INNOVATIVE formwork solutions from Paschal Werk G Maier have helped speed up construction work on a major water transmission project that will serve key projects being developed in Bahrain, namely the Bahrain Financial Harbour, Lulu Island and a development by Majid Al Futtaim in the Seef area.

Under a contract awarded by Bahrain’s Electricity and Water Authority, leading Bahrain-based contracting firm Ahmed Mansoor Al A’ali (AMA) is working on the pumping station, which involves construction of a ground storage reservoir (GSR) tank, an elevated storage reservoir (ESR) tank, a chlorinaton building, a substation and a guardhouse.

AMA started work on the development in March 2010 and expects to complete the entire project by the end of this year.

The project involves the construction of the biggest GSR tank in Bahrain, according to Shibu Swamidas, engineering manager at AMA. It has a capacity of 23.5 million litres and was constructed using modular formwork supplied by Bahrain-based Paschal Concrete Forms Company, the regional office for the German formwork specialist. The rectangular reinforced concrete structure measures 51.53 m by 63.4 m and has a depth of 9 m. A total of 1,393 cu m of concrete and 278.6 tonnes of rebar has gone into the construction of the GSR tank.

The elevated tank has a capacity of 6.5 million litres and is basically a circular steel tank, with a diameter of 23 m, supported on a 22.5-m concrete pedestal that has been erected using trapezoidal girder formwork supplied by Paschal Concrete on a rental basis.

“The trapezoidal girder formwork, which has a steel surface, enables the formwork diameter to be adjusted to the nearest millimetre, ensuring a consistent radius and high accuracy in the construction,” says Amir Delghandi, general director of the Paschal Concrete Forms. “These panels have a height of 3 m. The inner diameter of the shaft is 7.8 m while the outer diameter is 9.0 m. We supplied a total of 158.25 sq m of formwork for the ESR tank.”

The trapezoidal formwork system – used for the first time on a structural project in Bahrain – can cast circular concrete structures of any diameter including water tanks, shafts and silos, and has been used primarily in Europe, Delghandi points out. The formwork has been previously used to build a dramatic cylindrical concrete structure – 3 m in diameter, with a wall thickness of 20 cm and a height of 5.30 m – in front of Paschal Concrete Forms’ new headquarters at the Bahrain International Investment Park (BIIP).

Commenting on the trapezoidal girder formwork system, Shibu says: “We had allocated seven days to construct each level of this supporting wall. However, using Paschal’s trapezoidal formwork, we were able to do it in just four days – effectively saving us 27 days on our schedule.”

The casting of the supporting wall was completed last month.

Paschal Concrete Forms Company provides formwork solutions to contractors in the entire region. The company says its formwork experts and highly motivated engineers ensure the timely completion of civil projects in Bahrain, the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Iraq.