Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport
KERAFLEX MAXI S1 and MAPELASTIC: a winning combination for a grandiose international project in Mumbai, India
Although India is going through a period of sustained, rapid growth, it is also a country full of contradictions, and in particular the coexistence
of rural areas with large, technologically-advanced cities. Seven hundred and forty-two million people out of total population of one billion two hundred million people live in rural areas, while there are also over-populated cities such as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and New Delhi. With these characteristics, India is one of the few areas in the world where, when we talk about projects, it may easily occur that we are not talking about the construction of a simple house, but of an entire city! Within the framework of a process to construct new infrastructures and increase the capacity of existing ones, the Indian government has decided to upgrade or rebuild more than 50 airports. There are 25 international and 115 domestic airports in the country. The Airport Authority has made plans to modernize 35 airports. A further investment of 75.5 million dollars has also been programmed for three airports in the north-east.
The Best Products to Lay 160,000 m2 of Granite
The airport in New Delhi was completed in 2011 when Mapei India had still not been created. In spite of this, shortly before Mapei India was actually founded, Mapei still managed to win a contract for the Mumbai Airport International Terminal, just a few kilometers from Mumbai City; a large job which involved the laying of around 160,000 m2 of Brazilian Santa Cecilia granite slabs measuring 60X60 cm. To lay the granite flooring, the client specified the use of high-performance adhesive suitable for large sized natural stone slabs and for flooring subjected to intense traffic. For this task, after various tests in the Mapei Central Laboratory in Milan, KERAFLEX MAXI S1 high-performance adhesive was singled out as the ideal product to lay the flooring. This is a high-performance, deformable cementitious adhesive with no vertical slip for ceramic tiles, particularly suitable for laying large porcelain tiles and natural stone slabs (thickness of adhesive from 3 to 15 mm). To guarantee that all the laying operations were carried out correctly, it was agreed with the contractor, Shah Granites, that Mapei technicians would train a team of local floor installers directly on site for one week before commencing laying. Accordingly, Mr. Wong Chun Fatt from Mapei Far East came to India and conducted the training for a week at the project site. KERAFLEX MAXI S1 was used to lay the granite in the enormous lobby in the new terminal and in the terminal bathrooms. Apart from for the flooring, it was also used to bond the granite wall covering. Before laying the stone, EPORIP two-component epoxy adhesive was used to repair the cracks in the substrate.
Once this had been done, the surfaces were
smoothed over with ULTRAPLAN ECO self-levelling, ultra rapid-hardening smoothing and leveling compound with very low emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC) applied in layers from 1 to 10 mm thick. KERALASTIC T two component, high-performance epoxypolyurethane adhesive was used to lay granite over the steel surfaces in the service lifts and elevators. Laying of the granite slabs was completed by the all-important grouting of the joints. The product chosen for this operation was KERAPOXY anti-acid epoxy grouting mortar and adhesive for laying and grouting ceramic tiles and stone (minimum width of joints 3 mm). MAPELASTIC two component flexible cementitious mortar was used to waterproof the water bodies around the structure, a product particularly recommended to form highly flexible, protective waterproof coatings on concrete structures prone to cracking. In this specific case, because the surfaces are particularly stressed, MAPELASTIC was reinforced with MAPENET 150 alkali-resistant, 4 x 4.5 mm weave glass fibre mesh, for reinforcing protective waterproofing coatings, anti-fracture membranes and cladding systems.
Mapei India 