Ground Water Contamination Halts Finnish Project

Vantaa, the fourth most populated city in Finland, is home to Finland’s largest airport - the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.

Since 2008, a new railway called the Ring Rail Line has been under construction which will connect the airport and the adjacent Aviapolis business and retail district to the Helsinki commuter rail network. The new line will include five new stations, and travel through suburban communities, making it possible to take the train directly to Helsinki from the Airport.

The project has been met with some unforeseen problems, pushing the opening date back a year to July 2015. The ground and bedrock at the airport were found to be contaminated by long-term use of glycol used as an aircraft de-icing agent. Because of this contamination, the airport station needed to be re-designed and reinforced to withstand the harmful acidic products of glycol decay by bacteria within the ground.

On January 2, 2013 it was announced that more glycol leaks had been discovered at the tunnel construction site. Although these new leaks are smaller than the original leaks found in 2010, they are still troubling, and are adding additional costs and pressure to time constraints.

Leaks such as this can be devastating to a below grade project as well as to the surrounding environment. Using Kryton’s Krystol Internal Membrane as a Crystalline Integral Admixture would prevent the contaminated water from penetrating the concrete tunnel, and grow stronger over time. This would greatly reduce the likelihood of any future leakage related repairs, throughout the life of the structure.