International Site Review

1/2002

Rapid progress with Doka

M2 Medway
bridge,
Kent, UK

Kent: Mauritius: Atlantic City: Berlin:

M2 Medway Bridge Midlands Dam Harrah’s Extension Olympic Stadium

rapid progress with cost savings in only 7 months fair faced concrete
Page 3 Page 5 Page 8 Page 11
 Editorial
Looking through this latest edition of
Formwork News, you’ll be able to inform
yourself on a number of very interesting
forming assignments where superb re-
sults have been achieved worldwide with
the aid of Doka formwork systems and
planning work.
Particular attention should be drawn
to the forming assignments on the Med-
way Bridge in Kent, UK,
and (with composite
superstructure form-
work) on the Havel During pouring, the elements of the outside formwork are anchored to the
Bridge in Germany, and forming carriage. For repositioning, the elements are simply lowered.
to the climbing-form-
work assignment on
the towers of the Vistu- Havel Bridge in Plaue, Germany:
la Bridge in Poland. The
use of Doka automatic
Werner Haring climbing formwork on
the 26-storey Harrah’s
Hotel and Casino Extension in Atlantic
Step by step …
City, N.J., USA is also worthy of mention.
However, the high-quality results
… a well-planned cycle sequence
achieved on these and many other pro-
jects are only possible using modern e.g.: in the bridging of the River Havel: In Plaue, just west of the
formwork systems which are available at town of Brandenburg, a 240 m long steel composite bridge is
short notice, and with efficient formwork being built across the River Havel. The contractor is Porr Techno-
planning. Here, only a dependable and cap- bau of Berlin.
able formwork partner can possibly fulfil
all the essential requirements that must
be met if in-situ concrete construction is
to proceed smoothly and successfully.
F or structural design reasons, the
13.0 m wide concrete carriage-
way cannot be cast progressively
time in the “back-step” sequence.
After all, there was a distance of
75 m to cover between each of the
In today’s competitive situation, it is working from one end towards the pouring cycles.
vital to locate – and utilise efficiently – all other. This means that rapid reposi- Thanks to the well thought-out
possible rationalisation potential in con- tioning of differently sized sections, Doka systems, repositioning (i.e.
struction operations. It is a proven fact along the entire length of the moving the carriage forward or
that even today, with the right formwork bridge, was called for here. back) took only a few hours each
system, optimum formwork service and a The “traffic manager”, foreman H. time. “We are most satisfied with
capable formwork partner, significant Bähr, came up with a valuable time- the results that have been
cost-reductions are possible on construc- saving idea: Using just one centrally achieved. Working together with
tion sites. positioned chain, it was possible to project manager Carsten Beer and
It is not only on major projects, howev- shift 80 tonnes of weight. Without Doka field officer Thomas Schnei-
er, that innovative formwork ideas are to having to adjust between left and der, it was possible to optimise the
be found. Many of the articles in this edi- right towing devices, either when ad- forming carriage for our particular
tion show excellent examples of con- vancing or reversing – which saves project so that we could use it in
struction companies and formwork engi- just the way that we had in mind”
neers working together to develop very Easy repositioning of the formwork says site engineer Thomas Thiel. ■
efficient cost-saving formwork solutions. has ensured that construction can
We know, and know well, that form- move ahead swiftly. Contractors: Porr Technobau
work-related services are becoming an
increasingly significant factor in day-to-
day construction operations. This is a
challenge that we respond to with combi-
Formwork News 1| 2002

nations of products and services that are

tailor-made for the construction project in
question.

Werner Haring
Chairman of
2 Doka Group Management
New motorway bridge across the River Medway:

Rapid progress with Doka

A 17 km stretch of the A2/M2 motorway route between London
and the Kent coast is currently being widened. This has necessi-
tated the building of a new bridge across the River Medway, at
the western end of the widening project. The new Medway
Bridge will be completed by the summer of this year, using Doka
formwork. It is located between the existing M2 motorway
bridge and the recently completed railway bridge built as part
of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Britain’s Highways Agency
awarded the construction contract for this £ 20 m (€ 33 m) 3 Doka edge beam forming wagons
bridge project to the “CSM Joint Venture” of Costain, Skanska coupled together to make a traveller.
and Mowlem.

T he balanced cantilever works, to

be carried out on the river spans
of the bridge, comprise the con-
The superstructure is finally
completed with the casting of the
edge beams along the outer edges
WITO, who were responsible for
the design of the balanced-can-
tilever works. This made it possi-
struction of 16 sections of super- of the cantilevering cover slab. ble – despite the difficult nature of
structure, of varying heights and This was done in a highly stream- the task – to elaborate a highly effi-
lengths, on either side of each of lined manner using Doka edge cient formwork scheme which en-
the Medway Bridge’s two river beam forming travellers. abled work to progress smoothly
piers. The Doka formwork for this The concept for the superstruc- and swiftly. ■
was designed in such a way that it ture formwork was developed by
can adapt to continuous reductions Doka in close collaboration with
in the section height. Over 20 m the contractors CSM Joint Venture Contractors:
wide to accommodate 4 lanes of (Costain, Skanska & Mowlem) and CSM JV (Costain, Skanska & Mowlem)
traffic, the bridge superstructure
has a section height of 10 m at the The completed bridge superstructure will have a clear span of 152.5 m
piers, which tapers to nearly one between the piers and will be 30 m above water-level.
third of this height (3.50 m) by mid-
span. While the heights of the su-
perstructure sections progressively
decrease, their lengths increase
from 3.10 m to 6 m towards mid-
span, to make optimum use of the
load-bearing capacity of the can-
tilever construction traveller and to
speed up the progress of work.

The tensile stresses occurring in

the cover slab of the superstructure
during the construction stage, and
in the soffit slab following comple-
tion, are sustained by post-ten-
sioned cables anchored to concrete
corbels. For these prismatic ten-
sioning anchorages in the soffit
slab and cover slab, Doka offered a
simple – yet efficient – formwork
solution which enables the form-
Formwork News 1| 2002

work to be erected and struck with-

out difficulty, and to be quickly
repositioned. This solution had to
allow for the fact that the external
post-tensioned cables have to be
installed after concreting, but be-
fore the formwork is struck. 3
 The elements of the outside formwork, each measuring 170 m2, are pulled forward on the launching girder, on both
sides simultaneously.

Austrian cut-and-cover tunnel being

cast monolithically formwork are hydraulically ad-
vanced by the length of one section.
The reinforcement is now placed for
A 2.3 km long twin-tube tunnel with 2 lanes per tube is currently the floor of the next section.
under construction for Austria’s A8 autobahn in the Aiterbach
Valley near Wels, in a weekly cycle. Because the cut-and-cover On the Monday, the concrete has
tunnel stands in groundwater, it is being built as a “white tank”, cured sufficiently for the formwork
meaning that its foundation, walls and cover slab have to be to be struck. Once again, the central
cast monolithically (i.e. in one single pour). hydraulic control unit is used for
repositioning the outside form-

T he contractors, Strabag Bau AG,

All these actions are initiated from a
central control unit – e.g. tilting up the
haunched elements in the floor-
Formwork News 1| 2002
required not only the shortest
possible cycle sequence during
pouring, but also comprehensive
mechanisation of the formwork in
order to save on labour. Between
them, the Strabag staff in charge of
the planning work and the Doka
Formwork Experts from Amstetten
came up with the ideal solution:
Two Doka travelling formwork
carriages, working from the middle
of the future tunnel towards either
end, each allowing a small crew to
pour 24 m long sections. In this
way, a total of 48 m of tunnel can be
completed every working week. It
will take a total of 50 cycles towards
work. Then the inside formwork is
put into the travelling position, and
the 63 cm haunched elements on
the base slab are tilted up out of the
way. The tunnel-tube on the inside
of the curve is the first to be reposi-
tioned – an area of formwork mea-
suring 510 m2 and weighing 150 t is
now moved into the new position.
Every Tuesday, the centre-wall
reinforcement is completed. The re-
inforcement for the outside walls is
placed after the second half of the
inside formwork has been pulled
forward.
On the Wednesday, the finishing
touches are put to the reinforce-

slab/wall transition zone, or retracting
the wall-formwork elements when
striking the formwork. In only 5 work-
ing days, all the operations needed for
one entire section – including striking,
advancing, formwork erection and
4 pouring – have been completed.
one end of the tunnel, and 50 cycles
towards the other, to complete the
full length of the tunnel. Each of
these cycles runs according to the
following schedule: Every Friday,
the two huge launching girders sus-
pended in the portals of the inside
ment and the form-ties.
On the Thursday, approx. 1000 m2
of concrete has to be poured within
around 14 hours. ■
Contractors: Strabag
48,000 m3 of concrete for the Midlands Dam on Mauritius:

Precisely co-ordinated formwork

saves (transport) costs:
The brief given to the form-
work planners for the spillway
on the Midlands Dam is actu-
ally one that is relevant for
any site: To use only as much
formwork as strictly neces-
sary. This is particularly true of
sites at remote locations,
where transport costs for ma-
terials and equipment play a
not insignificant role.

T his dam project necessitated

many and frequent adaptations.
Starting with the huge floor blocks,
then in the rising sidewalls and the
centre pier, right the way through
to the blocks of the spillway with its
inclined surfaces. Careful, thorough
planning is particularly worthwhile
in a case like this.
And here is what it led to: For the
approx. 48,000 m3 of concrete in-
volved here, the contractors used
only 1750 m2 of formwork – helped
by an exact utilisation plan which
minimised down-time for the form-
work and scaffolds.
All the supports – both the sup-
porting construction frames and
the D22 brackets – followed the grid
pattern of the formwork elements.
The cornerstone of this versatili-
ty was the well thought-out grid of
the formwork elements.
Doka dam formwork and Doka folding platforms K were used alongside (and behind)
one another – the former without through-ties, the latter as a tied wall formwork.
The use of Doka large-area form- tion blocks were also fitted with
work Top 50, in lengths of 3.00, 4.50 Doka dam formwork D22 compo-
and 6.00 m, provided a uniform nents. This made it possible to con-
spacing for the supporting con- tinue raising the sidewalls and the
struction frames used on the starter centre pier with dam formwork
blocks, and for the bracket and an- D22, seamlessly and without
chor spacings in the “climbed” through-ties. The stiffening but-
pouring-sections. The formwork tress walls in this zone were, how-
was designed for block heights of ever, executed with through-ties,
3.0 m and a concrete pressure of 35 using the Doka climbing formwork
kN/m2. K as a scaffold unit. The formwork
elements were always the same,
For this reason, the supporting which permitted large numbers of
construction frames for the founda- repeat uses. This, in turn, made for
low total quantities of formwork –
and low costs.

Within the next 36 months, the

2450 m long earth dam will also be
finished. Covering an area of 300
ha, up to 25.5 million m3 of water
Formwork News 1| 2002

will then be available for irrigation

and potentially also for processing
into drinking water. ■

Contractors:
DTP Terrassement - Bouygues TP J.V. 5
 Brazil:

Site: VD 7 viaduct, Brazil
Contractors: Consórcio Imigrantes - JV CR Almeida (Brazil) & Impregilo (Italy)
Tough formwork
challenge
T he 1.25 km long viaduct VD7 on the 16 km
long “Segunda pista da Rodovia dos Imi-
grantes” expressway in Brazil is being built
using Doka climbing formwork 150 F for the pier
shafts and Doka large-area formwork Top 50 for
the pier-heads and carriageway decks, and with
a free-cantilevering carriage with a capacity of
120 tonnes. ■

Singapore:

On schedule, and within budget

U sing Doka wall and floor-slab
formworks, the two 18-storey ad-
ministration buildings for the Singa-
pore Port Services Agency were
completed in an exceedingly short
construction period of only 12
months. This was made possible by
the use of Doka large-area formwork
Top 50 for the walls and columns,
and of Doka load-bearing towers d2,
of which a sufficient quantity was
commissioned for one-and-a-half
times the area of each floor. ■

Site: Port Services Agency, Singapore

Main Contractor: Samsung

Portugal:

One cycle every 8 days D oka supplied formwork for the

Perna Seca viaduct on the A2
motorway “Auto-Estrada do Sul” in
Portugal.
A 60 m long trussed box section
with swivel side drop panels served
as a launching girder on which – in
Formwork News 1| 2002

a 2nd operation – Top 50 formwork

was mounted on top. ■

Site: Perna Seca viaduct

Contractors: Contacto, Ecop, Somec e
6 Gabriel Couto
 World site round-up

Lebanon:

A comprehensive
assignment
W ork on the shell of the Hajj Bahaeddin Hariri
Mosque was recently completed with the form-
ing operations on the dome, which has a diameter of
25 m and a clear height of 35 m. All the in-situ concret-
ing works, including the two minarets, were performed
successfully using Doka formwork equipment. ■

Site: Hajj Bahaeddin Hariri Mosque, Lebanon

Contractors: Betabat

Ireland:

Staxo: simply better

T he ease and simplicity with which the Staxo load-
bearing tower can be erected and dismantled were
greatly appreciated by subcontractor McNally Brothers
on its bridge construction site at Batter Lane, Swords,
Co. Dublin, on Ireland’s Northern Motorway. In order to
speed up operations, each of the load-bearing towers
were pre-assembled on the ground before being lifted
into position by crane. ■

Site: Bridge on Northern Motorway at Batter Lane, Swords, Co. Dublin.

Main Contractor: Siac Construction
Subcontractor: McNally Brothers

Dubai:

Formwork handling
made easy
T he 43-storey, 250-room Shangri-La Hotel is current-
ly under construction in Dubai. Doka has supplied
Formwork News 1| 2002

this project with 66 automatic climbers SKE 100, which

“climb” the outside of the façade and carry a rising
scaffold. Both the outside and inside formworks (as-
sembled from large-area formwork Top 50) are sus-
pended from this scaffold. ■

Site: Shangri La Hotel, Dubai 7

Contractor: Al Habtoor Murray & Roberts JV
 Atlantic City:
Harrah’s Extension finished in only 7 months
Thanks to an optimised form-
work concept, it was possible
to complete the shell of the
26-storey Harrah’s Hotel and
Casino Extension in Atlantic
City, New Jersey, within a
mere 7 months.
T he walls of the lower storeys
are rather higher and were
formed – highly efficiently – with
large-area gangs of Framax
framed formwork. And Top 50
large-area formwork, which was
delivered to the site pre-assem-
bled, did a superb job on the outer
façades of the end walls, and on
the lift shafts and stairwells. The
outside walls of the 2.90 m high
typical floors were raised using 24
automatic climbers SKE 50.
For the opposing formwork on
the inside, and for all the columns,
easy-to-handle Alu-Framax panels
were used, as the 15 cm thick in-
Formwork News 1| 2002
8 Casino Extension.
As the floor slabs had already been cast, the remaining formwork had
to be struck by hand – a task for which the lightweight Alu-Framax panels
proved highly advantageous.
situ concrete layer with which the
planned filigree floors were to be
covered had to be poured “in one
go” along with the walls and
columns. For this reason, it was not
possible to strike the formwork
from the walls and columns until
after the floor slabs had been
poured. What is more, this had to
be done without any assistance
from the crane. With the light-
weight 60 cm wide Alu-Framax
panels that were used here by the
contractors, FABI Construction, this
was no problem to accomplish.
The formwork concept elaborat-
ed by Doka’s US representatives
Conesco, in collaboration with con-
tractors FABI Construction, enabled
an average forming cycle of one
week per typical storey. This made it
possible for the shell, on which work
had commenced only in May 2001,
to be completed by the end of 2001.
No wonder, then that General
Superintendant Hugh McCarron
was so satisfied with how all the
forming operations had gone, and
that this success convinced FABI
President and owner Al Zappone to
purchase the Alu-Framax, Top 50
and MF 240 equipment from this
project for use on his next project in
Atlantic City. ■
Contractors:
FABI Construction, New Jersey
Doka automatic climbing formwork
in action on the exterior façades
of the 90 m tall Harrah’s Hotel and
Amsterdam:

Formwork and concrete

placing boom “in one go”
HBG Utiliteitsbouw had been
awarded the contract to erect
a 19-storey, 79 m tall office
tower in the centre of Amster-
dam. In order to be able to
meet the tight time deadlines,
it was decided – in collabora-
tion with Doka Nederland and
Doka T&S Amstetten – to use
Doka automatic climbers SKE
50 and SKE 100.

T he core and outside walls of the

entire structure were formed
with automatic climbing technolo-
gy, in 21 cycles. In order to achieve
the most efficient cycle possible, no
account was taken of the heights of
the storeys themselves. The layout
of the office tower corresponds to
an elongated rectangle enclosing a
narrow inside rectangle, and with
three projecting walls.
The formwork area, totalling
530 m2, was designed and broken
down accordingly; it consisted of
13 elements to be moved, on nine
Doka climbing platforms MF 240
and three shaft platforms. For form-
work erection and removal, the
elements were advanced and re-
tracted with the Doka travelling unit
MF 240. Where space was tight, the
wall formwork was suspended
from a steel support construction.
In this way, it was possible to lift the
formwork without using a crane in
these situations as well.
Using Doka automatic climbers,
things moved upwards in the fol-
lowing regular cycle:
● The SKE 50 automatic climbers
The pouring cycles were all kept
the same size; this, plus the preci-
sion climbing sequence, ensured
that work progressed rapidly.
This ensures that climbing takes
place uniformly and smoothly.
● Work on placing the reinforce-
ments is finished. The gap to shaft
1 is closed.
● The concrete placing boom
“hitches a ride” with the final lift of
the automatic climbers SKE 100,
thereby arriving at the top at the
same time. The boom stands on an
integral grillage, and thus needs no
separate platform of its own. This
in turn saves an extra lift and
means that the boom can be made
considerably shorter. Higher ma-
Formwork News 1| 2002

lift one shaft formwork element up-
ward. Work begins on placing the
reinforcements.
● The entire outside formwork now
follows. The central control unit is
connected to all the automatic climb-
ers via a circular tube (ring main).
noeuvrability and appreciable cost- The elements are lifted one at a time,
savings are the result. in line with the progress of the rein-
forcement work. This picture clearly
In this way, by taking account of shows the generous room for ma-
all the issues involved, this cycle se- noeuvre that is left for these operations.
quence made it possible to meet the
tight deadlines imposed here. ■ Contractors: HBG Utiliteitsbouw 9
 Doka not only supplied all the form-
New Oil Sector Complex, Kuwait: work systems, but also provided com-
prehensive scheduling to go with it.

Complex logistical challenges The outside formwork of the walls

also serves as the perimeter form-
work for the floor-slabs.
The new joint central administration complex of the Kuwaiti Oil Ministry The floor-slabs follow in a fort-
and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation comprises two high-rise struc- nightly cycle, with sufficient form-
tures. One of these is 17 storeys tall and the other 21 storeys tall. There work equipment for two complete
is also a third tower with a semi-elliptical cross-section that houses the storeys being commissioned for
stairwell and lift shafts, and from which access is provided to the two of- each of the two office towers. A
fice towers via aerial walkways. In addition, a 5500 m2 podium - a single- total of approx. 5600 m2 of
storey and two-storey low-rise structure - is being built: Dokaflex 20 is in use. In the areas
that are open to the outside, d2
tableforms are used, for safety

T he contractors, a joint venture

of Alghanim International and
LG Engineering, are building this
administration complex using the
whole spectrum of Doka equip-
ment, and with wide-ranging Doka
planning assistance.
Office Towers A and B each
contain two cores, consisting of
stairwell and lift-shaft groups.
These cores are “climbed” two
Formwork News 1| 2002
storeys ahead of the floor slabs,
making it possible to “de-link”
operations on the vertical and
horizontal parts of the structure
and thus saving construction time.
For the outside walls of the trian-
gular zone of the office towers, a
complete set of outside formwork
has been commissioned, and for
the inside walls, a one-half set
which is shifted once per storey.
reasons.
The walls of the semi-elliptical
stairwell and lift-shaft core are
also “climbed ahead” in their en-
tirety. The floor-slabs and aerial
walkways to the two office towers
follow approx. two storeys be-
hind. Some 650 m2 of large-area
formwork Top 50 is in use here, to-
gether with climbing formwork
150 F with trailing platforms and
shaft platforms. Here too, work is
proceeding in a weekly cycle. It
has taken very extensive planning
work by Doka Kuwait to master
the complex logistical challenges
presented here. The project also
calls for intensive on-site presence
and assistance from Doka, which
has been greatly appreciated by
the site engineers. ■

Contractors: Alghanim International –

LG Engineering

Doka carried out extensive planning

10 work to master the logistical challenges.
Warming up hall for Berlin Olympic Stadium:
Fair-faced concrete with Doka
Dating from 1936, the Berlin Olympic Stadium is being altered and
renovated in keeping with its status as a listed monument – all
the time alongside ongoing use of the stadium. By 2004, it will
have been upgraded into a modern event arena, not least for the
finals of the football World Cup which Germany is to host in 2006.
I n January 2002, work got under-
way on the building of a new,
two-storey “warming-up hall”: With
lorry parking spaces and technical
service installations in the approx.
5 m high sub-basement level, and a
4.60 m high warming-up hall for the
sportsmen and sportswomen in the
basement level. The 96 m long and
35 m wide reinforced concrete
structure is built entirely under-
ground, under a 40 cm cover slab.
After completion, the structure will
be completely hidden from view be-
neath a large area of lawn.
Framed formwork Framax was
chosen to achieve fair-faced con-
Dokaflex 1-2-4 serve as the floor-slab formwork, and the floor beams are
shored by Staxo load-bearing towers.
Austria:
Österreichische Doka Schalungstechnik GmbH
A 3300 Amstetten, Reichsstrasse 23
Phone: +43-7472-605-0
Fax: +43-7472-64430
E-Mail: Oest.Doka@doka.com
Germany:
Deutsche Doka Schalungstechnik GmbH
D 82216 Maisach, Frauenstrasse 35
Phone: +49-8141-394-0
Fax: +49-8141-394405
E-Mail: Deutsche.Doka@doka.com
crete surface with the specified
formwork pattern. In this connec-
tion, the Doka Formwork Experts
co-operated with the contractors
and the planner to recommend
suitable formwork stacking config-
urations, which had to be approved
by the client.
For important key locations, this
was done with reference to eleva-
tion plans which explained the pro-
posals.
380 m2 of Framax framed form-
work – newly faced with form-ply for
use on the fair-faced concrete walls
– ensured that forming operations
UK:
Doka UK
Formwork Technologies Ltd.
Monchelsea Farm, Heath Road
Boughton Monchelsea
Maidstone, Kent, ME17 4JD
Phone: (01622) 74 90 50
Fax: (01622) 74 90 33
E-Mail: UK@doka.com
Ireland:
Doka Ireland
Formwork Technologies Ltd.
Tinure Industrial Complex
Monasterboice, Drogheda
County Louth
Phone: (041) 68 61 620
Fax: (041) 68 61 525
E-Mail: Ireland@doka.com
Floor beams shored by Staxo load-
bearing towers.
Framax for fair-faced concrete.
proceeded smoothly on the walls.
This formwork was supplemented
by 135 m2 of newly re-faced circular
formwork H 20 for the curved sec-
tions of the supply tunnel.
The 30 cm thick floor between
the two basement levels is punctu-
ated at regular intervals by floor-
beams with a cross-section of 110 x
80 cm and with steel girders on the
inside. 1500 m2 of Dokaflex 1-2-4
with rented Dokadur panels serve
as the floor-slab formwork, and the
floor-beams are shored by Staxo
load-bearing towers. ■
General contractor: Walter Bau
in concert with Dywidag, Augsburg
Forming operations:
Bold GmbH & Co. KG Baubetriebe Berlin
USA:
Conesco Industries Ltd.
214 Gates Road
Formwork News 1| 2002
Little Ferry, New Jersey 07643
Phone: (201) 6 41 65 00
Fax: (201) 6 41 62 54
E-Mail: dest@conesco.com
For the Doka address nearest you, please see
our web-site: http://www.doka.com, or phone
or fax Doka in Austria or Germany. 11
 “Most Siekierkowski” bridge across the Vistula in Warsaw:

Making optimised use of formwork leads

to efficient construction sequences
A new 830 m long cable-stayed bridge is being built across the cation above the top kink, where a
River Vistula just south of Warsaw’s Old Quarter, with twin 27 m long hollow steel profile had
towers to support and stay its 33 m wide carriageway deck, to be embedded inside each of the
which has a 250 m span. The contract to supply the formwork pier shafts.
for the two slender, 92 m tall bridge-towers went to Doka Polska.
The Top 50 formwork for the bot-
tom cross-beam rested safely on a

F orming bridge-towers such as

these cost-effectively is a fas-
cinating challenge: Massive spring-
ers, inclined towards the outside at
an angle of 75° to the perpendicular
and conically tapering as they rise.
Then, at a height of 12 m, a pre-
stressed concrete cross-beam to
support the carriageway decks.
Above this, two slender piers: Up to
a height of 62 m, these are hollow
boxes and are inclined inwards at
an angle of 7°; above the 62 m
mark, they rise exactly in the per-
pendicular. At the kink in the piers at
a height of 62 m, there is a second
Formwork News 1| 2002
heavy special profiles on the piers
(which had to be formed without
using form-ties), the walings of the
Top 50 elements were stiffened
with trusses. One set of springer
formwork, assembled from Top 50,
was used to form the bases of all
four piers in succession.
Four sets of Top 50 formwork
were then “climbed” on MF 240
climbing platforms to form the four
rising pier shafts, in 17 casting sec-
tions up to the finished height of
92 m. All this was done with only a
very few crane cycles and – in the
truss made of 20 tonnes of steel
profiles, which was used a total of
four times: First for the two bottom
cross-beams, and then for the two
top ones.
As the exemplary concept em-
ployed here clearly shows: With
good planning, even out-of-the-or-
dinary challenges can be mastered
both economically and in record
time. ■
Contractors: JV of Mostostal Warszawa
S.A., WARBUD S.A and Campenon

cross-beam. inclined sections – with a special Bernard SGE

Remarkably small quantities of
equipment, most of it from the
standard product range – this is the
secret of optimum cost efficiency
12 here. In order not to have to use
overhang lifting unit, supplemented
by a single-sided inside formwork
in the hollow-box zones.
The four sets of formwork contin-
ued to be used without any modifi-