Ports of Auckland Car Park – Protection in a Challenging Marine Environment

Adding Life to Concrete – How MARKHAM provided protection and waterproofing for an exposed structure in a marine environment

OBJECTIVE

This new multi-level car park on the Bledisloe Wharf in the Ports of Auckland complex was built to handle transit storage of new imported vehicles which had entered the country at the port.

With any car park, the concrete floor slabs are at risk from the cars themselves. Challenges include contaminants brought in on the vehicle wheels; carbonation due to exhaust fumes; and routine traffic wear and stresses.

In this particular case, significant extra challenges were added by its location in an exposed marine zone, immediately next to seawater, and subject to Auckland’s notoriously unpredictable weather conditions.

All of this meant that the concrete is at high risk of premature deterioration.

SOLUTION

MARKHAM’s response was two-pronged.

Firstly, the lower decks were treated with AQURON 1000 spray-applied penetrating hydrogel treatment, for sealing, hardening and anti-dusting. This approach makes concrete more durable against routine wear, and also protects against concrete carbonation, which is typically triggered by vehicle exhaust fumes. Routine exposed concrete protection of this type are part of our INFRA-TECT^® options.

Secondly, and critically, on the top deck our full TOP-TECT^® deck waterproofing methods were applied. The concrete mix incorporated hydrogel waterproofing admixture. All slab joints were sealed with delayed-swell waterstop gasket. The completed surfaces were treated with spray-applied waterproofing treatment.

RESULTS

At time of compiling this case study, the car park structure is still comparatively young, but so far shows no signs of premature deterioration.

As a point of interest, the Bledisloe Wharf itself was the subject of “temporary” durability treatment over 20 years ago. The fact that a new structure is being built on it is excellent testimony to the earlier works.

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