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At more than 1,000m in height, the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, will be the tallest building in the world after its scheduled completion in 2020. The publicly accessible observation deck, which offers a breathtaking view over the kingdom at a height of 630 m, will break another world record. The skyscraper is part of a new urban development project in Kingdom City, in the North of Jeddah.
The architectural office Adrian Smith + Gordon Grill Architecture based in Chicago, designed the building for the the client: Jeddah Economic Company. A hotel, offices, apartments and a shopping centre will be housed on more than 530,000m² spread over 240 floors. The Tower is divided into two parts: the "Residential Tower" comprising 167 floors up to a height of 674m. This is followed by the "Spire" spiralling up to a height of 962m and comprising floors 168 to 240. Up to this level, the building will be constructed in reinforced concrete, also constituting a world record. From then on, the "Steel Spire Pinnacle", the final apex, constructed from steel elements, will be going up to the planned height of over 1,000m.
For the concrete logistics of this demanding construction project, the executing construction company Saudi Binladin Group is banking again on the expertise and products of Schwing Stetter. The long established company has already completed numerous demanding construction projects in the region and has a reputation for reliability and construction expertise.
Two on-site Stetter HN 3.0 batching plants are producing the concrete necessary for the mega-project in order to avoid long drives with incalculable delays in the concrete supply. Four SCHWING SP 8800 D stationary pumps with an engine power of around 450kW each and a maximum feed pressure of up to 243 bar are available for high-rise pumping of the fresh concrete. A high-performance, self-compacting concrete (SCC) C85 will be used for the construction phase up to a height of approx. 400m. An elaborate pump trial on site prior to the beginning of the construction project was needed to optimize the concrete mixture with respect to its pumpability and workability because the theoretical calculation models did not provide reliable results due to the exceptional framework conditions of the project. The next construction phase extends up to a height of approximately 675m and is also carried out with a high-performance concrete, but with a somewhat lower compressive strength. At the top of the second construction phase, a concrete pump will be installed during subsequent project stages, to take on the further transport of concrete to the higher floors.
For placing concrete, the Saudi Binladin Group is using a total of five separate SCHWING concrete placing booms (SPB). Three SPB 35 and two SPB 30 booms raise along with the building to be used by the contractor's experienced team for placing concrete up to a height of over 950 m.
Part of the SCHWING Stetter order also include over 1,000m of pumping line for the first construction phase up to 200m in height, including the important fixing accessories. At these heights discharge pressures significantly above 200 bar and high outputs means reliable and durable fastening of the delivery pipes is necessary to ensure high occupational and operational safety. While planning the placement of the stationary pumps, lay-out of the pumping lines and determining the best locations for the separate placing booms, the Saudi Binladin Group was able to fall back on the expertise of the SCHWING Stetter engineers.
The bored piles reaching more than 120m deep into the ground ensure stable conditions. The bottom plate front built on these was concreted in several phases with SCHWING truck-mounted concrete pumps.
SCHWING Stetter has been represented in many Middle Eastern countries for more than 30 years and has supported its customers during this period with machines, equipment and expertise in the construction of many demanding and well-known building projects.
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