Two of Dubai's most high-profile projects currently under construction - the BurJuman Centre expansion and the Al Jaber complex, which includes the Shangri La hotel - are being executed by the Al Habtoor Murray & Roberts (JV) joint venture.

Both are extremely fast track and have required some exceptional planning and engineering to maintain on track, says Nasr A Nasr, the project director on these developments.

The BurJuman expansion calls for the construction of a retail podium comprising four floors plus a mezzanine covering some 64,000 sq m of floor area; one apartment tower of 26 floors (19,000 sq m); a second apartment tower of 23 floors (37,000 sq m); and an office tower of 30 floors (32,000 sq m). The office tower will top out at a height of 151 m above ground level. The construction period is 15 months for structures and 18 months overall with final handover scheduled for October 30, 2003.

As lead contractor, HMR is responsible for the reinforced concrete structures plus coordination of the following sub-contractor work packages: post-tensioning; special roof features; curtain-walling system and external facade cladding; facade cleaning systems; stone cladding; waterproofing; lift and escalators; electromechanical and all other finishing subcontractors.

"In all, the project will consume approximately 91,500 cu m of concrete, 12,850 tonnes of rebar and will require the installation of 50 lifts and 26 escalators. The contract value is in excess of Dh270 million," Nasr says.

Work on the Al Jaber commercial, residential and hotel complex commenced in May 2001, with a soft opening scheduled for February 2003, and a completion date of May, 2003. The site combines two standard tower plots of 30 m by 30 m each, creating a single facade of 70 m (including offsets). The main hotel tower will rise to 43 floors, a height of 200 m. The separate car-park facility will be 11 floors tall with a pool and recreation area on the roof.

The actual building design is very complex, with four central cores and load-bearing perimeter columns. In order to accommodate the design, transfer beams were required on the 12th, 29th and 42nd floors to transfer the load to the foundations. The transfer beams were cast in situ and then post-tensioned.

Doka's SK100 self-climbing formwork and Top 50 system was used to construct the perimeter walls and the four central cores and HMR was able to achieve a record duration of four-day cycle per floor.

According to Nasr, one of Al Habtoor's keys to success is the company's exceptional strengths in planning and organisation that enables it to undertake difficult and unique projects by doing it right the first time.

Another huge asset, in his opinion, is the hands-on management style of the JV management and the managing partner Riad Sadek. Also, there is the company's unparalleled and unquestionable commitment to quality and safety in all its projects, he adds.

Nasr is no stranger to complex projects having worked as a project manager on a number of difficult ones, such as the Dubai Airshow exhibition hall - an overall nine-month contract that called for a rolling handover of separate sections starting from the sixth month onwards.

Another complex structure was the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, and the Customs headquarters buildings which called for complex multi-dimensional curves on the outside wall - not one of which is actually straight.

A logistically, if not technically, difficult project was the construction of 200 standalone villas in Abu Dhabi in just six months - at peak of construction there were around 5,000 labourers on site at one time, he says.