Time to cast some irl stuff, Recently I've come across this monstrosity on a new social housing project where I’m an intern doing the sewer and roadworks.

The entire thing was designed with pavers on a 200mm lean concrete base on top of a 250mm recycled aggregate sub base, already overkill but then came this work of art.

In order to "protect" the existing Oak, instead of pavers they wanted a monolithic reinforced concrete slab to minimize ground pressure. Specs called for a 180mm slab with 2 layers or 16mm rebar "nets" with 100mm spacing. (in freedom units: 7in slab, 5/8in rebar 4in spacing)

I had already seen some silly specs and overkill design before but this one took it to a whole new level.

𝘺𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳.

wait i don't have context for what it should be. what's wrong here? they just did way too much? and to protect what oak?

helping build farcaster | surfing @ venice, ca | eating @ gjusta / gjelina | “lucky me, lucky mud” 🤠

Massive overdesign,This level of reinforcement is excessive for a surface carrying only pedestrian or light vehicular loads.

Basically the cost, labor, and material usage are exteremely disproportionate to the functional demands

So who gets the kickbacks for the extra infra?

Growing veggies for the fine folks of Southeastern Massachusetts, w/ a focus on nutrient quality. Always interested in the evolution of digital payments.  🎩 