Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sven Alexander
Chief Structural Engineer
' Ostlandske Spennbetong A.S.
Honefoss, Norway
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The author presents the design, production and
erection features of a precast prestressed concrete
parking structure recently completed at Fornebu
Airport in Oslo, Norway. A key element in the design
of the facility was the use of prefabricated spiral ramps.
125
600 ;. 1200
The Main Parking Structure flange of the double tee and the side of
the beam. This is a steel wedge which is
The basic grid for the main structure welded to the beam only. The support
was chosen to be 16 x 7.2 m (52 ft 6 in. x detail is shown in Fig. 3. This entire
23 ft 7 in.). To obtain the necessary support welding was carried out while
slopes for drainage, the foundations for the double tee was still hanging from
the columns were lowered in ever y sec- the crane cable, just barely touching the
ond tier, thereby maintaining identical beam. The welds on the support for the
columns on the entire structure. This double tees, and the anchorages of the
configuration did not create any prob- steel plates are designed to transmit the
lems for the general contractor on site, horizontal force necessary to counteract
but was a major simplification in the the torsion induced in the beam by the
production, transportation and erection total dead load of the slabs, plus that of
of the columns. the live load they carry. All cast-in steel
The frame consists of prefabricated units are corrosion protected, and all
columns, ledger beams and double tees. welds were treated with corrosion re-
The cross section of the interior columns sistant paint.
in the five-story main structure is 500 x 2. For the interior beams, with sup-
500 mm (1 ft 7% in. x 1 ft 7% in.), while
port ledges on both sides, it was possi-
the facade columns and the columns in ble to avoid steel wedges and the
the two-story wing is 400 x 400 mm (1 ff welding. This was done by making sure
3% in. x 1 ft 3 3/4 in.).
The columns in the main structure
were prefabricated in one piece without
field splicing for a total height of 16.15
m (53 ft). The cross sections of the
ledger beams and double tees are shown
in Fig. 2. The ledger beams span ap-
proximately 6.4 m (21 ft), and the double
tees have a span of about 15.5 in (51 $).
In order to keep the torsion in the
ledger beams within acceptable limits,
two methods were used;
1. For the outer beams, with support
ledge on one side only, the ribs of the
double tees were welded to the ledge,
and a wedge was put between the top Fig. 3. Support detail on spandrel beam.
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Resultant load
ELastomeric
bearing pads
-H
Resultant support
reuc Lion
Imo] c3
^J _J
^^ r3
- Threa ded bars anchoring
c; r the see plate
4
^+ o_, i ___ ; ;^ Steel plate
I i I I ^ F
the torsional moments could be carried chosen location of the shear walls elim-
by the supports for the beam with ac- inated the need for expansion joints,
ceptable deformations of the elas- which are both expensive and might be
tomeric hearing pads. Consequently, it potential problem areas. The locations
became principally a matter of the of the shear walls are shown in Fig. 5.
geometry of the ledges relative to the For the shear walls crossing the di-
geometry of the supports. The torsional rection of the beams, the columns were
moments were, of course, only due to cast as an integral part of the shear wall.
lack of symmetry of the live loads, The shear walls in the direction of the
for — during erection — dead load of beams were placed between the col-
slabs on one side only. The arrangement umns, but with relatively heavy welded
is shown in Fig. 4. connections to the columns, the col-
The double tees were cast with an umns were activated as part of the
additional flange thickness. Normally, stabilizing structure. The inherent ad-
the flange is 50 mm (2 in.), but on this vantage with this solution is that the
project the thickness was increased to 80 dead loads of the building will he
mm (3 1/4 in.) This was done for structural utilized in stabilizing the structure,
reasons, and eliminated the need for thereby reducing the demand on all
concrete topping. Consequently, a less other connections in the shear walls.
expensive wearing surface could be In the horizontal joints of the shear
used. This will be elaborated upon later. walls, a conventional bolted connection
The stability of the structure is was used. The connection facilitates the
achieved by means of relatively few adjustment of the elements during erec-
shear walls, strategically located. The tion, and will transfer both compressive
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and tensile forces. This connection is
shown in Fig. 6.
In summary, the main part of the
parking facility is a rather traditional
type of structure. However, the in-
teresting elements are located outside
the building, namely, the prefabricated
spiral access ramps, one for traffic en-
tering and one for traffic leaving the
parking facility. Although spiral ramps
have been used before, to our knowl-
edge they have never been used in pre-
cast concrete construction.
Why Prefabricated
Spiral Ramps?
In the current building industry in
Norway, there is an acute labor shortage.
This situation may not last, but at the
time the parking facility was being bid,
the general contractor was not sure
whether such a facility could be built as
a cast-in-place structure. The only re- Fig. 7. Erection of spiral ramp.
course left was to use prefabrication
which was probably correct as far as the
main structure is concerned. However,
it took some time before the concept of economic implications of this earlier
prefabricating the ramps was fully ac- usage is evident.
cepted. In hindsight, we can say
emphatically that prefabrication not
only solved the labor shortage problem, The Spiral Ramps
but also provided significant savings Fig. 7 is a picture taken when the
both in construction time and direct erection of one spiral ramp was nearing
costs. completion. The central core is 6 m (20
A comparison of the expenditures ff) in diameter, with an outside spiral
shows that the total cost of the ramps ledge. The total circumference of the
with the prefabricated solution was central core is divided into four precast
about 70 percent of the cast-in-place segments, each covering one-quarter of
scheme. There were three major con- the circle. The thickness of the core
cerns that were important in the choice segments is 300 mum (12 in.) and the
of this solution, namely: ledge section is 200 x 250 mm (7 7/s x 97A
1. Cost in.). The main dimensions of a central
2. Time core segment are shown in Fig. 8.
3. Resources The spiral deck part of the ramp is
As far as time is concerned, it is esti- made of warped, wedge shaped panels,
mated that a total savings of between 3 each unit covering 15 degrees of the cir-
and 4 months per access ramp was at- cle. The ledge on the central core and
tained. This means that the parking the deck panels are, of course, horizon-
structure can he put into service be- tal at the entry to each level of the park-
tween 6 to 9 months earlier. The ing structure. These solid deck panels
tJ Ln
9o°
Section
A 4--^ 1 in 25.4 m m
Plan
s i
' ' o
^ , o
Section A-A
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Fig. 10. Framework of form for warped deck panels. Beams of variable depth were laid
out in a fan-like pattern on a horizontal surface.
Fig. 11. Geometry of warped deck panels. Although the underside surface of the panels
was developed by straight fines, the actual surface was curved.
zontal. Similarly, when unfolding the "right" and a "left" twist, due to the
cylindrical central core, the spiral ledge differences in direction of the two spiral
becomes a straight line, which can eas- ramps. However, it was not possible
ily be transferred to the curved mold. with one form to find a practical way to
reverse the twist. Consequently, a mold
was made for the "right" twist, and one
Considerations for
for the "left" twist. The choice of two
Mold Design
forms also made it possible to meet the
Because the geometry of the spiral delivery schedule with only one casting
ramps was relatively simple, the mold in each form every day. Fig. 12 shows
for the warped panels could easily be the two forms in use. They were built on
produced by constructing the frame- a tilt table that was slightly raised during
work for the bottom of the form with production in order to get the average
beams of different depths being laid out slope of the concrete surface as flat as
on a horizontal surface in a fanned pat- possible.
tern, as shown in Fig. 10. These beams For the central core it was just as sim-
were then covered with a 4 mm (^'is in.) ple. As mentioned before, when the
thick steel plate, flexible enough to fol- cylindrical central core was unfolded,
low the curvature created by the beams. the spiral ledge became a straight Iine,
Thus, the underside of the deck panels as illustrated in Fig. 13. The bottom of
assumed a smooth surface of an apparent the form was then constructed as one-
warped shape, but actually consisted of quarter of a cylinder, laying on its
straight lines in the pattern shown in "back." The measurements to the spiral
Fig, 11. ledge, determined as the distances to
The warped deck panels had to have a the straight line on the unfolded central
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rig, ii. untoiaea central core.
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100
Finishing
90
80
Materials
=• Finishing
60 Erection
n 50 : Transportation
.5 40 = Formwork
Materials
30
LI and
2a ; Manufacture
10 Rigging
The use of mastic asphalt wearing mastic asphalt wearing surface consists
surface is actually rather common in of a bottom layer of 10 to 15 mm (about
Norway, and over the years the material 1/2 in.) thick asphalt concrete which
has performed quite well in our rather serves the purpose of a gas releasing
frigid climate, where the use of steel layer (nonadhering) and mastic asphalt
studded tires is common on all cars for layer of 30 mm (1'/a in.). This method is
about 6 months of the year. used for all levels except the roof park-
The standard procedure for installing ing deck. There the bottom layer is as
ray. io. iviaau aspria,ir surraces ror interior ano exterior parking areas.
Fig. 19, Shot of spiral ramp and main parking structure on a winter night.
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Fig. 20. Overall view of spiral ramp and main parking structure nearing completion.
described above, then follows a mastic laid, the gap is sealed with a strip of
asphalt membrane of 15 mm ('/a to s/4 in.), asphalt felt. The mastic asphalt is laid
then, as a drainage layer, a nonwoven by a beam paver and by hand at a tem-
polypropylene geotextile, and finally perature of about 220°C (428°F).
the mastic asphalt wearing surface. The The use of mastic asphalt eliminates
installation of mastic asphalt in the traf- costly joint details in the concrete slab.
fic lanes in the ramps is similar to that of Other advantages are wearing resis-
the interior parking levels, except that tance, flexibility and skid resistance.
the wearing layer is placed in two op- Any large uneveness of the concrete
erations. Each layer is less than 25 mm surface must be smoothed out with con-
(1 in.), but the two Iayers added are a crete or ordinary asphalt before apply-
little more than 40 mm (I in.). Sections ing the mastic asphalt.
through the two types of mastic asphalt The cost of a mastic asphalt surface,
are shown in Fig. 16. adding the cost of the increased flange
The mastic asphalt membrane has a thickness of the double tees is approxi-
maximum aggregate size of 10 to 6 mm mately NOK 140 per sq m ($2 per sq ft).
(% to r in.), a filler content of about 40 This is 5 to 10 percent less expensive
percent and a binder content of about 11 than a concrete topping with joints. The
to 12 percent. The bitumen is at straight main advantage, however, is the elimi-
run 40/50 penetration. The mastic as- nation of complicated joint details that
phalt wearing layer has a maximum are potential problem areas. Normally,
aggregate size of 10 mm (% in.), about 30 the only maintenance required is adding
percent filler and a binder content of 7 new top layers as the old surface is worn
to 8 percent. down by traffic. In the access ramps
The mastic asphalt in the membrane deterioration can be expected between
as well as the wearing course has no 5 to 10 years but in other parts of the
voids and is waterproof The wearing garage the life expectancy of the surface
layer has joints for every 350 to 600 m2 is considerably longer.
(3763 to 6452 sq ff) in order to take care Figs. 17 through 20 show various con-
of temperature differentials. Between struction phases of the spiral ramp and
the double tees and before the asphalt is main parking structure.
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