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Building Dubai InternationalIntroduction to the contribution made by our project team

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The new terminal buildingPart of the $4.1 billion expansion programme

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The design and logistics challengeThe optimised designs needed for the formwork tables

Training and expertiseThe training challenge for Harsco Infrastructure in Dubai

projectspotlightDubai International Airport

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International airport capabilityDetail of our experience of new aiport construction and maintenance 15

projectspotlight

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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 world’s largest airport terminals, the new Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport.

Harsco Infrastructure is the newly created confederation of Harsco companies: SGB and Hünnebeck 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. Harsco’s 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 world’s 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 world’s 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...

NDubai

Dub

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Airp

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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 specifi cally 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 Dubai’s economy has been boosted by high oil prices, much of the recent growth has been in non-oil sectors by attracting international businesses and fi nancial institutions and developing a massive tourism sector. The confi dence of the economy is further acknowledged by high profi le 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.

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spotlight

The new terminal building

At the surface, the 1 km long terminal building is designed to refl ect 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 specialist’s 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 refl ect 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, fl 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 fl oors directly above each other at standard- storey heights.

This variation throughout the structure made construction of the concrete fl 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 fi gures

Labour force: 6,500 (day shift) 1,500 (night shift)

Volume of excavation: 5.5 million m3

Façade area: 35,000 m2

Weight of formwork equipment: 5,000 tonnes

Total area of formwork: 1,500,000 m2

Sheikh Rashid Terminal 2.

An artist’s impression of the new terminal building at Dubai

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delivering global solutions

Harsco Infrastructure secured the supply contract but fi 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 Infrastructure’s team prepared an estimate based on the main contractor’s description of areas, height and thickness of the fl oor slabs and a proposed schedule of when each slab would be constructed.

The contractor had supplied a programme, from which Harsco Infrastructure developed simplifi ed designs in order to develop the price for supplying aluminium shoring for the fl oor slabs. At this stage, the main contractor required falsework for over 1,000,000 m2 of fl oor slabs.

Of that, 700,000 m2 were what might be deemed the “typical” slab depth of 400 mm, and a further 200,000 m2 was thick slabs between 1.5 m and 2.2 m in depth.

Harsco Infrastructure secures supply contractThe remaining 100,000 m2 were “irregular areas”, including narrow strips of fl oor.

Not included in that 700,000 m2 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 fi rst to be poured.

Harsco Infrastructure worked on the basis that the “standard” fl oors could be constructed using aluminium shoring, with the smaller, irregular areas built using the company’s CUPLOK®steel heavy-duty support system. The aluminium shoring would mainly be built using Harsco Infrastructure’s GASS®system; 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 confi rmed 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-specifi ed timescale.

To meet the main contractor’s 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 m2 of formwork, of which 32,000 m2 would be aluminium shoring.

This was translated into a fi rm offer and an agreed programme of delivery to the site in Dubai that would match the main contractor’s 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 contractortendered for themain constructioncontract (Mar 03).

Shipping of Harsco Infrastructure equipment started (Oct 03).

All Harsco Infrastructure equipment for the fi 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).

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spotlight

The design teamHarsco 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 offi ce and issue drawings to site, the scale of the Dubai project made it much more effi cient to have the designers on the spot. Harsco Infrastructure’s experience of major projects – including Hong Kong Airport and Heathrow’s 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 Infrastructure’s 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 fi ve internationally experienced designers on site with back-up from the UK.

Harsco Infrastructure’s design offi ce also hosted two of the main contractor’s designers, who contributed to the falsework design, gaining valuable knowledge of the equipment – especially the GASS®aluminium 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 company’s Jeddah offi ce 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 Infrastructure’s 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 Infrastructure’s 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.

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delivering global solutions

Facts and fi gures

Drawings produced by Harsco Infrastructure: 5,000Number of piles: 1,500Largest formwork table: 44 m2

The design and logistics challenge

Harsco Infrastructure’s 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 contractor’s 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 GASS®aluminium 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 Infrastructure’s 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 fl oor were to be poured at which stage in the contract, what volume and confi guration of GASS®would 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 GASS®elements would be re-used in the future.

The initial pressure on the designers was to get the fi rst equipment out on site ready for concreting to start in December 2003. Although GASS®is a standard Harsco Infrastructure product, the company does not keep suffi cient 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 specifi cally 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.

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spotlight

Shipping volumesShipping 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-ALTM beams and ledger frames delivered to Dubai.

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delivering global solutions

By May 2004, Harsco Infrastructure had supplied all the equipment required for the fi rst tranche of construction. However, the main contractor’s 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 fl at slabs in some areas.

At that stage the main contractor also re-visited its plans for the

Accelerating constructionthick slabs at the medium and high levels. The main contractor’s initial experiments using heavier steel falsework had not proved very successful, whereas the GASS®had 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 contractor’s need to accelerate the programme and the design changes,

resulted in the need for a lot more equipment. Instead of fi 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.

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spotlight

Design considerationsThe 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 m2. The average area of a single table was closer to 22 m2.

Typically, a 2,000 m2 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 Infrastructure’s decision to only have three or four different table types came into its own. For each pour, Harsco Infrastructure’s site team provided the contractor with a plan showing the confi guration of the different tables. It would then be up to the main contractor’s 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 GASS®were typically 60 kN to 90 kN.

One of the key issues was back propping. With all the different fl oor levels in the building, there were situations when the loads from a fl oor being poured at a higher level could not be supported by just the fl 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 GASS®and

Facts and fi gures

Volume of concrete poured: 2,400,000 m3

Amount of reinforcement: 450,000 tonnes

Peak volume of concrete poured: 41,000 m3 per week

CUPLOK®were used for propping, either as individual props or – for heights over 5 m – formed into tables.

Harsco Infrastructure’s designs also had to take account of elastic shortening, which was offset by setting the formwork slightly higher.

The fi rst concrete on the job was poured in November 2003 to form the raft foundation. Harsco Infrastructure’s equipment started arriving the same month and the fi 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 m3 being poured every week right up until August 2005. In all, the main contractor poured 2.4 million m3 of concrete to build the superstructure.

Harsco Infrastructure’s designs also had to take account of elastic shortening, which was offset by setting the formwork slightly higher.

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delivering global solutions

12

spotlight

GASS®shoringGASS®is 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 GASS®system 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.

GASS®is highly adaptable and can be confi gured 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 GASS®table are the inner and outer legs and ledger frames. These can be safely built up using the system’s 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-ALTM aluminium beams as the primary support beams for the formwork. Lighter 150 mm deep DU-ALTM beams provided the secondary support.

CUPLOK®support Harsco Infrastructure CUPLOK®is 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 CUPLOK®is its unique node point that can lock up to four horizontals in one single action without nuts, bolts or wedges.

CUPLOK®can be formed into towers and tables, with each leg capable of carrying loads up to 74 kN.

The Harsco Infrastructure equipment and specifi cation

The inner and outer legs of the lightweight

GASS®aluminium shoring system.

Harsco Infrastructure CUPLOK®being used for back propping.

The GASS®aluminium shoring system consisting of only three main individual components.

Harsco Infrastructure’s easy to assemble

CUPLOK®steel scaffold system.CUPLOK®– four horizontals can be locked in one action.

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delivering global solutions

An important element of Harsco Infrastructure’s work on site was to train the main contractor’s supervisors so that they could ensure the company’s products were being used correctly and safely. Many of the main contractor’s operatives in the UK are very familiar with Harsco Infrastructure products like GASS®and CUPLOK®but the team building the Dubai International Airport extension, coming from all over the Gulf and South Asia, had to embrace the main contractor’s 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 do’s and don’ts 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 refl ected in the accident fi 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 contactinfo@harsco-i.com

GASS®

Product guide

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spotlight

Sheikh Rashid Terminal 2.

Harsco Infrastructure in the Middle EastHarsco 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 benefi t of being able to supply equipment locally as well as bringing it in from the UK.

As well as the main GASS®tables, 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 Infrastructure’s formwork had to be capable of withstanding pressures of up to 166 kN/m2 – over 50% higher than is typical for column formwork.

The column forms themselves were mainly segmental steel forms, made at Harsco Infrastructure’s 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 Infrastructure’s Dubai branch also handled the requirement for most of the CUPLOK®steel shoring that was used for infi ll areas and small complex areas that didn’t suit large table movements – like ramps, small areas under staircases and downstand beams. CUPLOK®is not as mobile as GASS®so its main benefi t was on special areas where a traditional fi x and strike process was used – as opposed to the mobile GASS®tables.

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 effi cient, cost effective solutions throughout the job.

Steel column formwork made at Harsco Infrastructure’s factory in Abu Dhabi.

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delivering global solutions

Harsco Infrastructure’s Operations Director commented “Harsco Infrastructure is delighted to have been a key contributor to the success of this unique project. The versatility and fl 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 Infrastructure’s 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 world’s largest and

Harsco Infrastructure’s International Airport capability

most prestigious airports like Chep Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong, the Terminal 5 building at London’s 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 onHarsco Infrastructure,please contact:info@harsco-i.com

Or visit us at:www.harsco-i.com

delivering global solutionsspotlightproject