The Best Repair Is the One That Prevents the Next Repair
How Surface-Applied Corrosion Inhibitors Reduced Active Corrosion in a Major Airport Parking Garage
Parking garages rarely fail overnight.
They deteriorate one corrosion cell at a time.
At the St. Louis Airport Parking Garage, engineers were dealing with exactly what owners across North America face every winter:
Chloride contamination
Rebar corrosion
Delamination
Spalling
Expensive repair cycles
Rather than simply repairing visible damage, SURTREAT evaluated whether corrosion activity itself could be reduced before further deterioration occurred.
The results were impressive.
The Challenge
The original parking garage, constructed in 1970, showed significant signs of reinforcing steel corrosion, particularly on the roof deck where concrete cover was as little as 3/8 inch. Visual inspection revealed active delamination and spalling caused by chloride-induced corrosion.
Instead of relying on visual observations alone, corrosion engineers performed electrochemical corrosion-rate measurements before and after applying SURTREAT technology.
That distinction matters.
Good engineering measures corrosion—not just concrete damage.
Real Field Testing
Two test areas were selected.
SURTREAT TPS XII and TPS II were applied, followed by repeat corrosion measurements approximately three months later using GalvaPulse corrosion-rate testing.
The comparison wasn't cosmetic.
It measured actual reinforcing steel corrosion activity.
The Results
Test Area 1
Average corrosion rate:
12 µm/year → 8 µm/year
Approximately a 33% reduction in average corrosion activity.
Test Area 2
Average corrosion rate:
25 µm/year → 5 µm/year
That's approximately an 80% reduction in active corrosion rate after treatment.
Even more telling, 31 individual measurement locations showed lower corrosion rates following treatment.
The Engineering Takeaway
Repairing concrete without reducing corrosion is like repainting a rusty bridge.
The corrosion continues beneath the repair.
This project demonstrated the value of treating the electrochemical process responsible for deterioration—not simply replacing damaged concrete.
By reducing active corrosion before extensive repairs, owners can help extend repair life and reduce future maintenance cycles.
Additional Findings
The evaluation also identified:
✔ Corrosion developing at support-column bases
✔ Corrosion around precast wall connection hardware in the newer garage
SURTREAT recommended targeted corrosion treatments for these components before significant structural deterioration occurred.
Prevention Costs Less Than Reconstruction
Every parking garage owner eventually faces the same decision:
Repair today's damage...
or interrupt tomorrow's corrosion.
The St. Louis Airport evaluation illustrates why addressing corrosion early can be one of the most cost-effective investments in concrete infrastructure.
Ready to Evaluate Your Structure?
SURTREAT proven corrosion mitigation technologies help owners:
Reduce active reinforcement corrosion
Extend concrete service life
Protect parking structures, bridges, marine facilities, and buildings
Make repair dollars last longer
Corrosion can be measured.
It can also be managed.
J Frank Jad