Concrete structure ownership and management: part 1

With correct design, specification and construction, concrete structures provide high-performance durable assets with long service lives. Owners can maximise the benefits to be gained from concrete structures, while minimising through-life cost and sustainability impacts, by taking a through-life perspective on the design, specification and management of their structures; rather than simply focusing on first cost. This first part of a two-part paper provides an overview of the advice given in the fib guide to good practice entitled Concrete Structure Management—Guide to Ownership and Good Practice (fib Bulletin 44): the paper deals with general issues associated with concrete structure ownership, giving owners an insight into their responsibilities and obligations, what they should do and seek to achieve in the context of concrete structure management, and information regarding potential deterioration mechanisms and the merits of adopting proactive as opposed to reactive structure management.