Balcony Replacement & Parking Garage Repair

Located directly on the Atlantic coast in South Palm Beach, the Le Chateau Royal Condominium Complex consists of two high-rise buildings and a parking garage. The EastBuilding has 8 floors with 64 units, and the WestBuilding has 72 units on 9 floors. A four-story post-tensioned parking garage is centered between the two buildings. Constructed in 1973, the structures had never been formally maintained or repaired. In addition to the lack of preventive maintenance, the corrosive nature of the coastal environment ultimately caused the concrete to spall and delaminate. STRUCTURAL was hired to handle the necessary repairs.

Repair work included full balcony removal and replacement, waterproofing, and railing removal and replacement. Garage repairs included full-depth slab repairs, as well as post-tensioning and columns repairs. The team also installed more than 2,300 sacrificial anodes and placed a metalized zinc cathodic protection system on two structural columns. Although the initial investigation of the balconies indicated approximately 4,300 square feet of partial- and full-depth repairs, once the demolition began on the East Building, the repairs became only full-depth, and quantities rapidly increased to full balcony removal. Further, destructive testing conducted on the WestBuilding indicated that its corrosive condition was equally severe. As a result, the scope for the WestBuilding was altered, and a plan for full balcony removal and replacement on this building was developed. Finally, destructive testing of the building columns indicated that two columns on the EastBuildingwere deteriorated beyond 50 percent of the column dimension. This level of deterioration required restoration to full capacity.

An alternate shoring system for the second building resulted in a 21 percent increase in production, a six-week reduction in the 20-month project and an overall cost savings for the owner. Additional savings were realized when STRUCTURAL teamed with an expert in cathodic protection to develop a value-engineered solution for the extensive repairs on the structural columns of the EastBuilding. The innovative use of cathodic protection, along with the well-thought-out repair methods, ensures the longevity of the repairs and provides a beautiful and structurally sound property.