• The affordability of refurbishment, repair and replacement programmes are subject to ever closer Regulatory scrutiny with whole asset replacement being more difficult to justify. Targeted refurbishment requires a detailed understanding of the degradation mechanisms and an ability to predict future performance.

• New environmental regulations may prohibit the reuse of the original design materials. This is especially pertinent to the selection and application of organic coatings where limitation on materials use for worker health & safety and restrictions on the use of volatile organic compounds are coupled with limitations on surface preparation such as avoidance of fall-out and overspray from shotblasting operations. Designing remedial schemes requires expert knowledge of coatings and materials compatibility between old and new along with an awareness of the legislative field.

The addition of new cathodic protection schemes onto existing structures requires specialist design to ensure the performance objectives are met and the neighbouring structures not adversely affected. For complex structures ensuring the protection can be applied to the particular detail often requires the application of degradation models to verify the causal mechanisms and ensure the effectiveness of the remedial measures. For reinforced concrete structures this requires modelling the impact of sulphates, chlorides and carbonation on the structure alongside models of protection current distribution to determine the optimal design approach.