University of Massachusetts Amherst – Boyden Tunnel

The Boyden Tunnel is a pedestrian tunnel located at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMASS) . This passageway connects the athletic building with the schools’ practice fields.

Deterioration and severe water intrusion within the tunnel forced the university to close it to pedestrian traffic.

The tunnel measures 165’ long 10’ high and 15’ wide (50 by 3 by 4.6 meters). Most of the water was entering through cracks and electrical/steam penetrations.

In total, there were close to 1000 linear feet (300 meters) of cracks and over three-quarters of that amount was located in the ceiling and wall spall.

Solution

New England Dry Concrete, Kryton’s distributor in this region, presented to SEA Consultants out of Boston, with Kryton’s full line of waterproofing products. Kryton’s Waterproofing System and methods were chosen for the remediation.

In addition to the concrete repair, New England Dry Concrete worked closely with the school and consulting engineers to tackle the structural aspects of the tunnel; this included overhead concrete beam repair and a variety of structural steel and reinforcement related corrections.

The University was pleased with the results as 99% of the problematic areas were healed immediately after the repair. The educational institute acted fast to pick up another repair job using similar techniques at their performing arts center. Most of Kryton’s product line was employed at this repair.

After a week of preparation, Kryton’s Crack Repair System was used on all of the leaking cracks and penetrations. Krystol-Internal-Membrane (KIM)-dosed concrete was used for concrete beam repairs. Plasti-Patch was used extensively for general non-water related repairs. Depending on the water challenge, the many splintered areas were repaired with Baricoat in ¼" lifts.

The entire tunnel and outside adjacent stairways was then coated in Krystol T1 and T2 Waterproofing System surface-applied treatment and the floor sprayed twice with Hydrostop.

The repairs were completed in about one month. The tunnel was reopened shortly afterwards and will remain in use for years to come.