Widespread investment and financial resources are needed to address one of the most talked about topics in recent years: climate change. The effects of climate change are proving disastrous for the environment, and it’s vital that key industries, like construction, are contributing to reducing emissions, adapting their processes and building in future resilience. Ueli M. Angst highlights how society faces two main challenges: maintaining existing ageing infrastructure in developed countries and establishing more sustainable infrastructure in emerging countries.
Despite the encouragement around retrofitting and restoration of deteriorating structures, new construction will still be required across both emerging and developed countries. It is essential that parts of the construction community come together to create a sustainable strategy for creating new infrastructure and ensuring it endures the test of time.
For the first time, C-Probe Systems is launching a product specifically for new construction in the built environment in order to prevent and offer control over steel corrosion, an issue that is prevalent in existing infrastructure. The LoCem® Modular Anode Unit (MAU) is a factory-made moulded impressed current cathodic protection (ICCP) component that can be attached in an array directly to steel reinforcement prior to pouring the concrete.
The purpose of the MAU is to offer vital protection from day one and prevent structures entering into a state of disrepair years into the future, by incorporating the use of cathodic protection at the design and construction stage. The MAU is suitable for all new construction projects, including buildings, bridges and car parks, where the reinforcement steel needs protection.
It offers sustainable resilience through the low carbon alkali activated cementitious geopolymer (LoCem®), which acts as a cathodic protection anode as well as a highly durable cement. Cement is an essential industry but with Portland cement producing around 8% of harmful global emissions, construction needs to start exploring innovative alternatives and adjusted formulations to drive down emissions.
The MAU provides easy installation for contractors and precast producers, as it can be push-fitted to a range of steel diameters, during steel construction. As its name suggests, the wiring between the MAU is also modular and simplifies the electrical installation. Routing of the interconnecting modular wiring can be made at the precast factory in box-outs and completed after delivery to site, making the completion of the installation more efficient.
Installation of the product is also described as ‘Plug and Play’, as the wiring is routed to the zonal enclosure, with the network routed between enclosures to the Network Access Unit for communication and control of protection current, that can be altered to different current densities depending on the layout of the reinforcement steel. When this is coupled with C-Probe’s resilience management networks, the MAU is easily and remotely monitored and controlled online. C-Probe’s Achilles Interactive Management Server, or AiMS, takes the structural data and offers clear reporting for performance now and further into the future. Having this important data means clients can take preventative action instead of deferring maintenance, the value of the asset is protected, and they have peace of mind that they have a healthy, functional structure for its whole life.
Technology and innovation will have a key role to play in the switch to a low carbon economy with sustainable infrastructure and the LoCem® Modular Anode offers an accessible way for the sector to achieve this. Through the integration of digital technologies with physical assets, C-Probe are able to generate, harvest and analyse important structural data which can ultimately create sustainable resilience for infrastructure. The need to reduce emissions and new construction is vital as we move towards NetZero, and implementing technology like this, alongside the use of low carbon materials such as LoCem®, from day one will allow C-Probe to do that.