Dubai, United Arab Emirates
The Damac Towers consists of two identical towers connected through a podium at the base. Located in the heart of the Dubai International Financial Centre, Park Towers is the latest in a long line of stunningly ambitious high-rise buildings to grace the skyline of the city.
Each tower comprises three basements levels, seven podium levels and 42 floors, and boasts a full range of amenities.
The impressive development houses 400 apartments, ten floors of mixed retail and office commercial space, as well as a host of leisure facilities, all in the centre of one of the world’s fastest-growing financial centres.
The AED600 million project was awarded to leading Indian contractor Shapoorji Pallonji Middle East L.L.C., a contractor with worldwide experience in major projects. With an extremely tight programme time of just 700 days from start to finish, its experience with major projects would prove invaluable, and clearly a formwork solution that matched this ambitious build was going to be needed.
For H.D. Kumta Sharpoorji Pallonji’s Project Director, there were two key areas to consider when choosing a formwork and shoring solution – flexibility and programme time.
When we were planning on what formwork table system to use on this project, we had to take into consideration the tapered shape of the towers. From the 13th floor to 42nd floor, we see an overall reduction of 15 metres in size, meaning we needed a table system that could be easily adjusted to be used across all floors in each tower.
“The system chosen was RMD Kwikform’s Alshor Plus, erected into pre-assembled tables. The lightweight modular nature and ease of use of Alshor Plus meant that it could be easily manipulated to speedily accommodate the changes in soffit size throughout both towers. The tables encompassed two-metre legs with quick-strike jacks, using Superslim Soldiers as the primary members and GTX for secondaries on the table forms. Once the initial 69 Alshor Plus tables per floor were in place, the soffit could be poured and cured. The formwork could then be released by striking the quick strike jack and quickly moved to the next floor.”
Location
Application
Slab formwork for two 42-storey high-rise buildings
Challenge
The project was under an extremely tight timeframe of just 700 days from start to finish, putting pressure on the contractor to achieve high productivity levels. Each tower featured a unique tapered shape, with the complex geometries resulting in an overall reduction in size of 15 metres between floors 13 and 42, requiring a system that was easily adjustable and able to handle the consistently changing slab sizes.
Solution
Pre-assembled table forms from an aluminium shoring system
Stuart Bland, RMD Kwikform’s Key Account Manager for Dubai, explains the significant time savings Alshor Plus and RMD Kwikform’s expertise bought to the high rise construction project.
The beauty of this system is that we are able to work on two floors simultaneously and able to fly it in and improve cycle times using our ‘C’ Hook. We’ve worked in tandem with the Sharpoorji Pallonji team and developed the system to get an impressive four-day cycle time – that’s from slab to slab.
The ‘C’ Hook is an RMD Kwikform crane attachment that supports and cranes tables between floors. The clear benefit is that once the tables have been erected, they can be moved with no need for dismantling between floors.
H.D. Kumta echoes the impact that the RMD Kwikform solution has had on the Damac Tower projects’ programme time.
“By using RMD Kwikform Alshor Plus tables, we have maximised the efficiency of the formwork element and gained considerable time on this project. I can say without a doubt the system has helped us a lot. If we can say we have a 40-floor building and we can save two days on each floor, then it is almost 70 to 80 days we are saving in a total project time of 700 days – over 10%. The system is very easy to use onsite; the main thing with Alshor Plus is that the heavy-duty props are very lightweight. The load that one prop takes is much more than any other make.”
Health and safety on site is always important, especially when working on a high-rise development such as Damac Towers, so any measures that can be taken to reduce risk are invaluable. The Alshor Plus system combined with the ‘C’ Hook for moving the tables between floors has made a significant contribution in this area. It has meant less working at height to assemble the table forms and the inherent safety features of Alshor Plus such as the quick release jacks makes using the system simple and safe.