Post-Tensioning Parking Projects throughout the United States Showcase the Benefits and Acceptance of the Method

摘要

Post-tensioning—an "active" reinforcement technique designed to counteract tensile stresses and deflections from external loads—is quickly gaining momentum in the concrete industry as a long-term, viable, cost-effective alternative to steel reinforcement. Nowhere is the shift in preference toward post-tensioning more apparent than in parking-garage construction. Millions of square feet of cast-in-place, post-tensioned parking structures are built in North America every year. An independent survey of parking garage construction in the United States for the year 2000 showed cast-in-place, post-tensioned systems were selected most often as a structural alternative to steel. The survey also revealed post-tensioned structures had a significant lead in market share in terms of both number of structures built and volume (number of spaces).