New Skyscraper will Reach a Kilometer High

Recently The Conco Companies have been involved in the construction of the two tallest buildings in the United States west of the Mississippi.  The Wilshire Grand, in Los Angeles will stand at 1099 ft. and the Salesforce Tower, in San Francisco, will be 1070 ft. tall.   

However while these are extremely tall, throughout the world there are a number of skyscrapers much taller.  Presently the Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the tallest tower in the world at 2,717 but that record is soon to be challenged.  In Saudi Arabia, a new tower is being constructed that will exceed the height of Burj Khalifa and extend 1 kilometer (3,280 ft.) into the sky.  The Saudi skyscraper, called the Jeddah Tower (previously known as the Kingdom Tower), is scheduled for completion in 2020.  It was designed by American architect Adrian Smith, who also created the Burj Khalifa.

The Jeddah is expected to cost $1.23 billion and to require 5.7 million square feet of concrete and 80,000 tons of steel to construct.   The entire project including the tower will be called Jeddah City and will cost approximately $8.4 billion when complete. 

  

Construction of the skyscraper is currently at the 26^th floor and when finished will have 200 floors.  Overlooking the Red Sea, architects and engineers had to factor in the damage caused by the nearby saltwater.  To ensure the building could withstand the corrosive saltwater, Advanced Construction Technology Services was brought in to test the strength and low permeability of different concrete mixes. 

Another issue that had to be addressed was wind load.  To take care of this problem, the outside façade of Jeddah was designed to change shape in order to allow wind loads to go around the building rather than hit it head on.  Also pumping concrete up to the higher floors is going to be a challenge.  It is believed that engineers will use techniques similar to those used on the Burj Khalifa.  On that project, a single pump pushed up the concrete (typically at night) when temperatures were cooler.

The Conco Companies are a leading supplier of concrete services for the Western United States. We have built a reputation on superior concrete formwork, reinforcing, place and finish, shotcrete and other ancillary services that benefit from our vast experience.  We have four regional offices to serve Southern and Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado.

Source:cnn.com/2015/11/30/world/meast/saudi-arabia-worlds-tallest-building-jeddah-tower/index.html, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeddah_Tower