Abu Dhabi Airport's Midfield Terminal building (MTB) has reached a new milestone as contractors have started to remove supports for its huge roof.
The 20,000-tonne curved roof is the centrepiece of the Dh10 billion MTB project and the most complex part of its engineering.
It features the world’s longest indoor arch at its centre, which will be 52 metres tall at its highest point and weigh 1,000 tonnes. The roof will be supported by 18 arches.
To date, the roof has been held in place by 30 steel temporary supports that weigh 14,000 tonnes combined. These will be removed through nine de-propping exercises carried out by a team of 45 specialists using 60 hydraulic jacks.
The removal of the props is expected to take about six months and will be completed by next February.
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At a glance
■ View milestones for Abu Dhabi Airport's Midfield Terminal building
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Ali Al Mansoori, the chairman of Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac), said it was "truly amazing to witness" progress at MTB.
“We are extremely proud to maintain our track record of achieving key construction milestones safely in spite of the project’s architectural complexity,” he said.
“Currently, the whole project is 55 per cent complete and it is expected to be 70 per cent complete by the end of 2015.”
The 18 arches supporting the roof are of different heights and incline to support the weight of the roof. They have been built using two 80-tonne mobile cranes and two moveable tower cranes.
One of the moveable tower cranes is the biggest of its kind used in the region.
Once most of the structural elements and the glazed exterior is completed this year, work will move inside towards the fit-out of its systems.
The structure is being built by a joint venture between the contractors Arabtec, Consolidated Contractors Company, and the Turkish airports specialist TAV Construction. It has been designed by the US architectural practice Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates.
“Although we’ve reached a milestone on this project by beginning the de-propping, the hard work on creating this building continues,” said Sulaiman Al Siksek, Adac’s chief programmes officer. “We have an army of 20,000 workers on this 3.5 million square metre site, supported by a fleet of the latest construction equipment, including 24 tower and mobile cranes.
“The steelwork for the four piers is complete and good progress is already under way for the enclosure structure.”
Once completed in July 2017, the building will boost capacity at Abu Dhabi International Airport to more than 45 million passengers a year.
According to a new study from BMI Research, despite fears about lower oil prices, the UAE is set to enjoy a construction boom over the next five years because of increased spending on real estate and infrastructure projects.
“In both the real estate sector and infrastructure, significant activity will be maintained in the run-up to Expo 2020, with little downside risk from oil prices,” it said.
BMI has revised its forecast for the UAE’s construction sector sharply upwards. It now expects the sector to grow at 8.3 per cent this year, from a previous 4.85 per cent. It also upgraded its average annual growth forecast for the sector over the next five years to 7.2 per cent, up from 5.8 per cent.
mfahy@thenational.ae
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