Innovación en la construcción de aparcamientos subterráneos, gracias al pretensado

Post-tensioning procures innovative construction technique of underground car parks

Post-tensioning was, from the first days, used on car parks, as it offered many advantages: larger spans, less columns, strength and durability of structures. The paper describes a new type of underground car park of great structural simplicity, composed of a peripherical diaphragm wall covered with a reinforced concrete slab, a bottom slab on ground and several intermediate post-tensioned floors supported, without edge beams, by the diahragm wall. The intermediate floors are an innovation in this type of structures: they are the joist floors, with 15 m span, post tensioned by unbonded strands which are alternatively looped in end strips. The various post-tensioning details are described as well as the end support by special sliding connectors, and the construction methods used, in France, for two recent car parks, which have been built within the same period as originally scheduled for reinforced concrete construction.