Burj Dubai comes top

Concreting elements at the Burj Dubai have this week topped out at 601 m, making the structure the tallest tower in the world.

Contractors Samsung, Besix and Arabtech has completed the structure core inside the original timetable despite using an unusually high proportion of wall-forming systems for the construction of a skyscraper.

The honeycombed structural design, with many airframe-like stiffening reinforcements, necessitated the forming of 430000 m² of wall – twice as much as for the floor elements.

Samsung's project director Kyung-Jun Kim, said, “As the in-situ concrete core was being built ahead of the floor-slabs, construction progress on the whole building was entirely dependent on the self-climbing Doka formwork solution.”

The final height of the Burj Dubai is expected to reach around 800 m when it is completed at the end of 2007.