The basement is extended as the Sky View Tower rises in Dubai

Project information

Project: Sky View Tower

Location: Dubai, UAE

Customer: NSCC International

Product: Titan micropiles

Project completed: March 2018

The challenge

The client wished to extend the basement of a pair of towers whilst they were still being constructed. The location of the extension was directly under the metro travelator, very near to the Burj Khalifa Metro Station. The restricted site conditions were very challenging. In total the length of the extension was 52.0m, with a width of 3.0m and headroom of only 5.5m. In addition, the metro station was only a few metres from the proposed 5.0m excavation.

The solution

The project included two elements which utilised Ischebeck Titan products. Firstly, the temporary shoring structure and secondly, 21 groups of main and permanent micropiles. The shoring involved the installation of 229 No. 12.0m Titan 103/51 micropiles. These were restrained using two rows of Titan 52/26 tie back anchors. The upper row of anchors were 18.5m long, with second row being 17.0m. In total there was 168 No. permanent micropiles installed in two lengths – 40 No. at 15.0m and 128 No. at 12.0m. The self drilled option was adopted due to the limited headroom, which allowed 1.5m sections to be installed at a single time. With the presence of sand, the self drilled option, eliminated the need for temporary casing.

The result

Due to the proximity of the metro station extensive monitoring was carried out during construction, these included ground settlement markers, miniprisms/reflectors, tiltmeters, inclinometers, piezometers and anchor load cells. The project was completed on time and to the satisfaction of the client and their construction team.