Below-Grade

Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci (Underground Carpark)
Salo (Lake Garda), Brescia, Italy

BACKGROUND
The Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci underground car park is a three-level, 12m (39.3701ft) below-grade parking structure that was built in the centre of Salo, a popular Italian vacation destination in the southwestern tip of the Lake Garda region.

In waterproofing the concrete of the car park, the project team was faced with the challenge of a 10m (32.8084ft) water table, clay soil conditions and a tight property line that compromised access (shoring was accomplished with 30cm/11.8110in thick Diaphragm walls). Since the ground level of the car park was going to be permanently landscaped as a piazza (square), the team sought a reliable, cost-efficient solution that would preserve the integrity of the car park for years to come.

SOLUTION
The project team turned to the Krystol® Concrete Waterproofing System, developed by Kryton a worldwide leader in crystalline waterproofing technology. The team wanted to avoid using a traditional membrane system because it is costly, labor intensive and vulnerable to human error.

Kryton’s distributor in Italy, System & Project recommended  the Krystol® waterproofing system, which was applied internally in the 1m (3.28ft) thick base slab, in all the perimeter walls and the ground-level plaza deck

The project team also used the Krystol® Waterstop System, an advanced joint design system that provides both chemical and physical waterproofing barriers to be used in all the cold joints of all the slab-to-wall joints. In following the original specifications, the project team took the precautionary step of applying Krystol® Waterstop System in conjunction with bentonite strips on all slab-to-slab and wall-to-wall joints.

By utilizing Krystol® to protect the concrete, the team not only had the world’s leading crystalline waterproofing technology to protect the structure, but one that also saved a substantial amount of time and money over installing a traditional membrane system.

The Krystol® system is an integral, permanent part of the concrete and allows the owner to save the life cycle costs that are included with the eventual reapplication of a traditional membrane system.

The Krystol® Concrete Waterproofing System at the Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci included 20,000kg (44,092lbs) of Krystol® Internal Membrane (KIM), an admixture suitable for new concrete construction, in 2500m³ (88,286.666ft³) of concrete.  Hundreds of lineal meters of Krystol® Waterstop System were also applied.

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The base slab, treated with KIM® concrete will withstand the 10m water table.

A watertight base slab protected by Kryton’s KIM® admixture alone

KIM® being poured directly into the mixer truck

Krystol Waterstop SystemT applied to the slab-to-slab joint

Kryton's Krystol Waterstop SystemT protects the two adjoining base slabs from water intrusion