Safe and Restored Parking

The University of Toronto contacted us to investigate their concerns about corrosion-related deterioration, water leakage and the effectiveness of the existing waterproofing system at their 40 year-old, 10-level, 250 vehicle capacity underground parking structure.

To RJC's Toronto Building Science and Restoration team, it was evident that the suspended parking slabs had reached the end of their effective service life so they devised a cost-effective long-term repair strategy to maintain the parking garage.

The conventional approach to repairing the suspended parking slabs would have been to demolish and dispose of the entire suspended parking slabs and start with a clean slate. However, the extent of deterioration on the underside of the suspended parking slabs was relatively minor; therefore, the repair strategy for this parking structure was re-considered and a complete top slab replacement repair strategy that was sustainable and economical was implemented.

Both the economical and environmental benefits complement the overall top slab replacement repair strategy. For one, rehabilitation of existing building reduces solid waste volumes and diverts these waste volumes from landfills. Secondly, the amount of waste material created in this project by comparison to a complete slab replacement project was considerably reduced and lastly, the need for the production of new construction materials for the replacement of the building systems on the underside of the suspended parking slabs and for formwork was eliminated.

The service life of the existing structure has been extended an additional 20 to 25 years and the environmental footprint of the project was significantly reduced, thus contributing towards a more sustainable future in Canada.

Impressively, RJC designed a rehabilitation program to complete the structural repairs to all levels of the garage over an eight-month period, while maintaining the operation of one of U of T’s busiest buildings. 

RJC scheduled hydro-demolition for the majority of repairs during the day with louder jackhammering completed off-hours. We successfully managed the needs of both the client and the neighboring properties completing the necessary repairs safely and ensuring long-term operation of the garage.