Saudi financial centre climbs

Peri formwork is being used during construction of five reinforced concrete cores in four multi-storey towers in Saudi Arabia's new King Abdullah financial district.

Apart from being the capital, Riyadh is the economic as well as cultural heart of Saudi Arabia. The King Abdullah Financial District, currently being constructed to the north of the city centre, will become the financial hub of the kingdom.

When complete in 2012 the 3.3 million m2 of floor space will be home to the headquarters of its Capital Market Authority (CMA) and the Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange (Tadawul), along with a plethora of financial institutions and other service providers.

For the core of the highest building in the current phase of the project, a 150 m-high tower, Peri Weissenhorn in collaboration with its engineers in Jeddah, developed a formwork solution based on its ACS self-climbing system. This will climb the full 150 m in 40 cycles.

The other three towers - 70, 85 and 100 m-high respectively - are being constructed using Peri's modular rail climbing system (RCS) combined with Vario GT24 girder wall formwork. This, said the company, can be easily adapted to suit the different storey heights - 3.4 to 4.0 m - found in the residential towers and office complexes.

The cores of the two highest towers are being climbed with hydraulic self-climbing systems, while with the two smaller towers the climbing formwork is being lifted by crane.

A Peri spokesperson said, "With the rail climbing system the scaffold is always connected to the building by the climbing shoes so it's stable even in high winds. Furthermore, using the RCS means the scaffold cannot drift, which makes the climbing process quicker and safer."

As well as construction of the reinforced cores, some 10000 m2 of Peri Skydeck aluminium panel slab formwork is being used for the construction of the floors across the four towers.

"These easy to install systems are helping the contractor to meet the tight schedule, despite the lack of skilled workers," said the Peri spokesperson. "Thanks to the drophead in the Multiprop props, early striking means on-site material requirements are reduced as well."

Construction of the King Abdullah financial district is scheduled for completion in 2012, just three years after contractors' first moved onto the site.