Monitoring the World’s Largest Cantilever – One Za’abeel Case Study

Structural Health Monitoring of concrete structures helps to avoid any potential accidents and threats to the safety of both lives and properties.?

Geotechnical Monitoring and Instrumentation are essential during the pre-construction and post-construction periods.?

In this article, we take a look at monitoring during lifting of the link bridge at the One Za’abeel ICD HQ Project.?

Project Overview

One Za’abeel Mixed-use is a famous project that is currently under construction in Dubai, UAE. Located between the Dubai World Trade Centre and Za’abeel Park, the One Za’abeel project comprises of two towers – Tower A and Tower B. Tower A has a height of 305m and 69 levels, including residential apartments, offices, a large retail area, high-end restaurants, and ultra-luxury hotel spaces. On the other hand, Tower B has a height of 240 m and 59 levels, entirely dedicated to residential apartments.?

However, what makes the project iconic and an engineering marvel is?“The Linx”. It is a suspended bridge that connects the two towers at 105m above the ground. Known as the world’s largest cantilever, The Linx measures almost 230 m in length with a cantilever of 66 m projecting from tower A, spanning in the middle of the towers. It has a cross-section of 18m2 with four levels offering various attractions, restaurants, lounges with a viewing deck, and a swimming pool on the roof.?

Encardio-rite was entrusted for the entire monitoring work during the complicated lifting and installation of The Linx that weighs more than the Eiffel Tower!?

The Monitoring of the World’s largest Cantilever included a complex instrumentation & monitoring regime that consisted of precise recording and near real-time transmission of horizontal & vertical deformations and geotechnical parameters during the construction process. This was done to monitor and detect any unexpected behaviour of the building well in time. The results were sent to the client in real-time during the lifting of the installation process.?

| Also Read:?A Guide on Structural Health Monitoring (SHM)?|?

The Link & Its Lifting in Numbers

Length of the first section: 192 m?

Weight of the first section: 9,000 t?

Lifting distance of the first section: 77.5 m?

Length of the second section: 34 m?

Weight of the second section: 900 t?

Lifting distance of the second section: 100 m?

World Records: Longest Cantilever

The Monitoring Equipment – Encardio-rite

The?One Za’abeel Monitoring Project?required a high degree of automation for the instrumentation & monitoring part because the measurements had to be uploaded in real-time to the client’s FTP server. Encardio-rite successfully implemented unique I&M approaches in terms of hardware and software to obtain the best possible accuracy and telemetry speed.?

Encardio-rite installed four Leica TS16 fully automatic total stations with 1’’ accuracy along with the Terramove Control Boxes. These worked and communicated the finding of the total station’s measurements after each cycle to the Terraweb database. The four completely automated 3D deformations monitoring systems were placed on ...[Continue Reading]