Doka | CMA-Tower Riad (SG)

Architectural challenge successfully mastered

18.11.2011 | News

Soaring 400 metres high, the CMA Tower in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is a prestige structural-engineering build for Doka. More than 10,000 m³ of concrete had to be poured for the CMA Tower’s nine-sided foundation alone.

The Saudi government is currently working toward completion of the 160-hectare King Abdullah Financial District. The CMA Tower soars 400 metres high, and along with SKE100 automatic climbing formwork, Staxo 40 load-bearing towers are being used on the build, debuting in Saudi Arabia on projects of this magnitude. The construction crews are using the fully planked levels of the framed formwork for access, so people working or moving on the scaffolding and underneath the superstructure do so quickly and in safety.

3000 m² of beam formwork and 105 SKE100 automatic climbers are needed for forming the nine-sided building core. The shaft core of the CMA Tower alone is as big as a conventional skyscraper, so in terms of sheer volume it is the largest closed structure of this nature that Doka has ever formed. The lead construction team wants to progress work rapidly, so it has split the shaft core into three 1000 m² zones with each zone being formed in succession every second day.

Step-back successfully compensated

The construction team came up against its biggest challenge so far when the structure had risen to level 10. At this height the building’s geometry has a step-back of 50 centimetres, twice the usual size for a structural feature of this kind. The construction crew installed a special suspension shoe in the concrete wall to bridge this distance and allow for the angle. This compensator enabled the automatic climbing formwork to navigate the step with ease and climb into position for the next concreting section up.