Luca Negri

Waterproofing restorations of motorway tunnel

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Entrance portal of the Vedeggio-Cassarate tunnel, at the Lugano Nord exit of the N2 motorway

Over the past three decades Drytech has carried out several waterproofing restorations of motorway tunnels on the Swiss N2 motorway, the main artery crossing the country from North to South.

The restoration system, based on expanding resin injections, sealed the seepages in cracks, joints and gravel nests.

Among others, Drytech has rehabilitated tunnels:

N2 Arisdorf tunnel – cracks, joints and gravel nests;

N2 Belchen tunnel, Dichten – passages, cracks and gravel nests;

N2 Hagnau Tunnel, Muttenz – passages and associated structures;

N2 Pratteln Tunnel, Liestal Schönthal – cracks, wall and ceiling joints;

N2 Lange Heid Tunnel, Münchenstein – movement joints;

N2 Dosso Taverne Tunnel – recess joints;

N2 Melide Grancia Tunnel – cracks and joints in the technical tunnel;

N2 Galleria Melide Grancia – cracks and joints in the summit part of the vault;

In addition, Drytech restored the portal of the Vedeggio Cassarate tunnel by sealing cracks.

Waterproofing buried podium

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An architectural detail that alludes to the battlements of the ancient city walls and breaks up the composed monumentality of the building.

The waterproofing of the partially buried podium of the Torricella-Taverne school is made with a Drytech Tank.

The construction of the Torricella-Taverne nursery school is part of the overall reorganization of an area in which the construction of various public, scholastic and sporting works is planned.

The Celoria Architects studio has translated the constraint represented by an existing wall into a resource, which, by touching the individual elements present in the area, defines their mutual relationships.

The wall has in fact become the main subject of the intervention, constituting the base of the building and the site of the pedestrian walkway that leads to the school and connects to the sports fields via a ramp.

The three remaining sides of the podium are underground and house the technical and service rooms in a waterproof Drytech Tank structure.

The planimetric organization of the building interprets the functional indications relating to school buildings, with the aim of optimizing circulation spaces, reducing distribution to a minimum and eliminating corridors.

The abstract composition of the volume is however softened by the introduction of some elements somehow extraneous to this composed monumentality, which allude to ancient bastions characterizing their formal expression. 

Even if the final touch of tenderness to the Torricella-Taverne nursery school is given by the row of small colored scooters parked under the loggia.

Project: Celoria Architects, Balerna

Structure: Brenni engineering SA, Mendrisio

Construction: CSC SA, Lugano

Waterproofing of the underground car park of a data bunker

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One of the servers hosted in the bunker in the Swiss Alps

The waterproofing of the underground car park of a data bunker in the Swiss Alps was carried out in the water table with the Drytech Tank system.

The Swiss army’s underground bunker is used by MOUNT10 to transfer data fully automatically and encrypted.

Security systems are constantly being updated in order to protect client companies from the consequences of data loss, theft and modification.

Today, thousands of SMEs in Switzerland also benefit from the services offered by the Zug-based company MOUNT10 and its back-up servers deep in the Bernese Alps.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Client: Kappel Service AG, Zug

Structure: Egger Ingenieure AG, Gstaad

Project: gehret design, Feutersoey

Construction: Thoenen Bauunternehmung AG, Gstaad

Drytech Tank: 1’165 m2

Water tank waterproofing

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Drytech has built the new 5,600 m³ water tank, which will feed the cannons for artificial snow Close to the Carosello 3000 station in Livigno, with the Drytech White Tank Waterproofing.

Drytech built the new 5,600 m3 water tank, which will supply the snowmaking cannons at the Carosello 3000 resort in Livigno, with the Drytech Tank waterproofing system.

The work, built in 5 months with a 2’175 m² Drytech Tank, is completely underground to have no impact on the Alpine panorama.

The practicality of the construction of the Drytech Tank makes the construction of these structures faster.

Time is a decisive factor in any construction site, but it becomes even more important for applications conditioned by seasonality (the structure had to be ready in time for the opening of the ski season) and with a climate that reduces the useful building time to a few months.

Drytech Engineering has formulated a waterproof concrete suitable for environmental conditions, based on the characteristics of the aggregates present in the plant chosen by the Edil Dona company in Valdisotto, Sondrio.

The acrylic resin DRYflex, which waterproofs the details by pressure, is certified for use in structures in contact with drinking water, so it is safe for the environment and therefore perfectly suitable for use in a tank that feeds the guns of snow.

One of the main acceleration factors on the construction site is the control of shrinkage cracking.
In fact, the Drytech tank allows you to make continuous castings (the bed was cast in a single solution) because the cracks are induced by the Cracking Elements, which can also act as disposable formwork.

Client: Carosello 3000, Livigno

Project: Studio Associato DMP, Livigno

Structure: Ing. Piergiacomo Giuppani, Sondrio

Construction: EDIL DONA, Valdisotto

Drytech Tank: 2,175 m²

Waterproofing underground tunnel

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Cunicolo AIL Agno-Bioggio

Waterproofing with the Drytech Tank structure of an underground tunnel that runs alongside a river and at one point passes under the bed of a tributary.

The AIL Agno-Bioggio tunnel for high voltage systems runs alongside the Vedeggio river for 4 km and, in a central stretch, is also bordered by the Prati Maggiori canal. Precisely at this point the route of the structure crosses the Riale Roncaccio drainage canal.

To overcome it, the tunnel dives further below the riverbed up to -5 meters from the ground level. Due to the particularly delicate position exposed to multiple water pressures, this section of the tunnel was created with a total Drytech Tank: foundation, walls and slab.

The Drytech Tank structure of the AIL Agno-Bioggio tunnel has a thickness between 30 and 40 cm and the joints have been waterproofed with injections of DRYflex expanding resin.

By sealing the entire thickness of the joint, the resin also protects the reinforcing bars, because it keeps water completely outside the concrete. In the event of any infiltrations, the system provides practical and easily manageable maintenance from inside the structure, without interruptions to the service.

The real possibility of carrying out maintenance contributes to the main quality of waterproofing: which is to prevent water from entering for the entire life of the work, i.e. for 50 – 100 years in the case of civil engineering structures, as prescribed by SIA 272.

Structure: Comal Engineering, Lugano

Construction: Implenia, Bioggio oh the 

Restoration waterproofing of a road tunnel

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Drytech vehicles near the service tunnel entrance

Restoration waterproofing of a road tunnel service tunnel affected by seepage and mould, with DRYflex resin sealant injections from inside the structure.

The tunnel originally provided access to a Cold War bunker, built between 1969 and 1971. It was later converted into an escape tunnel from the road tunnel.

In order to restore it, all electrical components were dismantled. and then moss and mould were removed to expose the wall and identify exactly where water was seeping in.

Drytech technicians then carried out crack sealing injections, sealing the tunnel vault and walls.

The intervention was carried out between 8pm and 4.30am to minimise the impact on tunnel traffic.

Waterproofing of a prefabricated monolith

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The railway underpass of Indipendenza street in Crema allows the passage of a road and a cycle path under the railway path.

The waterproofing of a prefabricated monolith made it possible to construct a road subway without interrupting the upper railway line.

The Drytech Tank made it possible to prefabricate the monolith near the tracks and push it to its final location with an excavation that gradually replaced it for the ground supporting the railway line.

The railway underpass of Indipendenza street in Crema allows the passage of a road and a cycle path under the railway path. The work was carried out without interrupting the overlying passage of the trains.

Once positioned in place, the monolith was waterproofed in its critical points (cracks and joints) with DRYflex expanding resin injections.

Made ex-post, the waterproofing did not risk being damaged during the launching operations.

The expansion joints f the railway underpass of Indipendenza street in Crema were prepared with DRYset injectable waterstop tapes.

Structure: Ing. Terzini, Crema

Construction: De Fabiani Spa, Cavenago d’Adda

Drytech Tank: 3’600 m²

Waterproofing a hydroelectric power station

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The new hydroelectric plant of Casale Monferrato

Waterproofing a hydroelectric power station built on the banks of the Po River with the Drytech Tank watertight structure.

Building for water can sometimes mean having to build underwater too. The new Casale Monferrato hydroelectric power plant was built below the left bank of the Po, and the river also completely flooded the construction site during the 18 months in which the work was carried out.

The natural flooding in the floodplain area where the construction site was opened did not represent a problem for the Drytech Tank, because the construction characteristics and materials of the system cannot be altered by the presence of water, not even during construction.

The same DRYflex resin, which is injected into the construction details to seal them, is effective in the presence of water, even under pressure.

Built by Allara SpA of Casale Monferrato, the system consists of a mobile weir in the riverbed, an intake structure upstream of the weir from which the diversion canal begins which conveys the water to the central building which houses the groups of energy production and, downstream of this, the return channel into the riverbed.
The work is completed by two access ladders – one on each bank – for the ichthyofauna and the ramp for the passage of canoes.

The mobile barrier crosspiece, made up of a tubular structure in water-inflatable rubberized fabric, guarantees the diversion of the water flow to the lateral intake work of the left bank.

When the water level upstream reaches the maximum authorized level, the crossbar is depressed under the pressure of the water that overcomes it, avoiding flooding.

With its 200 meters of longitudinal development, it is the largest flexible dam in the world built with this technology.

The production plant hosts four turbines that generate an average power of approximately 3000 kW, for an annual production of 21 GWh.

Access to the turbine room is guaranteed by an underground tunnel connected to an entrance hatch. The tunnel is also a full Drytech Tank (waterproof floor, walls and slab), connected to the main body by a movement joint which has been waterproofed with DRYset injectable Waterstop Tape.

Owner: Idropana, Turin

Technical direction: STA Engineering, Pinerolo

Structure: Eng. Gianluca Odetto – SERTECH, Loranzè

Construction: Allara SpA, Casale Monferrato

Drytech Tank: 1,200 m2

Waterproofing of the lift shafts and perimeter walls

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The events hall

Drytech realised the waterproofing of the lift shafts and perimeter walls of the new buildings integrating the renovation of a historical industrial site in Baden.



‘We were strongly oriented towards the prevailing industrial history of the Trafo site and took care to sensitively integrate the new building emerging from Hall 38 into the existing context,’ says architect Roger Biscioni.

The project recovered three industrial warehouses, transforming them respectively into a covered square, a structure housing an 80-room hotel and flats, and finally a pavilion housing a fitness centre with hammam, cinema and restaurants.

The intervention is also characterised by the 660 coloured windows by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, which give the impression of an industrial cathedral. Just as the large chandeliers in Hall 36, with their design inspired by the fuses of industrial transformers, enhance the history of the site.

The Drytech Tank, with its construction flexibility, allowed the waterproofing to be perfectly adapted to the requirements of a renovation of this complexity.

Owner: Baugenossenschaft Trafo II, c/o Eglin Immobilien AG, Baden

Contactor: Gross GU AG, Brugg

Structur: MWV Bauingenieure AG, Baden

Project:
Graf Biscioni Architektur GmbH, Winterthur,
Max Müller Architekt BSA SWB, Baden

Builders: Estermann AG, Geuensee

Waterproofing: Drytech Schweiz

waterproofing of an industrial clarifier

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An industrial clarifier

The waterproofing of an industrial clarifier, which receives wastewater laden with metals, hydrocarbons and other pollutants, must resist aggressive agents and at the same time be compatible with drinking water.

An industrial clarifier receives wastewater laden with metals, hydrocarbons and other pollutants.

It separates these elements from water through mechanical and chemical processes.

It then conveys the clarified water to the sewage systems and retains the residual sludge from the purification.

The walls of a clarifier are therefore exposed to a series of more or less aggressive agents. Conversely, they must not release any material into the water, much less polluting.

The DRYflex resin – used to seal joints, crossings and cracks in the Drytech Tank – has this dual ability to resist aggressive agents (starting with salinity) and even be compatible with use in drinking water facilities.

It is important to emphasize that the resin saturates joints, cracks and crossings for the entire thickness of the structure.

In the case of the Genoa clarifier, the barrier opposite the water has a variable thickness from 30 to 120 cm, coinciding precisely with that of the structure.

On the other hand, the characteristic single structure of the Drytech Tank waterproofing allows direct and non-invasive access for any maintenance interventions, which are simple and immediately verifiable.
Moreover, without particular limitations on the use of the system.

As part of the construction of the Genoa plant, Drytech Engineering collaborated with the structural engineer already in the design phase, proposing solutions for waterproofing the critical points of the structure. Engineering also contributed to the definition of the recipe for controlled shrinkage waterproof concrete, based on the characteristics of the plant chosen by the client.

Structure: Dr. Ing. Raffaele Ghitti, Darfo Boario Terme

Construction: SEMAT spa, Artogne

Drytech Tank: 700 m²