Paranaque, Philippines
The Okada Manila Complex forms part of the 8 km2 Entertainment City development in Paranaque, Philippines, a gaming and entertainment centre designed to provide a gambling and resort experience to rival the world-famous ‘Monte Carlo of the East’, Macau.
Comprised of a hotel complex, an accompanying resort and a 26,000 sq. ft casino, the Okada Manila complex includes a huge range of amazing features, including the world’s largest multi-colour dancing fountain, a 30,000 sqm garden and relaxation area and even an indoor beach club, which was opened by world-renowned music producer and DJ, Steve Aoki, in December 2017.
In order to construct the 45-hectare development, Hilmarc Construction Corporation approached RMD Kwikform to provide a formwork and shoring solution that would ensure high levels of productivity and deliver maximum safety on site.
The Manila Bay complex itself is situated in an open coastal area in the city of Paranaque. Due to the high wind velocities, the use of cranes was limited, which meant Hilmarc Construction Corporation was faced with multiple challenges around equipment, methods of construction and programme time.
Due to the scale of the project, which included the construction of 15 floors in the hotel and a 26,000 ft2 casino, the contractor called upon RMD Kwikform to provide a safe solution that would alleviate the need for cranes or working at height. As a result, the formwork and shoring solutions provider delivered on its engineering expertise and supplied its Airodek system to support the beams, slabs and soffits.
RMD Kwikform’s Airodek is a versatile, soffit formwork system that can be installed by hand, and is light enough for site operatives to carry. With no additional equipment or cranes needed to erect the Airodek solution, the system was fitted together easily and methodically on site to support a range of slanting columns.
Eric Alfonso, Director at RMD Kwikform in the Philippines, said: Traditionally, a project of this size would utilise a large amount of formwork and shoring, which would have been erected at ground level before being craned into place. However, this was just not possible because of the site’s location. It was vital that we provided a solution that did not rely on crane usage as certain loads being suspended above the site could have posed a dangerous threat to the site workers.
Location
Application
Beam, slab and soffit formwork for a commercial complex
Challenge
Located on an open coastal area, the Okada Manila project required a formwork solution that could be manually installed due to high wind velocities that restricted the usage of cranes. The solution also needed to support the complex geometries of the slanting columns without infringing on the space required for other works taking place on the site.
Solution
Soffit formwork system, supported by propping and shoring
Products used
In order to improve the productivity on site, we paired the Airodek system with Kwikstage propping, this included retrofitting 40-metre steel beams with 19 metres of shoring. This ensured additional structural support to the slanting beams due to the close proximity to other ongoing works on site. - Eric Alfonso, continues.
“The key benefit of our engineering solution was that the site team were able to install 22 m2 of formwork per hour. With Airodek’s lightweight panels and minimal components, we ensured a 30 per cent weight decrease and 40 per cent fewer parts in comparison to other conventional props and timber systems. This allowed the site team to install and erect the solution quicker, move the Airodek system across the site more easily without the need of cranes, and it reduced labour costs for the customer.”
Tony Garcia, Vice-President of Operations for Hilmarc Construction Corporation, commented: “We knew that by working with RMD Kwikform, we’d be getting the right and best solution for the project. The Airodek system allowed us to cope with the site’s limited access to cranes without lowering our output and helped us to achieve remarkable productivity figures of 22 m2 of formwork installed per hour, which enabled us to deliver the project on time and within budget.”