More fnu in Hawai'i...
From the
Honolulu Advertiser again:
bq.
Crack in wheat silo prompts evacuation
A large crack in a 100-foot Hawaiian Flour Mill silo that contained 1,250 tons of wheat forced the evacuation of businesses surrounding the Nimitz Highway mill yesterday.
bq. The crack and bulge in the concrete silo were discovered early yesterday morning. The mill is near Pier 24 and is surrounded by many businesses, including Earl Scheib auto painting and DHX Dependable Hawaiian Express movers.
And more:
bq. Esquirion Crail, a grain operator, said he had never seen such a large crack in a silo in the 40 years that he has been with the company. He was overseeing the transfer of the wheat from the bulging silo to another tank last night, a process that he said could take nearly two days.
bq. "I don't think the thing would come down because it's all steel bars in there," Crail said. "I think it would just crack open, and the thing would come gushing out. There's going to be a lot of mess out here. That's all. But I think they wanted to get everyone out for safety."
Great name - Esquirion Crail - like some character out of a Washington Irving novel (or Poe).
Anyway, he is probably right - there is a huge amount of rebar (reinforcing rod) in the walls of any poured concrete structure. The only issue would be if the crack started out small and water got in sufficient to cause corrosion but if that was the case, you would see rust stains coming out from the cracks and since rusted steel expands, the covering concrete would spall off. Still, that is going to be expensive to repair...
Posted by DaveH at January 27, 2004 9:23 PM