REINFORCED CONCRETE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 30, 4 August 1925, Page 8

REINFORCED CONCRETE

EVIDENCE OF DURABILITY. Doubt has sometimes been expressed in some quarters as to the durability of reinforced concrete, or, rather, as to the lasting qualities of steel imbedded in concrete. In view of this impression architects and builders have been particularly interested in what has been revealed by the demolition of the old A.M.P. Building at the corner of Hunter street and Customhouse quay to make room for the vast new building. There were a- nuinber'of steel girders embedded in concrete during thg construction of tlio building in 1892-93, more than thirty years ago, and, as tho concrete was made with coke breeze, it was felt that a possible olement of sulphur in the breeze might have corroded the steel. When this stage of the demolition was reached these concrete-covered steel beams were opened up and found to be as good and clean as the day they were put in. Even more striking was the evidence furnished by two six-inch nails used to affix the core of the moulding for the heads in concrete set round the exterior cornices. These heads have been exposed to all weathers in Wellington for over thirty years, and yet the nails, only about a couple of inches from the surface, nre as bright as tho day they came out of tho shop. The evidence from this old building goes to show that reinforced concrete buildings, Faithfully designed and constructed, arc likely to bo as permanent as the Pyramids.