z Salt 2017: Damage from de-icing salt to the NW parking ramp at the University of Wisconsin Hospital.

At the parking ramp for the American Family Children's Hospital in Madison, WI, there's a graphic example of salt damage.

This facility is only 10 years old--deterioration of the elevated ramp leading to the parking garage is progressing rapidly.

The entrance ramp extends just above the emergency room sign.

At a door opening onto the ramp, one salted area is outlined in red. The decaying concrete chunks haven't been cleared--indicating a seldom-used exit. Yet still this spot and the walkway to the right are being salted.

Large cracks are visible in the surface of the ramp. Most of the strength of concrete comes from the reinforcing rods inside. Cracks allow salty water to infiltrate, causing corrosion of the iron rods. If enough cross section of the rods is lost, the ramp can fail.

These cracks have not been sealed or repaired, indicating poor maintenance. More water will get in... more corrosion.

Salt applied to this low-traffic pedestrian sidewalk will dissolve and travel down the entire ramp, leaking into every crack along the way. This one application of salt is causing dangerous and costly damage.

View of the underside of the ramp at the same location.
You can see that cracks we saw on the upper surface go all the way through.

The white stains are probably not ice or salt, but leached concrete minerals--indicating weakening of the concrete. You can also see rust.

This ramp is one of two (or three) entrances, so it gets heavy traffic.

While the ramp is unlikely to collapse soon, these signs reveal a shocking lack of preventative maintenance, plus unnecessary and damaging use of salt.

If this ramp were to collapse here, it would block the entrance to the emergency room for hours.

The parking ramp for a hospital in Johnson City, NY, collapsed in 2015, destroying about 50 cars. One car had exited minutes before the collapse.

The same ramp for the UHS Wilson Hospital--note corrosion and damage to concrete along the edge of the upper deck where it didn't fall.

The law requires regular inspection of bridges and elevators. But no US state has a law requiring periodic inspection of parking ramps. There is no requirement even to reveal the cause of a collapse. As far as I know, the public was never informed why this one collapsed, though you can clearly see it's poor condition in the news photo.

One of the cars salvaged from the ramp collapse..

Two of the largest disasters in the Midwest have been attributed in part to salt...
The lead poisoning in Flint, MI. Link
The I35W highway bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

Highway bridges are similar to parking ramps in construction and in exposure to de-icing salt. This bridge collapsed in Oct. of 2016. You can see advanced deterioration of the concrete. Salt is regularly spread in this region of Italy.

One died, five injured.

Salt isn't as safe as we think.
The true extent of damage to Madison's infrastructure is massive, but mostly unknown.