The Highlander Condominiums is an 11 story concrete structure with wood infill framing between floor slabs with a stucco finish on the wood walls. After investigative services by the Architectural it was verified that the existing concrete guardrail walls were structurally impaired by ongoing water intrusion and rusting of the existing structural steel within the guardrail walls. The Guardrail Remediation Project on this fully occupied residential building was competitively bid and Tatley Grund was awarded the contract to perform the guardrail repairs, along side the Architectural team and the Structural Engineering firm.
Owner: Highlander Condominium Association
Architect/Consultant: Amento Group
Contract Duration: 10 Months
The contracted scope of work included remediation all existing concrete guardrail walls at the elevated walkways. Access to the work was via fixed frame scaffolding at the exterior side of the elevated walkway wall. Work included removal of existing concrete to expose the existing structural steel at the base of the concrete guardrail walls. Then replacement of structural steel members at the exterior face of the walkway slabs was performed, as directed by the Engineer of Record on the project. Additional structural support was provided on the interior side of the walkway guardrail walls in the form of steel reinforcing gussets. There were 183 gussets installed at the interior side of the existing guardrail walls. In addition, the existing concrete walkway was stripped down to bare concrete, crack and spall repairs were performed, and the application of a new waterproof coating system was applied to the elevated walkways and then new outdoor carpeting was installed at each of the ten elevated walkways. Finally both sides of the guardrail walls received waterproof coating (silicone based).
The project started in the summer and the work continued through the fall and winter by the use of a full height, fixed frame, scaffolding system with a full weather enclosure. Since the building was fully occupied during the entire process and the elevated walkways were the only means of ingress and egress, the project team had to sequence work and provide accommodations throughout the project to allow access to and from the individual units throughout the project. Project notices and communications with the Owner and the Owner’s Representative were key in mitigating the impacts to the residents, while maintaining the project schedule. Over all the project went very well and this exterior work was performed during COVID-19 protocols, from start to finish. The Owners were extremely happy with the repairs and were very excited by the new look to their building and especially the aesthetics of the elevated walkways leading to and from their units.
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