[vannrox]

I did not know this and I am an Engineer that works with concrete from time to time.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I had no idea.

Where is the oxygen coming from to drive the oxidation (i.e. rust) process. From the concrete itself?

[2banana]

Funny how the German bunkers on the Normandy beaches still look pretty good.

Built in a tough war economy and with steel reinforced concrete...

[Bryanw92]

>>The sorts of predicaments the world faces — ranging from over $200 trillion in debt

That number always cracks me up. Who does the “world” owe $200T to? Aliens? /s

[Sequoyah101]

I am a civil engineer and know this very well. But it is not the disaster he makes it out to be. ZH is a home for fearmongers.

Stuff happens.

The biggest waste is the stupid windmills. Not only that, they are a blight on the land.

[Captain7seas]

“...unsustainable addiction to fossil fuels,”

I stopped reading right there.

[CMB_polarization]

This is like Marty watching himself fade out of pictures in “Back to the Future”. WE have to do the right thing or cease to exist.

[D Rider]

It is not the reinforcement at all. Portland cement has a limited lifespan in and of itself. It is not at all the same formulation as Roman cement. Also, modern design wants the concrete to crack first. While this allows exposure to the steel, it reduces the risk of catastrophic failure.

[Iron Munro]

The Brooklyn Bridge (built in 1883) and other structures of the era were built of solid limestone, granite and mortar, not steel reinforced concrete.

The bridge anchorages, bases and towers are solid structures of stone masonry.

Each of the masonry towers contains about 90,000 tons of limestone and granite stone blocks and tops out at 276 feet in height.

The stone war largely mined about 100 miles away in the foothill;s of the Catskill mountains and the huge blocks were transported by barge down the Hudson River to the bridge site.

http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/bbstory.Html

The bridge is now over 130 years old and still as solid as the day it was built.

[exDemMom]

In a prior companion piece to this article, I quoted a study which determined that to simply meet the wind power goal put forth in the recent Paris accord, the world would have to massively upshift from installing 37 wind towers per day currently to more than 1,300 per day by 2028.

Would any birds survive that?

[sauropod]

Durden doesn’t cover the whole issue.

While it is true that Rebar rusts from the inside, for roads and the bottom of some buildings located near streets, there is significant salt and brine that is applied to the roadways and sidewalks. Add to that the wear and tear from moving vehicles over a period of time, and potholes develop.

The quality of the concrete’s constituents also matter. Cheap constituents yield an inferior product.

There are solutions to this - see UHPC - but the cost/yard is prohibitive.

‘Pod.

[familyop]

The real cause of the problems:

The Nature of a Psychopath and the Global Elite ~ Jay Weidner - Thomas Sheridan - James Corbett
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqfvXw8qu6Q

[Axenolith]

Part of the aspect of inspecting reinforced concrete construction includes tolerances for how much concrete must cover reinforcing steel when the face is exposed to soil, air, interior etc... where you see the rotting bar and or spalling concrete the tolerances at some point were missed, or the concrete was substandard, or the mix wasn’t designed for the environmental conditions.

I’ve had concrete hammered out of places that was over 75 years old and it was like granite and the bar was fine.

[Gene Eric]

I believe we’re enduring the finality of corrupt, dying royalty.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

We are not ancient Rome. Rome built everything to last. We build everything to minimize building costs with short design life. I wish we built things much more permanently, but then they would be much more expensive, and many people could not afford them at all.

[Impy]

I know nothing of construction so I didn’t know that either. Very interesting. No one ever thought that rusted rebar would be a problem?