The Newcastle City Council (Council) commissioned the refurbishment of the Dixon Park Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC), which now includes new change rooms, a space for female members and accessible amenities. The refurbishment has created a more inclusive environment for the entire community.

BG&E provided structural engineering and materials testing services, including a structural and materials engineering condition assessment of the club. This investigation included destructive and non-destructive testing to determine the reinforcement information, and to establish durability properties and the design life for further building extensions.

BG&E completed both invasive and non-invasive works, including:

• a defect survey of the structure for highly urgent maintenance requirements;
• a concrete cover meter assessment on key structural members to measure the depth to embedded reinforcement for a durability assessment;
• concrete breakouts to assess reinforcement condition to qualify/quantify corrosion if present and to validate the concrete cover meter readings;
• concrete compressive strength assessment via the extraction and testing of concrete cores;
• chloride ion permeation testing to assess durability and remaining design life;
• carbonation testing to assess durability and remaining design life;
• electrode potential mapping surveys to highlight areas of corrosion risk; and
• electrical resistivity testing to highlight areas of corrosion risk.

The assessment provided the Council with objective data about the primary structural elements of the SLSC and also featured a durability assessment of these items.