Category Archives: Grout

What are the various types of Grout and where are they used?

Grout is a mixture of water, cement, admixtures and sometimes fine aggregate. It is used for placement into narrow cavities such as rock fissures or holes, to fill and consolidate two adjoining objects into a solid mass.

Grout is typically categorized as either a sanded grout or a neat grout. As the name implies, a sanded grout contains cement, sand, admixtures and water, while a neat grout contains cement, admixtures and water. Sanded grouts are normally used for general void filling and neat grouts are normally used for grouting around piles, cables and post-tensioning tendons.

Toronto Pearson International Airport, Toronto, ON

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Toronto Pearson International Airport established in 1939, is Canada’s busiest airport. It currently handles 30 million passengers annually and is expected to handle 50 million passengers a year, by the year 2020. In 1996, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), which manages, operates and maintains the airport, developed a plan that will allow Pearson Airport to keep pace with this rapidly growing travel demand. The Airport Development Program (ADP) is a 10-year, $4.4 billion plan focused mainly on the replacement of Terminals 1 and 2 with a new single terminal and a 12,600 space parking garage. The first phase of the 8-level parking garage, contains approximately 9,000 spaces.

Carruthers & Wallace designed the parking structure, which required 100,000 m3 (130,000 yd3) of concrete and 8,000 tonnes of reinforcing steel to construct. The cast in place slab and beam design consisted of 1,200 tonnes of bonded post-tensioning and 800 tonnes of unbonded post-tensioning.

EllisDon Construction Services Inc, the project’s successful bidder subcontracted the post-tension grouting to a joint venture consisting of Harris PT of Stoney Creek, ON and Canadian BBR Inc of Agincourt, ON. The joint venture submitted KING PT to Carruthers & Wallace and it was approved for use on the bonded post-tensioning system. The Harris-BBR JV crews mixed and placed the PT continuously during the 30-month construction period. Although the structure was heated throughout the winters, typical ambient temperatures ranged from -5°C to 30°C (23°F to 86°F). Despite a demanding construction schedule, the project was completed on time. The contractor was pleased with the quality and performance of the grout and when completed, the projected represented the largest PT Grout project that KING has supplied to date.