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Thursday, February 01, 2007
The world's tallest tower, the $900 million Burj Dubai, is months off schedule after its cladding work timetable was thrown into disarray last year, officials admitted.
Current work on what will become the world's tallest building is "a couple of months" behind schedule, due mainly to the bankruptcy of Swiss-based curtain walling giant Schmidlin last year, the parent company of Schmidlin LLC, which was contracted to install exterior cladding on the still-exposed concrete tower.
"We had a problem with one of our partners on our curtain wall cladding and this had an impact on the site," said Greg Sang, Emaar's assistant director of projects and the man overseeing the entire $20 billion Downtown Burj Dubai development.
"We've got a new contractor on board and they are working very hard to catch up. At the rate they are making progress they should be able to do this."
Sang denied that construction would be complete up to a year later than its scheduled fourth quarter 2008 delivery date.
"We've got probably a couple of months in delay, but the final completion date is unchanged. We're still on schedule for the end of 2008," he said.
The Burj Dubai's exterior cladding not only has to protect the tower from Dubai's scorching temperatures and high dust levels, but also has to withstand strong winds, said Sang.
"Wind management is probably the most critical engineering challenge that we face. We have to minimise the movement so it's not uncomfortable. At most it will move 1.5 metres at the top," he said.
The final floor count of Dubai's mega project is still unknown, with project developers Emaar Properties refusing to comment on rumours that design changes have altered the final height of the building.
"We decided the final floor count but it's still confidential.
"We're currently at 103 floors and all we're saying is that it will be more than 160 floors when finished," said Sang.
Current work on what will become the world's tallest building is "a couple of months" behind schedule, due mainly to the bankruptcy of Swiss-based curtain walling giant Schmidlin last year, the parent company of Schmidlin LLC, which was contracted to install exterior cladding on the still-exposed concrete tower.
"We had a problem with one of our partners on our curtain wall cladding and this had an impact on the site," said Greg Sang, Emaar's assistant director of projects and the man overseeing the entire $20 billion Downtown Burj Dubai development.
"We've got a new contractor on board and they are working very hard to catch up. At the rate they are making progress they should be able to do this."
Sang denied that construction would be complete up to a year later than its scheduled fourth quarter 2008 delivery date.
"We've got probably a couple of months in delay, but the final completion date is unchanged. We're still on schedule for the end of 2008," he said.
The Burj Dubai's exterior cladding not only has to protect the tower from Dubai's scorching temperatures and high dust levels, but also has to withstand strong winds, said Sang.
"Wind management is probably the most critical engineering challenge that we face. We have to minimise the movement so it's not uncomfortable. At most it will move 1.5 metres at the top," he said.
The final floor count of Dubai's mega project is still unknown, with project developers Emaar Properties refusing to comment on rumours that design changes have altered the final height of the building.
"We decided the final floor count but it's still confidential.
"We're currently at 103 floors and all we're saying is that it will be more than 160 floors when finished," said Sang.
Labels: Burj Dubai, Construction, Dubai
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Emaar Chairman Mohamed Alabbar said on Tuesday the world's tallest structure would not be finished on time, without giving further details as to the reason for the delay.
"We are about four months late," Alabbar told reporters.
Emaar said last month construction on the tower had been stepped up to meet an "accelerated schedule", without giving further details.
An Emaar official said in July the Burj Dubai would open sometime before Christmas this year, which means the tower may not now be finished until spring 2009.
Work on the Burj Dubai was delayed in November when around 40,000 labourers employed by Arabtec, one of the construction companies working on the project, went on strike for a week over pay and conditions.
Arabtec Executive Director Tom Berry said at the time the strikes could cause the company miss completion dates for some of its key projects in Dubai.
The Burj Dubai currently stands at just over 600 metres, over 90 metres higher than the world's tallest building, Taiwan's Taipei 101, and over 40 metres higher than the world's tallest free-standing structure, Toronto's CN Tower.
The only structure now left for the Burj to overtake is the KVLY/KTHI television mast in Blanchard, US, which measures 628.8 metres.
The Burj Dubai will not be officially recognised as the world's tallest structure until it is completed.
Emaar has remained tight lipped over the final height, but it is rumoured to be between 700 and 1,000 metres.
Local media reports last year said the final height would be 818 metres, citing architects drawings posted on the internet.
The Burj Dubai is to be the centrepiece of a city within a city, Downtown Burj Dubai. The $20 billion development as a whole will include 30,000 homes, nine hotels, 6.2 acres of parkland, 19 residential towers, the Dubai Mall, and a 30-acre manmade lake. The development will cost around $20 billion.