The Greater Cincinnati Water Works Concrete Investigation

Richard Miller Treatment Plant (RMTP) is a 240 mgd capacity potable water treatment facility located in the California area of the City of Cincinnati, in the state of Ohio, US. It is owned and operated by Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW), a utility owned and operated by the city itself. After installing an advanced ultraviolet (UV) disinfection treatment system in 2013, GCWW became the largest water utility in North America to use UV light following sand filtration and granular activated carbon. The concrete filter gallery building was originally constructed in 1907 with 26 filters, with a 14-filter addition in 1937 and 7 filters added in 1964. After over 110 years of service, the structures started showing significant signs of deterioration, most commonly concrete spalling and reinforcing steel corrosion. This case study will highlight the methods used to evaluate the structures that involved conventional methods such as sounding, crack mapping, chemical and petrographic examinations, along with technology such as Half-Cell Potential/ICOR, Impact-Echo, Ground Penetrating Radar, and UAS (Drone) services.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn merging technology in concrete and steel reinforcement evaluations.
2. Understand conventional methods vs. new technology structure evaluations.
3. Learn how half-cell potential and linear polarization readings predict potential and corrosion rate of steel reinforcement.
4. Identify new methods using photogrammetry to estimate repair quantities.