complete lack of expansion/contraction joints.

The SSTC will continue to crack in the future.

Do you find it ironic that the source of the document referenced above (http://nrmca.org/aboutconcrete/cips/42p.pdf) is the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, 900 Spring Street, Silver Spring, MD? I do; particularly since my aunts' and grandfather's house, that I visited often as a boy, was located right across Colesville Road at the corner of Spring Street and Fairview Road. (Their house is gone now, replaced by a commercial building.) 

When have you seen cracks like these in a brand new building that hasn't even opened yet? In this case, a glorified parking garage that hasn't seen its first car or fully loaded bus? 

Since before 2012 when it first began, Montgomery County, WMATA, the Federal Transit Administration and the Maryland Transit Administration have known about the SSTC's severe cracking. 

In their March 2013 report KCE Structural Engineers, the Washington DC firm that Montgomery County commissioned to investigate the SSTC's severe cracking, identified that the 315 ft. by 580 ft. SSTC has NO expansion/contraction joints. KCE notes in their report that the SSTC was supposed to have been designed and built according to WMATA specifications, which require expansion/contraction joints to be located no more than 100 ft. apart.

Nevertheless, Montgomery County proceeds with "repairs" that won't fix the source of the problem--the SSTC's complete lack of expansion/contraction joints. The SSTC will continue to crack in the future. At the least the SSTC will be expensive to maintain; and, at worst, the SSTC is a threat to public safety. 

• Why haven't news media asked officials from Montgomery County (including Isiah Leggett and members of the County Council), from the Federal Transit Administration (53% federal funding) and from the Maryland Transit Administration (11% state) why they are "fixing" the lemon SSTC, when the public was promised a brand new, unflawed transit center? 
• Why haven't news media asked Montgomery County officials why they chose Foulger Pratt to build the SSTC, instead of bidding it for construction (like most large public works projects)? 
• Why haven't news media asked Montgomery County officials why they selected Parsons Brinkerhoff to design the SSTC and Balter Company to inspect and test concrete, instead of selecting a design engineering firm and a concrete inspection/testing firm and special quality inspector in open competition? 
• Why haven't news media asked Montgomery County officials why they proceeded with repairs to the SSTC without briefing the public on what the County is doing, and why, and taking the public's questions and comments on the public record?
• Why haven't news media asked officials from Montgomery County, from the FTA and from the MTA if they consider the SSTC public-private partnership to be a good deal for the public, whose money they've spent designing, building and "fixing" the brand new, yet-to-be-opened, severely flawed, $130+ million, lemon SSTC?

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UPDATE
8/7/14

http://pileofsteamingbs.blogspot.com/2014/08/dont-worry-silver-spring-transit-center.html