Alaknanda Dam

Consistent electricity is one of the major issues facing India; in 2005 GMR Energy started developing a 330 megawatt hydroelectric dam and power plant in Uttarakhand, just outside the town of Srinigar to help satisfy the growing demand for power. 

Over time, concrete that is not properly waterproofed can deteriorate and fail, which can result in devastating floods. The local town of Srinigar is all too familiar with the devastation of floods. In 1894, over 280 million cubic meters (10,000 million cubic feet) of water from the breached Gohna Lake completely swept away the original town of Srinigar. 

Due to the extreme risk potential in building and waterproofing the dam, the team at Alaknanda brought Kryton on-board in 2010 to waterproof key areas of the dam. Kryton’s system can add decades to the life of concrete structures and unlike membrane systems that can deteriorate over time, the Kryton system becomes a part of the concrete matrix, waterproofing from the inside out. This gives the system added reliability over others.

Solution

Kryton is working with the on-site ready-mix plant to optimize the mix design. In addition, Kryton is helping the on-site construction team to test and apply Kryton’s surface-applied waterproofing system, Krystol T1 & T2 Waterproofing System, and its internal system, Krystol Internal Membrane (KIM), to the dam face, canal and two tunnels.

Krystol T1 & T2 Waterpoofing System were applied to the upstream section of the dam face, which measures 128 m by 340 m (420 ft by 1100 ft). Going forward, the 1.8 km (1.12 mile) long canal leading to the pen stocks will be waterproofed entirely using KIM. Krystol T1 & T2 Waterproofing System will be applied to the two spillway tunnels that are each one kilometer (0.62 miles) long. In all, approximately 1 million kilograms (1,000 tonnes) of Kryton’s waterproofing systems will be used to treat tens of thousands of square meters (hundreds of thousands of square feet) of concrete and protect the dam and India’s electricity demands for years to come.