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The Mumbai–Pune Expressway Missing Link Project
The Mumbai–Pune Expressway Missing Link is one of Maharashtra’s most significant infrastructure undertakings, developed by Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation to enhance connectivity and reduce travel time between the two cities. Executed by Afcons Infrastructure, the project cuts through the challenging terrain of the Western Ghats, incorporating tunnels, viaducts, and bridge structures across its length.
The Challenge
The Western Ghats environment is unforgiving. Heavy rainfall, sustained humidity, intense UV radiation, and environmental pollutants act continuously on exposed concrete surfaces. For a project of this scale and strategic importance, the concrete protection system had to match the demands of the terrain.
Carbonation driven by environmental pollutants and CO₂ gradually lowers the alkalinity of concrete, compromising the passive protection it provides to reinforcement steel. Water ingress through cracks and surface pores accelerates that process. UV radiation degrades surface coatings over time. Fungi and algae take hold on surfaces that stay wet through extended monsoon seasons.
The project required a coating system that addressed all of these simultaneously: carbonation resistance, waterproofing, crack-bridging capability, UV stability, weather durability, and long-term aesthetic performance.
The Application
Sunanda Global supplied SUNEXT 8, a 100% aliphatic, elastomeric acrylic polymer-based exterior coating designed to provide waterproofing, heat insulation, and anti-carbonation protection for exposed concrete surfaces.
Key properties of SUNEXT 8
- Prevents carbonation and increases service life of structures
- Prevents water leakage and dampness
- Excellent UV stability and weather resistance
- Resistant to fungi and algae formation
- Does not peel or crack
- Provides heat insulating properties
- Withstands extreme climatic conditions including heavy rainfall, humidity, and heat
- Durable and long-lasting exterior finish
SUNEXT 8 was applied across the exposed concrete surfaces of the tunnels, viaducts, and bridge structures comprising the Missing Link. The coating system provided a continuous, crack-bridging elastomeric barrier across all concrete exposed to the Western Ghats environment, delivering waterproofing performance and anti-carbonation protection from the surface inward.
The Result
SUNEXT 8 met the project’s performance requirements across the exposed concrete structures of the Mumbai–Pune Expressway Missing Link. Its elastomeric properties helped prevent water ingress while accommodating minor crack movement caused by thermal and structural stresses. The coating also delivered long term UV stability, weather resistance, and anti carbonation protection, helping preserve the concrete cover and protect the embedded reinforcement in the project’s tunnels, viaducts, and bridge structures.
Conclusion
The successful application of SUNEXT 8 demonstrates the value of selecting a protective coating system designed for the environmental demands of large infrastructure projects. By combining waterproofing, crack bridging, UV resistance, and anti-carbonation protection in a single solution, the system contributes to the long-term durability and service life of exposed concrete structures in challenging climatic conditions.
Infrastructure built to last generations deserves protection engineered to match.
Final completion Photos:
