The Resilience of Precast, Prestressed Concrete

December 3, 2020

Precast, prestressed concrete is one of the most resilient building materials available today, offering projects structural durability, hazard protection, and improved health and safety. If you’re not familiar with the term, plant-manufactured precast concrete refers to concrete that’s manufactured off-site in a quality-controlled facility and then transported to the final location where it will be erected or placed.

Precast concrete is used as an architectural material for building envelopes and other applications, as well as a structural system for buildings, parking structures, and bridges. It’s a versatile, high-performance material that easily integrates with other systems and provides a wide variety of benefits, from versatility to efficiency to resilience.

We’ll explore what makes precast, prestressed concrete one of the most resilient building materials available, so you can decide if it’s right for your next project. To learn more about the resilience of precast, prestressed concrete, watch the video below.

Is Precast Concrete Structurally Durable?

As a building material, precast concrete is designed to be resilient, durable, and robust. Because of the prestressing process, which adds tension and increases the strength of the concrete, structures made from precast concrete can stand the test of time with long lifespans.

Precast concrete structures can easily withstand harsh environmental conditions and extreme temperatures, while retaining their appearance over the lifespan of the structure, offering easy maintenance compared to other building materials.

How Does Precast Concrete Provide Hazard Protection?

For structures that are required to withstand destructive hazards, precast concrete is a valuable building material, as it’s strong enough to endure these hazards.

In addition to providing multi-hazard protection, precast also provides excellent weathering capabilities and is resistant to corrosion, all while meeting FEMA 362 guidance for safe rooms.

How Does Precast Concrete Improved Health & Safety?

Precast concrete is a non combustible building material. Because of this, structures composed of precast provide passive fire protection, eliminating the need for other systems or building occupants to act and making for a safer structure.

Precast concrete also emits remarkably low levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can limit adverse health effects on building occupants and residents.

When precast sandwich wall panels are combined with insulation, they can act as air barriers and limit the intrusion of moisture and mold growth, which contributes to better air quality indoors. All of these health and safety benefits make precast concrete a truly inimitable building material—as many other materials can’t boast these unique characteristics.

Learn More About Precast, Prestressed Concrete

Review the benefits of precast, prestressed concrete in the video above and share it with your industry peers and clients to spread awareness of this innovative material.

Interested in learning more about precast and how the precasters of the PCI Mid-Atlantic Chapter support projects of all kinds? Explore the PCI Mid-Atlantic Solutions Center for helpful resources and get in touch with PCI-MA for precast information, higher education partnerships, and more.

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