Make no mistake. The Caldwell council of today is nothing like the council of 10 years ago. Last night, when faced with the painful decision to either close the parking deck at the Caldwell Community Center or wait with fingers crossed until a survey could be done to determine how to repair or replace the deck, this council - with 5 Republicans and 1 Democrat – joined hands and votes and shut it down. (The mayor was absent).
In order to understand why the deck is being shut down, take a look at the video below, which his only a portion of the entire video.
In essence, the deck is unsafe due to a few big problems, which occurred during its construction 10 years ago.
Caldwell borough Engineer Glen Beckmeyer and Professional Engineer Andrew Schrodin spoke about numerous problems, including
Schrodin ran a steel fabrication business for 20 years, and has a masters in structural engineering.
Beckmeyer told the council about water leaking through the top level to the bottom one;
Missing bolts and other big issues.
“Water was coming through the concrete deck. I went and did a tour of the facility and saw some things that were of concern to me,” Beckmeyer explained. “What we saw as we walked around we have a steel plate on the entrance first day if you stood underneath on the basement floor and looked up you could actually see daylight coming through the deck.”
The actual strength of the deck, according to both engineers, has been compromised.
As a band aid, Beckmeyer installed a steel plate over the floor of the entrance to the upper deck last month.
“Steel plate spans the concrete abutment you drive up to the first steel beam to span over the deck,” he added. “Walking around we saw numerous places where the galvanized decking is rotted away and you can see the concrete from the bottom.”
One problem noted was that chunks of concrete could fall down from the top level to the bottom, possibly injuring or killing someone.
This decking material is used as reinforcement to the deck and in other places it is part of the deck, and is used to give strength to the deck material. From when it was built, apparently, it was not constructed properly.
“Without that deck the deck’s strength has been reduced,” said Beckmeyer.
Structural engineer Schrodin agreed, and explained why the deck is compromised, showing corrosion.
Explaining how it should be done, he said a “curing agent on top of concrete after its poured which causes concrete to densify and shed water and protecting the concrete from corrosion.”
Defects include: bolts popping in steel structure and are missing; water flowing freely from the top deck to the bottom, showing how the deck is deteriorated (it should be a solid mass); bolts not installed properly as seen by condition of bolts when found intact or on the ground; concrete on deck may not have been treated when first built and caused rusting and infiltration.
With all council members including President Ann Dassing and members Kay Slattery, Peter Murray, Rich Hauser, Joe Norton and Doug Piazza all in agreement, they voted to immediately shut down the deck.
This was government in action – and at its best – as local government officials protected the community immediately.
