2

Building Dubai
International
Introduction to the contribution
made by our project team
4
The new terminal
building
Part of the $4.1 billion
expansion programme
7
The design and
logistics challenge
The optimised designs needed
for the formwork tables
Training and
expertise
The training challenge for
Harsco Infrastructure in Dubai
spotlight
Dubai International Airport
13
International airport
capability
Detail of our experience of
new aiport construction and
maintenance
15
spotlight
2
This issue of project spotlight is devoted to describing
the special contribution made by the dedicated
Harsco Infrastructure team to the realisation of this
remarkable project.
Over a 30 month period between August 2003 to
March 2006, Harsco Infrastructure supplied over 5,000
tonnes of aluminium shoring and ancillary equipment
for the construction of one of the worlds largest airport
terminals, the new Terminal 3 at Dubai International
Airport.
Harsco Infrastructure is the newly
created confederation of Harsco
companies: SGB and Hnnebeck in
Europe, the Middle East and Far East,
Patent and ESCO in the Americas and
Bell in Australia.
Together we have acquired extensive
expertise on construction sites and
industrial facilities around the world.
Harscos strategy in bringing the
companies together is to pool this
knowledge, enhancing the way we
share expertise internally, ensure we
are even better placed to engineer
innovative solutions and meet the
safety, programming and budgetary
criteria on any project.
Harsco Infrastructure becomes the
worlds largest access, formwork
and industrial maintenance service
provider with a staff of over 8,000
employees and currently operating in
43 countries.
Clients come to us for our proven
expertise in:

Safe solutions for construction

and maintenance

High productivity, cost-effective

applications

Simple, user-friendly site

establishment packages
Harsco Infrastructure is a division
of Harsco Corporation. One of the
worlds leading industrial service
companies, Harsco provides
technological solutions and support
services to the global metals, rail,
industrial and construction sectors.
With operations at over 400 locations
in 50 countries, Harsco has annual
revenues approaching $3 billion
and employs over 20,000 people
worldwide.
Key parties
Project:
Client:
Designer:
Structural engineer:
Terminal 3, Dubai International Airport
Government of Dubai, Department of Civil
Aviation
Aeroport de Paris International
Dar Al-Handasah
One of the busiest and fastest growing
airports in the world...
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Dubai
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Building Dubai International
delivering global solutions
3
Nowhere is economic growth more apparent than at Dubai
International Airport, located on the east side of the city,
approximately 4 km from the original city centre. It was
opened in 1960 with a single 1,800 m long runway, but
on a site that was specically chosen for its capacity for
expansion.
With one of the fastest growing economies in the world and
attracting phenomenal volumes of inward investment and
tourism, growth in Dubai is running at well over 10% a year.
The overall economy of the Gulf emirate is worth around
$40 billion.
Although Dubais economy has been boosted by high oil
prices, much of the recent growth has been in non-oil
sectors by attracting international businesses and nancial
institutions and developing a massive tourism sector. The
condence of the economy is further acknowledged by high
prole building projects such as the Palm and the Burj al
Arab.
From 20 million to 60
million passengers by
2010
During the 1990s, when two new terminals were
constructed, passenger numbers at the airport grew hugely
by around 125% to 10 million. Since then, growth has
continued and by 2004 the airport had almost reached its
maximum capacity of 22 million passengers a year.
In 2002, a $4.1 billion expansion
programme was initiated to increase
capacity at the airport to 70 million,
based on estimates that numbers are
set to reach 60 million by 2010.
That programme included construction
of Terminal 3, concourse 2 and
concourse 3, making the airport
capable of accommodating the extra
passengers while also handling the
latest breed of Super-Jets like the
Airbus A380.
107 Airlines connecting to over 160 destinations
worldwide
An artists impression of the Dubai International Airport city.
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
Estimated airport capacity
60 million
40 million
20 million
Sheikh Rashid Terminal 1.
4
spotlight
The new terminal building
At the surface, the 1 km long terminal building is designed to
reect the appearance of the wing of an aircraft.
The Dubai Department of Civil Aviation commissioned Aeroport de Paris
International to design Terminal 3. The airport specialists design mirrors that of
Terminal 2 at ground level, but is actually a very complex, multi-level structure,
with much of the space underground.
At the surface, the 1 km long terminal building is designed to reect the
appearance of the wing of an aircraft.
It has a curved steel roof frame, predominantly clad in glass. Once inside the
building, however, most of the frame is concrete with escalators leading down
into an underground structure that houses both the departures and arrivals
halls, as well as parking, lounges and restaurants.
This underground structure is built within an 800 m long x 700 m wide
excavation up to 20 m deep. The upper slab of the excavation is actually the
apron slab, where aircraft taxi and rest on stands alongside the new terminal.
Both the departure and arrival halls are located 10 m below the aircraft.
Within the new terminal, oor heights vary. Some areas are open for the full
height of the excavation and the building itself, while in others, traditional
multi-storey construction sees oors directly above each other at standard-
storey heights.
This variation throughout the structure made construction of the concrete
oors very complex to design, plan, programme and construct.
International consulting engineer Dar Al-Handasah was appointed as structural
engineer for the project and, in August 2003 awarded the construction contract
for the sub and superstructures.
Facts and gures
Labour force:
6,500 (day shift)
1,500 (night shift)
Volume of excavation:
5.5 million m
3
Faade area:
35,000 m
2
Weight of formwork equipment:
5,000 tonnes
Total area of formwork:
1,500,000 m
2
Sheikh Rashid Terminal 2.
An artists impression of the new terminal building at Dubai
5
delivering global solutions
Harsco Infrastructure secured the supply contract but
rst involvement with Dubai Airport Terminal 3 dates
back to March 2003, when the main contractor tendered
for the main construction contract.
The sheer scale of the Dubai project made it impossible
to design all the falsework in detail before construction
started, but Harsco Infrastructures team prepared an
estimate based on the main contractors description
of areas, height and thickness of the oor slabs and
a proposed schedule of when each slab would be
constructed.
The contractor had supplied a programme, from which
Harsco Infrastructure developed simplied designs in
order to develop the price for supplying aluminium
shoring for the oor slabs. At this stage, the main
contractor required falsework for over 1,000,000 m
2
of
oor slabs.
Of that, 700,000 m
2
were what might be deemed the
typical slab depth of 400 mm, and a further 200,000
m
2
was thick slabs between 1.5 m and 2.2 m in depth.
Harsco Infrastructure secures supply contract
The remaining 100,000 m
2
were irregular areas,
including narrow strips of oor.
Not included in that 700,000 m
2
was shoring for the
slabs that were both high and thick some 2.2 m deep
and up to 16 m high. At this stage, the main contractor
was considering other solutions for these areas, which
were not among the rst to be poured.
Harsco Infrastructure worked on the basis that the
standard oors could be constructed using aluminium
shoring, with the smaller, irregular areas built using the
companys CUPLOKsteel heavy-duty support system.
The aluminium shoring would mainly be built using
Harsco Infrastructures GASSsystem; fabricated on site
into tables that could be moved, on wheels, from one
location to another.
Harsco Infrastructure was able to supply an approximate
assessment of the equipment needed and conrmed to
the main contractor that it could supply the necessary
requirements and technical support equipment in the
timescale required. Harsco Infrastructure found itself
in a unique position as the only organisation of its
kind able to meet the logistical challenge of delivering
a package of such complexity within the critical pre-
specied timescale.
To meet the main contractors timescale and
programme, and re-using as much of the equipment as
possible, Harsco Infrastructure worked out that it would
need to supply 35,000 m
2
of formwork, of which 32,000
m
2
would be aluminium shoring.
This was translated into a rm offer and an agreed
programme of delivery to the site in Dubai that would
match the main contractors construction programme.
The supply challenge
The Terminal building during construction. In the foreground is the
arrival, departures and car park which are underground. Further back is
the concourse area above the 1.5 m thick apron level.
AUG 2003 JAN 2004 AUG 2005 MAR 2006
Main contractor
tendered for the
main construction
contract (Mar 03).
Shipping of Harsco
Infrastructure
equipment started
(Oct 03).
All Harsco Infrastructure
equipment for the rst
tranche of construction
supplied (May 04).
Final pour carried
out (Mar 06).
Detailed design
of the formwork
tables began
(Sep 03).
First shoring tables
were erected and
concreting began
(Dec 03).
Volume of concrete
poured every day
began to be reduced
(Aug 05).
6
spotlight
The design team
Harsco Infrastructure committed a
specialist team of designers to work
exclusively on the site. Although it is
more common in the industry for the
formwork team to work from a central
design ofce and issue drawings to
site, the scale of the Dubai project
made it much more efcient to have
the designers on the spot. Harsco
Infrastructures experience of major
projects including Hong Kong
Airport and Heathrows Terminal 5
has shown that the most effective
way of working with the contractor
is to have a site-based design team
capable of handling changing
requirements throughout the project
often occurring on a daily basis.
From the initial enquiry through
to the removal of the equipment,
Harsco Infrastructures involvement
in the Dubai International Airport
extension was project managed by
Engineering Director Duncan Hyde.
With his extensive experience in
major projects throughout the world,
Duncan was a natural choice to head
up the project management team.
The team was further boosted by the
addition of another designer plus a
technical manager and continued
to grow as construction built up. By
September 2004 the team included
ve internationally experienced
designers on site with back-up from
the UK.
Harsco Infrastructures design
ofce also hosted two of the
main contractors designers, who
contributed to the falsework design,
gaining valuable knowledge of
the equipment especially the
GASSaluminium shoring.
Senior designer Malcolm Rees
was the lead designer in the team.
Malcolm, who has worked for Harsco
Infrastructure for over 10 years, is
very experienced in the Gulf region,
and was working in the companys
Jeddah ofce before joining the team.
He did 30% of the drawings for the
airport project, including all the more
complex areas.
At the start of the project, Harsco
Infrastructures designers generated
about 20 drawings a month. This
soon increased to an average of 150,
peaking at over 300 a month. By the
time the equipment was being moved
off site, Harsco Infrastructures team
had done over 5,000 drawings.
Duncan Hyde and Malcolm Rees.
The design team.
Left to right: Malcolm Rees, Duncan Hyde,
Mervyn Prins, Ayoub Bashir, Sameh Saeed.
7
delivering global solutions
Facts and gures
Drawings produced by Harsco Infrastructure:
5,000
Number of piles:
1,500
Largest formwork table:
44 m
2
The design and logistics challenge
Harsco Infrastructures design team optimised the design so that there were only a
limited number of table types, making it easy to re-use the equipment on adjacent
pours.
Detailed design of the formwork tables began in
September 2003. The main contractors programme
had been broken down into 1,000 individual concrete
pours, with no two pours identical. Although there was
a different drawing for each pour, the GASSaluminium
shoring had to be used as often as possible to make it cost
effective. Each pour typically required between 70 and 100
tables, but Harsco Infrastructures design team optimised
the design so that there were only a limited number of
table types, making it easy to re-use the equipment on
adjacent pours.
Duncan Hyde describes it as a jigsaw puzzle. The picture
is very complicated, and there are a vast number of
pieces, but only three or four different shapes of pieces.
Limiting the number of different types makes the process
simpler for both the designers and the workforce.
The designers had to plan ahead, knowing which sections
of oor were to be poured at which stage in the contract,
what volume and conguration of GASSwould be
needed for those pours, and how long it would take for
the equipment to be fabricated, shipped to Dubai and
assembled. At the same time the design team also had to
ensure the amount of equipment was kept to a minimum,
so it always had to be aware of how the GASSelements
would be re-used in the future.
The initial pressure on the designers was to get the
rst equipment out on site ready for concreting to
start in December 2003. Although GASSis a standard
Harsco Infrastructure product, the company does not
keep sufcient stock for a project of this scale. Harsco
Infrastructure was able to mobilise stock from other parts
of the world until production was geared up. Ultimately,
over 95% of the equipment was fabricated specically for
the job.
To meet the massive requirements of the Dubai job,
production was increased to four times the normal
volumes, which continued for an entire year.
8
spotlight
Shipping volumes
Shipping started in October 2003 and lasted until
November 2004, with an average of three containers
making the journey from Felixstowe to Dubai each week.
During the peak period of March to May 2004, this went
up to seven containers a week.
In all, 5,000 tonnes of Harsco Infrastructure equipment
predominantly GASS were delivered to the site over
the course of the project.
Stores of DU-AL
TM
beams and ledger frames delivered to Dubai.
9
delivering global solutions
By May 2004, Harsco Infrastructure
had supplied all the equipment
required for the rst tranche
of construction. However, the
main contractors construction
programme was becoming more
compressed than expected,
requiring Harsco Infrastructure to
accelerate delivery to meet revised
deadlines.
There were also some major design
changes that made construction
more complex, including the
introduction of beams in place of
at slabs in some areas.
At that stage the main contractor
also re-visited its plans for the
Accelerating construction
thick slabs at the medium and high
levels. The main contractors initial
experiments using heavier steel
falsework had not proved very
successful, whereas the GASShad
proved itself well on the thinner
slabs and also on one small tunnel
area where it was used for a 2.2 m
thick slab at a height of 7.5 m. Harsco
Infrastructure produced designs for
the high level area which combined
slabs of 1.6 m depth with a height
of support of 16.5 m and found a
solution that was competitive using
the aluminium shoring.
This, combined with the main
contractors need to accelerate the
programme and the design changes,
resulted in the need for a lot more
equipment. Instead of nishing
in May 2004 as expected, Harsco
Infrastructure continued supplying
equipment at the same rate right up
until December with the amount
supplied eventually totalling three
times more than the original order.
Half of this additional equipment
was needed to facilitate the
acceleration and the design
changes and the other half entirely
to accommodate these thick slabs
in the areas that were not in the
original contract.
10
spotlight
Design considerations
The main concerns about supporting
slabs at a height of 16.5 m were that
tables must be stable and capable of
being moved manually. The maximum
weight of any of the tables built for
the job was 6.8 tonne, while the
largest in area measured 44 m
2
. The
average area of a single table was
closer to 22 m
2
.
Typically, a 2,000 m
2
pour would
require 70 to 100 tables, all of which
had to be moved into position prior
to the pour and then jacked down
and wheeled to the location of the
next pour. This is where Harsco
Infrastructures decision to only have
three or four different table types
came into its own. For each pour,
Harsco Infrastructures site team
provided the contractor with a plan
showing the conguration of the
different tables. It would then be up
to the main contractors operatives to
get them into place although Harsco
Infrastructure had already thought
that through and ensured they could
physically move around the spaces
between pours.
The maximum leg loads going
through the GASSwere typically 60
kN to 90 kN.
One of the key issues was back
propping. With all the different oor
levels in the building, there were
situations when the loads from a oor
being poured at a higher level could
not be supported by just the oor
below, so propping was needed down
to the lower levels. The top level in
the structure is the 1.6 m thick apron
slab. This could not be supported
during construction simply by sitting
the aluminium shoring on top of the
400 mm slab below, so additional
propping had to be provided through
the levels right down to the 2.8 m
thick raft foundation. Both GASSand
Facts and gures
Volume of concrete poured:
2,400,000 m
3
Amount of reinforcement:
450,000 tonnes
Peak volume of concrete poured:
41,000 m
3
per week

CUPLOKwere used for propping,
either as individual props or for
heights over 5 m formed into tables.
Harsco Infrastructures designs
also had to take account of elastic
shortening, which was offset by
setting the formwork slightly higher.
The rst concrete on the job was
poured in November 2003 to
form the raft foundation. Harsco
Infrastructures equipment started
arriving the same month and the rst
shoring tables were erected at the
beginning of December. Production
built up to a full head of steam in
April 2004 and stayed at a consistent
rate of 40,000 m
3
being poured every
week right up until August 2005. In
all, the main contractor poured 2.4
million m
3
of concrete to build the
superstructure.
Harsco Infrastructures designs also had to take account
of elastic shortening, which was offset by setting the
formwork slightly higher.
11
delivering global solutions
12
spotlight
GASS

shoring
GASSis a 140 kN high productivity,
lightweight aluminium shoring
system with integral brace frames.
It has only three main individual
components: outer leg, inner leg and
ledger frame.
The GASSsystem was developed by
Harsco Infrastructure from extensive
experience of many of the largest
and most demanding construction
projects worldwide. It is designed
and manufactured to meet the speed,
safety and economic demands of the
modern construction industry.
GASSis highly adaptable and can
be congured in many ways, with
the basic form being a simple tower
or a table as was the case on the
Dubai International Airport extension
project.
The basic components of a
GASStable are the inner and outer
legs and ledger frames. These can
be safely built up using the systems
couplers and connectors to the height
required.
At the Dubai site, most of the slab
formwork was created using GASS
towers with 225 mm deep DU-AL
TM

aluminium beams as the primary
support beams for the formwork.
Lighter 150 mm deep DU-AL
TM
beams
provided the secondary support.
CUPLOK

support
Harsco Infrastructure CUPLOKis a
multi purpose steel scaffold system
that is relatively light and easy to
assemble and suitable for falsework
support or access on both building
and civil engineering projects.
The principal feature of CUPLOKis
its unique node point that can lock
up to four horizontals in one single
action without nuts, bolts or wedges.
CUPLOKcan be formed into towers
and tables, with each leg capable of
carrying loads up to 74 kN.
The Harsco Infrastructure equipment and
specication
The inner and outer legs of the lightweight
GASSaluminium shoring system.
Harsco Infrastructure CUPLOKbeing used for
back propping.
The GASSaluminium shoring system
consisting of only three main individual
components.
Harsco Infrastructures easy to assemble
CUPLOKsteel scaffold system.
CUPLOK four horizontals can be locked in one
action.
13
delivering global solutions
An important element of Harsco Infrastructures work on
site was to train the main contractors supervisors so that
they could ensure the companys products were being
used correctly and safely. Many of the main contractors
operatives in the UK are very familiar with Harsco
Infrastructure products like GASSand CUPLOKbut
the team building the Dubai International Airport
extension, coming from all over the Gulf and South Asia,
had to embrace the main contractors commitment to
exceptional health and safety practices.
Using simple PowerPoint presentations and working with
20 people at a time to give them a full understanding of
the capabilities of the equipment, Harsco Infrastructure
conveyed the construction process using graphics to
demonstrate the point as well as the dos and donts of
moving tables.
The Harsco Infrastructure team also produced simple
posters highlighting the important safety issues of
working with the equipment, and provided the main
elements of the training courses in both Urdu and Punjabi
to assist the predominantly South Asian workforce.
Over 100 people went through the training, with the main
aim being to ensure that everything was done safely. This
has been reected in the accident gures for the project,
which show that no injuries occurred using the
equipment during the entire construction period.
Training and expertise -
the key to safety
Harsco Infrastructure has taken
a completely new approach to
user guides and launched a DVD
showing 3D animations of all its
formwork and falsework products
being assembled and dismantled.
The DVD shows fully rendered
animations of operatives
erecting and dismantling Harsco
Infrastructure equipment. It
demonstrates the correct methods
of assembly and safe use in a
range of different applications. Fly
throughs and 360 degree views
give a high degree of clarity.
Animations
DVD
Fully rendered animations.
For further information on the
Harsco Infrastructure animations
DVD please contact
info@harsco-i.com
GASS

Product guide
14
spotlight
Sheikh Rashid Terminal 2.
Harsco Infrastructure
in the Middle East
Harsco Infrastructure has had a presence in the Gulf
region for over 20 years with a network of branches
providing access and formwork products and services.
The Dubai International Airport project demonstrated
the benet of being able to supply equipment locally
as well as bringing it in from the UK.
As well as the main GASStables, Harsco
Infrastructure supplied half of the steel formwork for
the main columns in the new terminal building. These
vary in size, and are both circular and rectangular,
with the circular columns predominantly 1,750 mm
in diameter. The dramatic height of some of the
columns produced extremely high pressures in the
concrete while they were being poured, so Harsco
Infrastructures formwork had to be capable of
withstanding pressures of up to 166 kN/m
2
over 50%
higher than is typical for column formwork.
The column forms themselves were mainly segmental
steel forms, made at Harsco Infrastructures factory
in Abu Dhabi and supplied in standard lengths of
1.5 m and 2 m, and bolted together to form columns
up to 12 m high. Harsco Infrastructures Dubai
branch also handled the requirement for most of the
CUPLOKsteel shoring that was used for inll areas
and small complex areas that didnt suit large table
movements like ramps, small areas under staircases
and downstand beams. CUPLOKis not as mobile as
GASSso its main benet was on special areas where
a traditional x and strike process was used as
opposed to the mobile GASStables.
Liaison between the site team, UK based managers
and the regional sales and logistics managers was
essential to ensuring the main contractor received
the best, most efcient, cost effective solutions
throughout the job.
Steel column formwork made at Harsco Infrastructures factory in
Abu Dhabi.
15
delivering global solutions
Harsco Infrastructures Operations
Director commented Harsco
Infrastructure is delighted to have
been a key contributor to the
success of this unique project.
The versatility and exibility of
our shoring systems, our logistics
capability and the expertise of our
dedicated project team enabled
the main contractor to meet an
extremely challenging project
timetable.
Harsco
Infrastructures
Middle East
network
Over the last decade Harsco
Infrastructure has developed a
unique expertise in the design
and supply of concrete formwork,
shoring systems and scaffolding
and access products and services
for both new airport construction
and maintenance. It has been
involved in the development of
some of the worlds largest and
Harsco Infrastructures International Airport
capability
most prestigious airports like Chep
Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong, the
Terminal 5 building at Londons
Heathrow Airport and the new
terminal at Dubai International
Airport in the United Arab Emirates.
Additionally, Harsco Infrastructure
has provided access support services
to almost all of the civil airports in the
UK.
Harsco Infrastructure has built
an in depth understanding of the
requirements of air-side working and
the special needs of airport operators
ensuring that it can tailor and carry
out maintenance programmes with
minimal disruption to normal airport
services.
2011 Harsco Infrastructure Services Limited
For further information on
Harsco Infrastructure,
please contact:
info@harsco-i.com
Or visit us at:
www.harsco-i.com
delivering global solutions
spotlight