The new Aquatic Center at the Century Middle School in Lakeville, Minnesota (USA) was completed in February 2022. The new pool facility meets the community needs of a rapidly growing city. PENETRON ADMIX SB, a crystalline concrete waterproofing admixture in soluble bags, was specified for all concrete pool structures.
With an estimated population of about 70,000 inhabitants, Lakeville is a suburb of Minneapolis-Saint Paul and one of the fastest-growing cities in Minnesota. The city’s Century Middle School, part of the Lakeville Area Public Schools District, is a grades 6-8 middle school with over 900 students and over 100 teachers and administrative staff.
Added to the existing Century Middle School, the Aquatic Center was designed by DLR Group, a structural engineering and architecture company. The new facility is housed in a two-story (20,604 ft2) building that includes an eight-lane, 25-yard competition pool, and a diving well with two diving boards. The first floor will host both pools, the women’s and men’s locker rooms, a pool office, and a multipurpose classroom. The second floor provides seating for 476 spectators, a concessions area, and an additional set of restrooms.
A Project That Started Two Decades Ago
“The Aquatic Center at the Century Middle School has been in planning for over 20 years,” explains Christopher Chen, Director of The Penetron Group. “Because the two pools at the McGuire and Kenwood Trial Middle Schools no longer met the community’s needs, the new facility will be a welcome venue for community swim education programs, middle and high school swim meets, club swim teams training sessions, and even collegiate level events.”
Because the large concrete pool structures must hold very large amounts of water, the Century Middle School Aquatic Center was a perfect Penetron project. PENETRON ADMIX SB, a crystalline waterproofing admixture, has been proven in countless projects to resist the considerable hydrostatic pressure found in swimming pools – permanently.
Best Hydrophilic Permeability-Reducing Admixture
The American Concrete Institute (ACI) states in their “Report on Chemical Admixtures for Concrete” how hydrophilic permeability-reducing admixtures for hydrostatic conditions (PRAHs), i.e., crystalline admixtures like PENETRON ADMIX, resist water penetration against hydrostatic pressure, and have proven to be the most effective permeability-reducing admixtures with clear advantages over hydrophobic permeability-reducing additives based on other mechanisms or ingredients.
The local Penetron representative worked with the DLR Group and Aggregate Industries, the concrete ready-mix supplier, to provide an optimal waterproofing solution. PENETRON ADMIX SB was used in pre-measured soluble bags to treat all the concrete pool structures. Adding one soluble bag of PENETRON ADMIX SB per cubic yard of concrete simplifies the batching process by not having to weigh the admixture prior to batching, resulting in uninterrupted concrete production.
Now with a new Aquatic Center: The Century Middle School in Lakeville, MN is home to >900 grades 6-8 students and >100 teachers. The Aquatic Center was waterproofed with PENETRON ADMIX.
Built to resist hydrostatic pressure: The Aquatic Center’s two pools were treated with PENETRON ADMIX SB, a crystalline waterproofing admixture, to waterproof the concrete pool structures.
