UPDATE April 22, 2020
Shotcrete is now incorporated into ACI 318-19 Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete.
Click here for a shotcrete supplement to the ACI 318-19 commentary by Charles Hanskat, Terence C. Holland, and Bruce A. Suprenant.
Original Article Date: April 4, 2019
Through the good efforts of the ACI 318A Shotcrete Task Group and others, shotcrete will be universally adopted and included in the soon to be released ACI 318-19: Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete. Although shotcrete design and construction has been accepted for years by the International Building Code (IBC), the current ACI specification, 318-14, has no such shotcrete provisions.
A BRIEF HISTORY
The inclusion of shotcrete in ACI 318 has been a long time coming, with supporting documentation and universally accepted materials and construction standards leading the way. The IBC has incorporated shotcrete as standard practice, in some fashion, since the year 2000. American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has documentation on materials for shotcrete, preconstruction testing, admixtures, and others. ACI has had specifications for shotcrete and associated guidelines since the 1990’s. A few of these resources that cannot go unmentioned include:
ACI 506R-16 Guide to Shotcrete
ACI 506.2-13 Specification for Shotcrete
ACI 506.4R-94 Guide for the Evaluation of Shotcrete
SUMMARY
ACI’s incorporation of shotcrete into 318-19 is a huge accomplishment for the entire construction industry. Although already widely accepted as a beneficial construction method of concrete placement, it’s comfortable to know that shotcrete is finally within the text in which it belongs.
REFERENCES
Hanskat, Fiorato, Suprenant, Holland (2017, April 6) Information for ACI 318A in Preparation for Shotcrete Provisions. Retrieved from https://www.concrete.org/committees/getagendaminutes.aspx?DocID=86070
