PU Injection Foam Resins
WEBAC® 150
- Classic Line
Sealing expansion joints in the underground car park, Europa Passage Hamburg
The Europa Passage Hamburg is the largest shopping mall in Hamburg's city center and attracts numerous customers as an international retail and visitor center. Designed by architects Bothe Richter Teherani, the passage connects the Mönckebergstraße and Jungfernstieg/Ballindamm shopping streets in a prime city location, providing shelter from the weather.
In addition to around 30,000 square meters of retail space, 34,000 square meters of prestigious office space were also created here. The architectural highlight of the Europa Passage is the glass roof, which extends over the entire length of the building and rests on steel arches.
The Europa Passage underground car park has six underground floors, is about as deep as a Hamburg office building is high, and offers space for over 700 vehicles.
Groundwater and construction method for the underground car park
The underground car park was constructed using the so-called top-down method (from top to bottom). First, 80-centimeter-thick diaphragm walls were driven more than 35 meters deep into the ground. Then the ceiling of the first basement level was constructed as a frame-shaped concrete floor. The earth below was then excavated and removed through an opening. This process was repeated level by level down to the lowest floor.
A major challenge during construction was the extremely high groundwater level in the immediate vicinity of the Alster, which is already around one and a half meters deep. On the lowest floor of the garage, a water column of around 20 meters acts on the outer walls.
Sealing with WEBAC PU injection resins
Special injection tubes were laid in the construction joints during construction to ensure permanent sealing of the underground car park. After the inevitable shrinkage of the concrete, these were injected with WEBAC PU injection resins as planned to ensure absolute watertightness. Unavoidable cracks in the concrete, typical for construction projects of this magnitude, were also successfully sealed and subjected to injection.
The sealing work was completed in time for the opening at the beginning of October 2006, ensuring unrestricted use of the underground car park from the outset.
Products Used
- View details
WEBAC 150 is a versatile PU injection foam resin (SPU) that is particularly valued for its safe and easy application. Upon contact with water, it cures with significant expansion to form a surface-tight, firm-elastic foam with a very fine-cell structure. This makes it suitable for the rapid, temporary closure and sealing of pressurized water-bearing cracks, cavities/voids, and leaks in building construction, civil engineering, bridge construction, and tunnel construction.
