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Who we are

Anchored in Switzerland and internationally active, WALO is managed as a family business in the 4th and 5th generation. For over 100 years, WALO has focused on the combination of consistency and innovation.

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What we do

WALO is active as an innovative total solutions company in all markets of the construction industry. The family-owned company has established itself as a reliable partner in the construction industry and infrastructure projects in Switzerland and worldwide with its decades of experience and the permanent development of sustainable as well as economical solutions.

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Projects

We have successfully implemented many challenging projects. Therefore, we proudly let our references speak for our work.

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Products

Whether residential, industrial, healthcare, outdoor or for sports and leisure facilities - seamless floor coverings have to meet a wide variety of requirements on a permanent basis.

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Career

Good buildings and thus satisfied customers require precise construction work. All our employees, from unskilled workers to engineers, play a key role in ensuring that we achieve this goal time and time again.

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Locations

With our locations in three countries, we are successfully active for you worldwide.

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Terroba Dam, Spain

Discover how WALO overcame the challenge of sourcing clay for the Terroba Dam, and instead implemented a bituminous upstream lining system to reduce material costs and complete the project more efficiently.

Case Study Description

The Terroba Dam impounds the winter rainfall to enable constant irrigation of the fertile valley during the drier spring and summer months. The initial plan for the dam included an embankment dam with a clay core. However, clay is in short supply in the surrounding area so sourcing and transporting clay to the site would have proved prohibitively expensive. An alternative technical solution was required and so to solve the problem, the design was changed to a bituminous upstream lining system. As the design had been so radically changed, the earthworks were completed much more quickly so far more economically. Also, by substituting clay with a more sophisticated option of a bituminous lining, the material costs for the project were considerably reduced. WALO, with its specialist Dense Asphaltic Concrete (DAC) capability, was selected to provide the lining system, given that DAC is ideal for projects like this, being highly robust yet ﬂexible and quick to lay, even on very steep slopes.

The work also included a 425m joint construction to the plinth and abutments and 305m joint construction to the parapet wall at the crest. This meant that the WALO team had to bond together securely two very different materials – the flexible DAC and the rigid concrete. This kind of highly specialized technical work can only be carried out successfully by exceptionally skilled and experienced craftspeople. The bituminous upstream lining system to the dam constructed by WALO covered a total surface area of 23,100m2, with a steep 94 m long slope with an incline of 1:1.8. The lining system consisted of 150-200 mm of crushed aggregates, 2 kg/m2 of emulsion spray applied tack coat, an Asphaltic Binder Layer (ABL) of 70 mm and a DAC layer of 60 mm and 2 kg/m2 mastic coating.