Convrgnt Value Engineering, a well-diversified contracting enterprise specialising in fast-track design and build solutions, undertook the South podium structure on behalf of the main contractor Nasa Multiplex/Al Futtaim Tarmac joint venture.

The company believes in delivering quality and profitability on time to its clients and as a result completed the project 54 days ahead of the main contractor's target schedule. It started work in May 2002 and completed the structure by the end of March this year.
Emaar's development at the Dubai Marina Phase 1 has a podium with almost 1,700 car parking bays and extensive landscaping, 64 villas and six residential high-rise towers. The podium is a two-storey structure, with two-way spanning slabs for carrying vehicular traffic and the ground level villas. The slabs vary in thickness from 200 mm to 450 mm, heights from 3 m to 12 m and with load-bearing beams up to 2 m deep.
Convrgnt expended 715,000 man-hours in the process, with zero fatalities and an accident frequency ratio of 0.14. The project peaked with 400 men on site with 1,250 cu m of concrete being poured. The podium structure was of type F2 cast-insitu reinforced concrete construction with more than 3,000 tonnes of reinforcement and 28,000 cu m of concrete being placed, using RMD Kwikstage falsework system.
Convrgnt Value Engineering was founded in the UAE more than 25 years ago. In response to the rapid growth in demand for building procurement through design and build, the company has built an integrated professional team comprising architects, engineers and project managers - each with extensive work experience in the UAE.
In addition to meeting a client's particular requirements, the firm tailors each design to meet specific constraints relating to time and budget, following a rigorous scheme evaluation in terms of cost-effectiveness buildability and the construction schedule (value engineering).