Superstorm Sandy had taken its toll on many buildings such as this one on the east side of lower Manhattan. This storm produced tremendous groundwater hydrostatic pressure that caused cracking to occur within the floor slabs on grade and foundation walls in cellar and sub-cellar locations. Along with the cracking on the foundation walls, the underground pipe penetrations within these walls became problematic. The core to pie penetrations opened up slightly from the cracking to allow groundwater to emerge through.

In this building, along with performing injection waterproofing within walls and floor slabs leaking cracks and cold joints, many of these pipe penetrations were also addressed. More than fifty (50) core to pipe penetrations were rectified, by first patching the small gaps between the cores and the pipes with hydraulic cement or high early strength repair mortar, to create a solid substrate as deep as possible. Then the CGI process was utilized by drilling/injection within the adjacent concrete wall around the circumference of these pipe penetrations. The resulting gel sealed off any minute concrete void within these cores to prevent groundwater infiltration.

A specialized CGI methodology was implemented within conduit sleeves that brought in cable feeds for fiber optic, telephone and electrical wiring. The space within the sleeves to cable feeds is often referred to as the annular space. The water infiltration within these sleeves usually emanates from the Verizon or Con Ed street manholes where these cable feeds originate and then travel under the street through these conduits. Many times these feeds are not waterproofed properly within the manholes and during rainstorms as the manholes get filled with water, the water travels through these conduits within this annular space and then to the interior side of the buildings. By inserting oakum as deep as possible within the interior side of these conduit sleeves and applying front face mortar, a specialized pipe injection tool was inserted. The two liquid components were then pumped and the resulting gel occupied the volume within the oakum and cable feeds to create a waterproofing gel barrier. This resilient gel barrier within these conduit sleeves kept the groundwater from entering into the interior space of the cellar level. The CGI waterproofing program utilized in both types of these pipe and conduit penetrations was a complete success.