a Watertight solution to North West Cambridge development

The Background

Aimed at addressing the escalating housing shortage in Cambridge, which has seen many key workers priced out of the city, once complete the development will include 1,500 new affordable homes, accommodation for 2,000 postgraduates, a primary school, community centre, two parks and local shops.

The Problem

As part of the recently-completed first phase of development, known as The Eddington site, around 91 residential homes were built on top of an underground car park. To protect the car parks’ basement and ground floor slab from water ingress and potential damp, concrete frame specialists Tamdown, were on the hunt for a water resistant concrete solution.

The Solution

Cue Aggregate Industries’ Watertight, a versatile range of specialised ready-mixed concretes designed to protect structures from water ingress or to retain water within a structure.

Working to strict access times limited to between 9am to 4pm, the project involved concrete pours of up to 280m³ a day, twice a week. In total to date, the Aggregate Industries team have supplied 14,000m³ of concrete to the first phase of the project.

Core to this was the 3,000m³ of custom blend Watertight, made using the Masterlife WP799 BASF’s a high performance integral waterproofing system for wet cast concrete incorporating combined waterproofing and super plasticising components.

What’s more, the second tier of waterproofing saw the use of BASF’s ancillary products at the construction joints such as MasterSeal 910, hydro-swelling waterbars used to seal and leak-proof joints in concrete structures by swelling up to 200% on exposure to water.

Fully compliant with BS 8102 type B construction, the benefits of using this system were reduced water and air permeability, reduced water penetration and absorption as well as lower installation time and cost.

Simon Wycherley at Aggregate Industries, said: “As a ground-breaking model for affordable urban housing in the UK, the contractors working on the North West Cambridge Development Eddington were right to choose a tailored approach to concrete specification.

“With a host of high performance concrete blends at our disposal, including BASF admixtures, we were able to create bespoke Watertight concrete solutions with superior water-resistant properties, enhanced toughness and excellent workability that will no doubt last for years to come.”