Media Release

Pirelli Goes Underground with PENETRON

Italy

Demand for the well-known Pirelli tires motors along – and this summer’s expansion of the company’s Turin, Italy, facility now adds much-needed capacity for its Western European markets. PENETRON Italia provided the right concrete technology to ensure a durable build for three underground gas and electrical supply tunnels at the Pirelli plant.

Pirelli & C. SpA is one of the world’s largest tire manufacturers with 22 manufacturing sites around the world. The Settimo Torinese site is the company’s main tire production plant in Northern Italy.

Get the Job Done Fast

With construction at the Settimo Torinese plant completed two months ago, the switch was recently flipped for the new underground gas and electrical service tunnels. The tunnels provide crucial service connections for gas and electrical lines between the main buildings and a steam-generating station.

“Our customer had only a very small time window to plan and construct these key service tunnels. They provide resources and communication between different buildings at the Settimo Torinese plant,” explains Enricomaria Gastaldo Brac, CEO of PENETRON Italia. “We worked closely with the concrete suppliers, ANRA and BISPEN in the construction of all the concrete structures for SECAP, the general contractor.”

Ground Water Challenge

The construction consisted of laying down three tunnels – each about 100m (330-feet) long – at a depth of 4m (13-feet) and 7m (23-feet) underground. The main challenge was the presence of ground water at the site.

PENETRON ADMIX was used to treat 1,500m3 of concrete for all tunnel structures. PENEBAR was also used in the tunnels to seal the construction joints, including the openings for the PVC pipes and the water supply and valve injection tubes.

“Even with an extremely tight construction schedule and the high water saturation levels, the PENETRON system proved to be the optimal solution for these tunnels,” explains Enricomaria Gastaldo Brac. “Our success at Pirelli confirms the ease of use and effectiveness of PENETRON’s permeability-reducing (“PRAH”) technology.”

The length and depth the utility tunnel at the Pirelli tire plant in Settimo Torinese, Italy, was treated with PENETRON ADMIX to ensure durability.


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