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Product category: Concrete, Cement, Admixtures
News Release from: Cintec America | Subject: Structural masonry retrofit strengthening
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial Team on 14 October 2005

CINTEC contract to save desert temple
from ruin

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Cintec, a world leader in the field of structural masonry retrofit strengthening, repair, and preservation, is helping save one of the world's most precious temples from collapse and ruin.

Cintec, a world leader in the field of structural masonry retrofit strengthening, repair, and preservation, is helping save one of the world's most precious temples from collapse and ruin Cintec, which has a reputation for being 'the orthopaedic surgeons for the construction industry', fought off competition to clinch a challenging contract to reinforce the 2,500-year-old Temple of Hibis in the Western Desert of Egypt

Cintec has been chosen by the Egyptian authorities because of its revolutionary anchor system which is installed entirely within the fabric of the structure, leaving no visible change to the outward appearance, a feature particularly liked by heritage bodies.

The company has also completed a mixture of 10 mosques and maqaads in Cairo.

The contract is the latest in a long line of complex tasks awarded to reinforce and save from collapse a string of buildings across the globe, ranging from the awe-inspiring Christchurch Cathedral in Australia, to the Canadian Parliament Buildings and to the Mission San Juan Capistrano in California.

The contract in Egypt is one of the most high-profile won by Cintec in recent years, and according to Cintec North America's President, Peter James, promises to open up opportunities for many more structural reinforcement contracts in the next few months.

"Our technology is a world leader, but the task we have always to face is getting our message across".

"Completed projects provide great collateral but we also need to be identified and meet-up with potential customers constantly." The Temple of Hibis is a long masonry structure approximately 44 metres long and 19 metres wide.

Construction began in 588 BC and took 66 years to complete.

The Metropolitan Museum of New York under the direction of Herbert Winlock excavated the temple from the sands and recorded it in 1910.

(more) However, in the last few years problems have occurred in the structure due to fluctuations in the water table, caused by farming and irrigation in the adjacent fields.

Due to the water table problems, the Egyptians decided to move the Temple 500 metres to a new site and had already dismantled the Islam Gateway.

Following this, Cintec, which in 2002 in the UK, won the Queens Award for Enterprise and Innovation, was called in to reinforce the structures.

"Once completed, no-one will ever know we've been there".

"But a result is that the temple will last for another 2,500 years at least," added Peter James".

""You can see why we're known as the orthopaedic surgeons of the construction industry".

The Cintec system comprises a steel 'anchor' section in a mesh fabric sleeve, into which a specially developed cement grout is injected under pressure.

The flexible sleeve of woven polyester restrains the flow and expands to about twice its normal diameter, moulding itself into the shape and spaces within the walls, providing a mechanical as well as an adhesive bond.

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