Leading formwork and falsework specialist RMD Kwikform UAE has delivered an extensive range of solutions for the construction of the world’s largest shopping mall – the Dubai Mall.

The development, which is the largest single building project in its portfolio is situated in the shadow of the Burj Dubai – which will soon become the world’s tallest building. The mall is being built by a partnership of Dutco Balfour Beatty and Al Ghandi Consolidated Contractors Company joint venture (AGCCCJV) and is scheduled for completion by April next year. The main framework of the mall will be constructed using formwork and falsework from RMD Kwikform UAE.
Housing hundreds of shops, an indoor ice rink, the largest shopping mall aquarium in the world and more than 14,000 car parking spaces, the four-storey project will have a footprint area of 350,000 sq m.
Commenting on the company’s involvement in the development, RMD Kwikform UAE project manager Andy Teesdale says: “This project is the perfect example of how our product range can be used and combined to construct such a vast structure. We have a whole range of equipment on site including Kwikstage propping, Alshor Plus, Rapidshor, Superslim Soldiers, GTX timber beams and Alsec aluminium beams, Rapidclimb and Megashor. In total, we have approximately 14,000 tonnes of equipment on-site, consisting of more than 130,000 sq m of slab and beam support and around 20,000 sq m of wall formwork.”
With RMD Kwikform equipment first arriving on-site in December 2004, the last concrete pour – which is scheduled for April next year – will represent a formwork and falsework programme completion time of just 28 months, for a project that will use more than 650,000 cu m of concrete to create the final structure.
Given the varying wall heights and slab sizes used for the construction of the Dubai Mall, RMD Kwikform UAE engineers worked with Dutco Balfour Beatty and AGCCCJV to design formwork and falsework solutions that met both the requirements for flexibility and ease of use and the tight programme time constraints dictated by the project.
“As a global business, we are able to call upon a high level of engineering experience, both from a technical and practical on-site perspective. Having worked in the UAE for a number of years, we also have the local knowledge and skills that are so important when dealing with any project. With the Dubai Mall, in addition to calling upon technical expertise from our specialist teams across the globe, we also compiled a team of five engineers and two full-time site demonstrators and inspectors to manage the project. Our engineering team is responsible for the design of all formwork and falsework on-site, whilst the demonstrators and inspectors train operatives in the assembly of equipment and monitoring of quality throughout the process,” adds Teesdale.
In addition to the RMD Kwikform UAE range of products, bespoke steel fabricated column formwork was also manufactured and delivered to site in December 2004, to enable work to commence prior to the main delivery of Alshor Plus tables and Kwikstage shoring in February last year. Used to support beams up to 700 mm deep and in-situ concrete slabs of up to 350 mm in thickness, the Alshor Plus tables combine with Superslim Soldier primary beams and GTX secondary beams throughout the main mall areas to support slab heights ranging from 6 m to 9 m.
For the larger bespoke and more individual areas of formwork and falsework, including 1.5-m-deep beams and complex radial slabs and beams, Kwikstage shoring will be used. Similarly, for the culverts and trenches that extend a total length of 1.5 km, mobile Kwikstage tables will be constructed to reduce the time taken for formwork to be erected and dismantled.
Elaborating further, Teesdale says: “The flexibility of Kwikstage shoring really came into its own within the design for the Carnival and Galleria car parks. Here, Kwikstage tables were designed to support both precast slabs and in-situ concrete beams, a task that required complex design work to model the loads implied by both the precast slabs and in-situ reinforced concrete beams, in order to make sure the overall Kwikstage table construction could withstand the pressures.
“To tackle the high pressure and loads factor, the design of the mall aquarium called for the use of RMD Kwikform’s heavy-duty Rapidshor shoring system to support the aquarium’s huge reinforced concrete beams – one of which is up to 14 m deep, 1 m wide and 30 m long.
“In the final stages of the construction of the aquarium’s roof slab, Rapidshor will be removed with the 14 m deep beam back-propped using a 1,000 kN leg capacity Megashor System at 1 m centres. Back-propping the beam ensures that zero deflection occurs within the deep beam before the construction of the roof slab takes place. In order to achieve this, each individual prop will be constructed to a height of 7 m with an axial capacity of 500 kN.
“In addition, a variety of shear and culvert walls were formed using Alsec beam and Superslim Soldier formwork, which were also employed for stair and elevator cores. For the largest shear reinforced concrete wall, measuring 35 m high and 50 m long – used to form part of the Carnival car-park area – a Rapidclimb climbing formwork system was designed to enable the whole construction to be formed in one smooth operation.”
For such a large project, it is important to be able to breakdown a structure into its individual components and look ahead to see where equipment will be needed, Teesdale points out.
“By having a team of engineers and full-time staff on-site, we were able to deliver practical solutions to each individual element of the project. One clear example of this was the design and manufacture of a rough-terrain Alshor Plus wheel unit. This was specially manufactured to enable easy movement of the Alshor Plus tables over uneven sandy ground, due to the foundations slabs not being constructed prior to forming the floor slabs above. In itself, this small addition delivered substantial time savings,” he comments.
Located at Sheikh Zayed Road, the Dubai Mall is slated to open for business in the final quarter of next year.