The responsibilities for parties involved in a repair project may be significantly different than those traditionally encountered in new concrete construction. The new ACI 562 Code Requirements for Assessment, Repair and Rehabilitation of Concrete Buildings and corresponding ACI 563 Specifications for Repair of Concrete in Buildings identify requirements for the Licensed Design Professional and the contractor’s Specialty Engineer during repair programs. Differing lines of authority in repair are presented through industry practice recommendations and case studies, along with identification of industry needs, informing parties engaged in concrete evaluation and repair projects.

Evaluating and repairing concrete structures often extends the lines of responsibility of the Engineer of Record (EOR) beyond those traditionally encountered in new construction. Case studies are presented to illustrate how responsibility often broadens during major project stages: a) evaluating existing structures; b) establishing feasibility measures for repairing or strengthening existing structures; and c) implementing repair/strengthening of existing structures. Differing lines of responsibility are identified and compared to those customarily encountered in new concrete construction. Reference is made to the new Code Requirements for Assessment, Repair & Rehabilitation of Existing Concrete Structures (ACI 562-16) and industry practice standards, identifying industry needs for parties engaged in concrete evaluation and repair projects.

This is a case study involving an aging parking structure that deteriorated to the point where the structural floor slab failed. The lines of responsibility between parties involved with owning, managing and repairing the existing, exposed structures are not always clear, based on contractual language. This case ended in litigation to determine who was responsible for repair costs when the structural slab reached the end of its service life, taking into account the root cause of the slab failure. In this case study, we review the field and background information obtained for this case as well as the court interpretation of lines of responsibility and contract language regarding parking structure maintenance and normal wear and tear.

ASCE’s Forensic Engineering Division (FED) is focused on educating the engineering community on the professional practice of forensic engineering. These practice guidelines are applicable to a broad range of facility assessment, repair and rehabilitation programs. This paper focuses on the FED contributions to assessment and repair of existing structures, including Forensic Congresses and the Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. The work of the FED has improved quality and public safety in constructed facilities.

Evaluation of an existing structure is a task commonly performed by licensed design professionals. An evaluation can be required by a façade inspection ordinance, as part of a due-diligence process prior to the purchase of a structure, or prior to the development of rehabilitation or repair measures. Each of these project types will have differences in the evaluation protocol and portion of the structure to be examined – but in each example, the licensed design professional is expected to provide a minimum “standard of care” to the client and to protect the public. Therefore, in developing the evaluation protocol, a critical question facing the licensed design professional is how much investigative effort is required to complete the evaluation and ensure the evaluation provides a minimum standard of care. The standard of care for an evaluation of existing structures can broadly be defined as the level of effort that a reasonable and prudent licensed design professional would be expected to provide under similar circumstances. Given the range of structure types that can be encountered and the varying levels of damage and exposure conditions, determination of the scope of evaluation can be a difficult task for a licensed design professional. The following sections examine approaches used in industry codes and ordinances to help define a minimum standard of care for the evaluation of existing structures. Industry codes and ordinances to be examined will include the ACI 562-16 Code for Assessment, Repair and Rehabilitation of Existing Structural Concrete, FHWA bridge inspection requirements and building façade inspection standards and ordinances. Based upon these documents, items to be considered in establishing a “Standard of Care” in the evaluation of existing structures will be summarized.