A

rticle

Burj Al-Arab, UAE

Structural Steel
For
A Mega Project

Construction

By DatoA K Nathan, Managing Director, Shin Eversendai Sdn

Bhd

n recent years, all over the world,

the construc tion industr y is
emerging ver y rapidly both in
engineering and technology, and
contributing significantly to economic
development. In the later part of the
past century, there has been extensive
usage of steel in the construc tion
industry and steel explored much more
possibilities to substitute other
conventional materials.
With todays structural steel framing,
grace, ar t and function can come
together in almost limitless ways; it
offers new solutions and opportunities,
allowing architects to stretch their
imagination and actually create some of
the most challenging structures they
have designed in their minds.
Structural steel has entered a new era.
Today it provides not only strength to
buildings but also beauty. Steel is not
only being used to provide a stable
framework for a structure but in many
cases is also chosen for its aesthetic
appearance.
Eversendai have had the good fortune
to be invo lved in steel structur e
projects of diverse types one of which
was The Burj Al Arab. It will
demonstrate the versatilit y of steel
for various applications and also
illustrate the various complexities:Designed to resemble a billowing sail,
one of the most fascinating, majestic,
wonder structures in the world, the
Burj Al Arab soars to a height of 321m,

Burj
Arab

Al

dominating the Dubai coastline. This

all-suite hotel reflects the finest that
the world has to offer. An architectural
marvel, it is an engineering
excellence for the 15 th
tallest
building in the world.
It is the worlds tallest hotel structure.
This project has become Eversendais
signature project and it has paved the
way for Eversendais entry into the
Middle Easts booming construction
market as a specialist structural steel
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contrac t o r. No w Ev ersendai
is dominating their presence in
the Middle East.
The Burj Al Arab means Tower of the
Arabs is situated at Dubai, United
Ar ab Emirat e s, designed by
Mr Thomas Wills Wright. It stands in
the sea, 280m away from the beach in
the Persian Gulf on a man made
island connec ted to the main land
by a private curving bridge. It has
access by Land, Sea and Air.

rticle

77

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It is one of the most fascinating,

complex and challenging project ever
undertaken by Eversendai.
The structure is a standing example for
the
quote
Architects
Dream,
Engineers Night Mare.
Steel is the best-opted material for
this building due to its flexibility
and constructability.
The Burj Al Arab building is made of 28
storeys of split levels (56 storey) with
100,000 m 2 floor area, 60000 m 3 of
concrete, 9,000 ton of reinforcing
steel,
12,000 ton of structural steelworks,
80000 m2 of cladding,10000 m2 of
teflon
- coated fiber glass cloth and sits on
250 piles of 1.5m in size, 45m under the
sea, the piles rely on friction as there is
only piles embedded in sand to hold
the building up.
Construction of the Burj Al Arab hotel
began in1994, and its doors were
opened to guests in December,1999.
The top is the mast and below it is the
helipad, and extending from the other
side of the hotel, over the ocean, is a
restaurant supported by a cantilever
structure. A remarkable element of its
architecture is the outer beachward
steel wall of the atrium, which is
covered

Hybrid

shape

structure

with a woven, Teflon-coated fiber glass

cloth. The Burj al-Arab features the
tallest atrium lobby in the world
standing at 180m.
This Burj Al Arab building is a hybrid V
shape structure constructed in concrete
up to 209 m and blended with structural
steel creating
an impressive
engineering master piece. This Vshaped frame wraps around the V
reinforced concrete tower containing
the hotel rooms and lobbies. The two
structures connect along a shored,
reinforced concrete spine at the base of
the V, and at two points along the
curving atrium wall.
Ninety percent of the steel structures
constructed were outside the building
and was potentially dangerous to erect.
Three self-climbing tower cranes with a
maximum lift capacity of 64 tons at 8.0
meters radius were used. Some of the
embedment weighed as high as 60
tons.
About 100 tons of electrodes were
burned and the welding defect ratio
was less then 1%.
The Burj Al Arab does not have ordinary
rooms; rather it is divided into 202
duplex suites with split levels. The

smallest suite occupies an area of 169

sq m, and the largest one covers 780 sq
m. It is one of the most expensive
hotels in the world to stay in. The cost
of staying in a suite begins at US$1,000
per night and increases to over
US$15,000 per night; the Royal
Suite is the most expensive, at
US$28,000 per night.
We are proud to say that this project
was the major break through for
Eversendai Engineering in Middle East
region. The Project was been awarded
to Eversendai purely based on its
construction methodology, capability
and reliabilit y. Eversendai scope
includes the site assembly, alignment,
welding and erection of structural steel
works.

Total Steel works are phased

into Exosk eleton
R ear leg,
Horizontals, Diagonals, Rear Brace
Frame, Helipad, Sky Restaurant,
Atrium and the Mast :Exoskeleton
Erection

Rear

leg

The exoskeleton is made up of two

legs on both sides of the building
starting from the ground level to
273 meters and connected to the
front legs starting from 208m. The
total weight of the struc ture is
about 2,800 tons. The structure
was made of two build up H sections
of 1.8 metre wide by 4.5 metre deep
plate girders (inner and outer legs)

78

connected by a lattice braced

members and segmented to 40 ton
capacity 12m in length to create the
gentle curve in concurrence with the
building edge developing the shape
of a sail.
The assembled segment were lifted
and erected in position using the
tower cranes from ground floor to
top, one over another using specially
designed lifting lugs with 20 ton chain
hoists in the pre-determined lifting
location to lift the segment in required
angle.
Af ter each segment were erec ted,
temporary struts were introduced to tie
back the rear leg to the core wall to

Rear
Frame

Brace

The two cores on the rear side of the

building are 40m apart and connected
by huge cross bracings of fabricated
box sections called the rear braces.
The box sections were brought into
the site in transportable segments.
The cross sections of the boxes are
2.2m by
1.4m and made of from 25mm to 40
mm thick plates. The box sections are
assembled and welded at the ground
level by the side the building.
Framework

maintain alignment until the

Exoskeleton grows to the next point of
permanent connec tion and then
connected permanently with the Link
Stud weighing about 10 tons to the
concrete core. There were three Link
studs on each side of the building,
fixing at three points for the entire
length of 273 metre Exoskeleton to the
diagonal brace and horizontal brace
point and continued erection of the
segment only after the erection of
diagonals and horizontals and finally
connecting to the front legs starting
from 208m.
All exoskeleton are lif ted in
predetermined angles adjusted by
chain blocks, hooked on to the crane
and lifted in segments. All the joints
are of full penetration welding and
inspected by ultrasonic test.
Platforms were fitted at each joint for
welding and other related works
Alignment was carried out using
electronic digital total station located at
three different fixed locations, all
surveying are done very early in the
morning to get a more accurate
reading, keeping
in mind the
movement of the structure due to
thermal
effects which generally
develops deflection.

This brace ties both the cores together

to give stability to the structure. The
total tonnage of this part alone is 1600
tons. The shape of the Rear Brace is
similar to X are erected in segments.
All the joints are of full penetration
welding.
These rear braces form as X of three
portions for the whole building. The
length of one brace was around 60m in
one direction from one side of the
bottom embedment to the upper
embedment of the other side of the
core, it was spliced into three pieces.
The first piece was about 24m and
weighs about 50 tons and was lifted by
two tower cranes as a tandem lift and
erected between core embedment
from one side and the another end
rested on the temporary lattice girder
trusses running between cores to
suppor t the rear brace segmental
erection. Once these two 24mts braces
were erected then the X of 12m length
of 52 tons was erected by two tower
cranes as tandem lift supported by the
second layer of temporar y lattice
girder truss, which was erec te d
between cores, the whole rear brace is
in inclined towards the inside of the
building. After all welding, touch up
inspections been carried out, all the
temporary platforms, scaffolds and the
three lattice girder trusses were
removed from its position and re
erected to the upper portion of the
rear braces location to continue the

same process of erection to complete

the three portions of X rear braces in
the building.
Diagonals
The diagonals are of huge tubular
triangular truss geometry having the
maximum cross section at the middle
length and merged as one member at
the ends. The Diagonal vary from 76m
to 90m in length and weigh 160 to 180
ton. The Diagonal connec ts with a
300mm diameter pin connection to
the co re -wall and the Rearleg struc ture. There are
six
diagonals erected at different levels
on both side of the building.
These diagonals are transported as a
single fabric ated piece from the
fabrication shop 15 km away by special
self propelled long trailers.
Strand jacks supported by Cat heads
were connected to the building to
execute the lifting of the Diagonals
and Horizontals. U tmost care was
taken to ensure that the measurement
length bet ween the core and the
exosk eleton rear leg so that the
diagonals with pin connection can be
connected with ease.

Front view of Burj Al

Arab

79

Horizontals
The horizontal weighting about 200
tons connects the core wall to the
exoskeleton rear leg. This structure was
assembled in one piece in the assembly
yard near the project side. The
Horizontals were transported by long
special self-propelled trailers to the
erection site.
They had to be erected between two
fixed points so utmost care was taken
to measure the length between the
core and the exoskeleton rear leg.
Horizontal were erected by strand
jacking method similar to Diagonals,
using the same cat heads platforms.
Once the horizontal reached its
determined elevation, then it was slide
towards the building and placed to its
position connected with bolts and
welding.
The strand jacks and the cat head
platforms were removed from its
position and kept ready for the next
cycle of operation. Once cat heads and
strands were removed
then the
Exoskeleton
typical
erection
sequence was carried out up to its
level to the next diagonal and
horizontal fixing point and then
stopped to continue diagonal and
horizontal strand jacking operation.
Helipad
Structure
This structure is at 212m level at the
rear side of the building, weights about
330 tons made up of steel trusses and
20mm thick plates. Two props of 1m
diameter circular steel pipes, forming
an inverted
V shape,tapered at 30 to the vertical
and
tied back to the center core by a 40m
long spine truss weighing 120 tons,
support the total Helipad structure.
Sky Restaurant Structure
The 350 ton structural steel sky

Restaurant was one of the most

complex
and potentially dangerous structures
to erect. The box girders cantilever
out for about 30m from the main core
wall of the building connected to
about 200 tons of embedment. The
restaurant is having a floor size of 70m
x 25m. The total structure is built up
on eight cantilevered box sections
and two end trusses at 200m above
the ground level. The beauty of the
restaurant is that it over looks the sea.
One of the highlights is, two 30m long
girders had to be erec ted at 200m
level but the crane did not have the
lifting capacity so we had to split the
girders into halves and joint up in the
air with full penetration welding, it
was a real challenge and Eversendai
took it up and per formed beyond
ever yones expectation in a record
duration of 40 days.
Mast
The mast is about 104mts long, only
54m was braced in bet ween
Exoskeleton support legs starting from
208m level on the core wall and the
balance cantilevers vertically 50m way
above the Exoskeleton.
The overall mast was erec ted in
segments of average 30 ton weight
matching the tower crane capacity. The

mast is in oval shape of 2.5m x 5m at

the bottom and gradually decreases to
2.5 x 2m at top. All the segments
were bolted inside by r ing plate
flange
connections.
All
the
segments had inside arrangements
of permanent ladders and inter val
platforms to facilitate access and
maintenance.

The first segment of the mast was

erected af ter the Exoskeleton
was erec ted on the trusses
which run between t wo Exosk
eleton legs in horizontal plane.
There were manholes at per
iodic intervals, through that
workers had access to go and come
out from the mast to the nearby
Exoskeleton temporary scaffolding
arrangement. Temporary Safety
exhaust fans were introduced inside
the mast to have air circulation to

80

workers.
Before the mast erections coming to
end with the use of the tower crane,
the
other
two
cranes
were
dismantled except the crane near to
mast.
Finally the third crane was dismantled
by derrick crane. After complete
dismantling of tower crane,derrick
crane was dismantled manually and
lowered from the roof top by winches.