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City sidewalks represent an important investment for a municipality. Many metres are constructed each year. In addition to these new structures, several metres must be replaced due to breakage, premature aging, or excessive scaling. When building these structures, it is important to ensure that everything is done to produce "HIGH-PERFORMANCE STRUCTURES."
This document, which covers the construction of Portland cement concrete sidewalks, is based on the following standards:
| REFERENCE STANDARDS | |
| CAN/CSA-A5 | Ciments Portlands. |
| CAN3-A266.2 | Chemical Admixtures for Concrete |
| CAN/CSA-A23.1-A23.2 | Concrete Material and Methods of Concrete Construction/Method of Test for Concrete |
| NQ 2629-520 | Concrete sidewalks and curbs mixed on site. |
Sidewalks are fairly simple to build. They are not reinforced. Their bending load is usually low.
However, they are exposed to harsh weather conditions including numerous freeze/thaw cycles, de-icing salts, frequent wet/dry cycles, etc.
In addition, other factors such as soil movement due to freezing, loss of carrying capacity caused by excessive settlement, or material transport due to erosion, can result in premature weathering of the structures.
For all these reasons, during the construction stages, it is important to ensure that all the technical references (plans and specifications) involve high-performance structures.
High performance concrete means that it will retain its structural integrity for many years. Our severe winters require the fabrication of highly durable concrete structures that can withstand freeze/thaw cycles.
Premature scaling of sidewalks can be the result of poor-quality aggregates or the use of concrete that does not conform to the minimum standard requirements.
The main factors, which may affect concrete resistance to scaling are listed in the table below.
