Challenge of tight schedules and very fast pours. Dragon Mart Extension, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Dubai’s well known Dragon Mart is getting a face lift from its image as a Chinese mall with a new extension that aims to attract an international retail mix catering to the needs of the nearby International City community. Nakheel, the developer of Dragon Mart and master developer of International City, is aiming at a new presentation with a 177,000 m² extension to the mall. It will house a threestar hotel and multi-storey car park, a 10,000 m² Geant hypermarket, Grand Cinemas and fashion outlets.

Long-term MEVA client UNEC (United Engineering Construction L.L.C) relied on the formwork and substantial engineering support of MEVA-KHK’s operations in Dubai.

The engineers had to meet the challenge of tight schedules and very fast pours to finish the 155,000 m² of walls and 190 columns simultaneously. Especially the wall heights of up to 9 m and the column heights of up to 12 m required heavy-duty formwork.

The Mammut 350 fresh concrete load capacity of 100 kN/m² made it possible to pour at any speed up to a wall height of 4 m. The same capacity is delivered by the CaroFalt column formwork, which has the added benefit of being rolled from one pour to the next, making work flow simple and safe. In addition, the formwork’s standard 100 % wood-free, all-plastic facing delivered the required, superior concrete finish realiably in every pour. The panels were cleaned on site using a high-pressure 1,000 bar washer.