The River House Condominiums Case Study

The Client

The River House Condominiums on behalf of Kent Companies

 

The Project

The River House Condominiums, the tallest building in Grand Rapids at the time, and the tallest all-residential building in Michigan opened to rave reviews in November 2008. Prior to final construction, design changes needed to be made on most, of the 34 floors of the building. These changes necessitated that all post tension cables be located and mapped to avoid damage during the change process.

 

The Plan

In consultation with the client Diamond developed a plan to non-destructively survey different locations on 30 out of the 34 floors in the building. The plan called for using Diamond’s Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) SIR 20 systems, with Radan software and onsite 3D capabilities.

 

The Process

Using a 1500 mHz antenna Diamond engineering staff spent over 60 hours structurally scanning over 100
different locations throughout the building—floors 1 through 30—verifying and mapping the location and
depth of post tension cabling.

 

The Outcome

According to Paul Bowne, from Kent Companies, Diamond was always available when needed. “They
were very responsive,” he said. “They conducted scans on 20 different occasions, always adjusting their
schedule to ours, and always meeting the set timelines. By using Diamond,” conclude Bowne, “we
avoided both, the potential for the massive expense of damaging post tension cable and for delaying
completion of the project.”