WEB EXCLUSIVE: BAM tackles Europe's largest airport development

Meeting a tight deadline and coping with high winds were just two of the challenges faced by BAM in the construction of Europe's largest airport development in Berlin, Germany.

The Berlin Brandenburg International airport (BBI) is one of the largest infrastructure projects currently under construction in Germany as well as being the largest airport development project in Europe.

Contractor BAM Deutschland was responsible for construction of the passenger terminal, which had a deadline of just 12 months.

For the placing of the 200000 m³ of reinforced concrete Bam relied on Peri to supply the enormous quantities of slab, wall and column formwork.

A Peri spokesperson said, "The short construction period meant Peri engineers worked in close co-operation with BAM to create more than 400 formwork and assembly plans in just six months."

The foundations and walls of the buildings were formed with Trio panel formwork. The standard wall sections for each storey were 3,75 m, with wall thickness up to 800 mm.

"Peri's formwork system was easily adapted to the different wall thicknesses and ground plans, with few individual components and a minimum number of standard elements," said the Peri spokesperson.

Columns

For constructing the columns with cross-sections of up to 600 x 600 mm, Peri's Quattro and Rapid systems were used. Quattro column formwork, with a maximum concrete pressure of 80 kN/m², allowed concreting heights of up to 4,5 m and could be moved as a complete unit in one crane lift.

In contrast, the Rapid formwork could withstand concrete pressures of 120 kN/m² and was used for columns up to 6 m high. The majority of the columns at BBI were 800 x 800 mm and 6 m high. These columns were formed using Vario GT 24 column formwork.

Slab

The slab areas had to be concreted in one pour together with the main and secondary beams due to the static system that was selected. For these areas, the construction crew used various formwork and shoring systems as well as panel formwork elements.

The high concreting loads with the construction of the main beams required a formwork system with a high load-bearing capacity. For this, customised tables with a sub-structure using SRU steel walers and GT 24 formwork girders were adopted. The smaller dimensions of the secondary beams allowed the use of standard table modules for their construction.

Trio panels were used as the lateral formwork for the beams and where adapted to the different beam heights. Multiflex girder slab formwork was employed for forming the slabs.

The slab tables of the main beams rested on Peri Up Rosett shoring towers while the secondary beams and slabs used either Multiprop aluminium slab props or PEP steel tube props - depending on the load and height. Skydeck aluminium panel slab formwork and Multiflex girder slab formwork ensured fast and cost-effective forming of the floor areas.

Logistics

The slab tables and column formwork were pre-assembled by Peri as transportable units and delivered directly to the site. This saved on time, labour and storage space.

Due to the huge quantities of materials, slab tables and formwork elements were prefabricated in Berlin, Leipzig, Hamburg and at the co-ordinating centre for the project at Weissenhorn.

In order to meet the tight schedule, almost 2000 modular tables and 700 customized slab tables - designed together with BAM - were used for the project.

A BAM spokesperson said, "Site operations benefited from improved flexibility because even with high wind forces, work was able to continue without any interruptions. This was a very important factor at BBI which is regularly affected by high winds."