Home to over three million Greeks and one of the oldest cities in the world, Athens depends on the Mornos Canal for drinking water. A combination of PENEPLUG, PENETRON and PENECRETE MORTAR were recently used on the exterior and interior surfaces to successfully repair leaks in the canal.
The Mornos Canal is the main source of drinking water for Athens, delivering 380 million m3 (over 100 billion gallons) of water to the largest Greek metropolis every year. The main canal is 192 km (119 miles) long and alternates between underground tunnel structures and above-ground canals. It is also connected to a number of supporting canals.
The Mornos Canal, managed by the Athens Water Company, starts at the site of the Mornos River dam. This reservoir, which contains 780 million m3 (over 206 billion gallons) of water, is one of the largest in Europe, located about 200 km (124 miles) northwest of Athens. The Athens Water Company also maintains a network of water refineries, dams, pipe systems, filter tanks, etc.
PENETRON HELLAS, the Greek subsidiary of PENETRON International, carried out the repair work on the canal. The project consisted mostly of repairing and sealing numerous cold joints and cracks that had developed in the concrete. In a first step, PENEPLUG, a rapid-setting plugging mortar, was used to stop active leaks; PENETRON crystalline topical waterproofing material was applied on the exterior surfaces. PENETRON and PENECRETE MORTAR were used on the interior surface for topical repairs and to seal the remaining leaks.
“The Athens Water Company was very pleased with the results of the PENETRON System in this first phase of repair work on the canal,” notes Theodor Mentzikofakis, General Director of PENETRON HELLAS. “We are looking forward to mapping out further repairs and waterproofing of the canal with PENETRON in the upcoming project phases.”
The PENETRON HELLAS team repairing a tunnel section of the Mornos Canal outside of Athens, Greece.
