Reusability Assessment of Obsolete Reinforced Concrete Structural Components

The production of concrete, the most widely used construction material, detrimentally affects the environment. Obsolete reinforced concrete (RC) load-bearing structures, even when still in good condition, are today prematurely crushed and landfilled or recycled into new concrete mixes. Little known and rarely implemented, the reuse of RC structural components is an alternative strategy towards more circularity in the construction industry. Since 2021, RC component reuse has been implemented in a series of construction and deconstruction projects in Switzerland. This paper identifies existing process sequences for RC-reuse projects and proposes one that involves a new assessment procedure to evaluate the reusability of the components early on and facilitate their future reuse planning. The paper discusses the application of this procedure to three deconstruction projects. Results are encouraging with regard to the durability of RC components. Almost 90% of the RC components of a building could be reused for new purposes with the same stability and exposure as in the donor building.