(CNN) -- Dubai -- long champion of all things biggest, longest and most
expensive -- will soon have some competition from neighboring Saudi
Arabia.
Dubai's iconic Burj Khalifa -- the world's tallest building
-- could be stripped of its Guinness title if Saudi Arabia succeeds
in its plans to construct the even larger Kingdom Tower in Jeddah -- a prospect
looking more likely as work begins next week, according to Construction
Weekly.
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For buildings of this stature, wind load could also put
stress on the structure. To battle this, the design of the structure will
change every few floors.
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It is expected construction of the tower will require 5.7
million square-feet of concrete and 80,000 tons of steel.
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Consultants Advanced Construction Technology Services (ACTS)
have recently announced testing materials to build the 3,280-feet (one
kilometer) skyscraper (the Burj Khalifa, by comparison, stands at a meeker
2,716-feet, or 827 meters).
The Kingdom Tower, estimated to cost $1.23 billion, would
have 200 floors and overlook the Red Sea. Building it will require about 5.7
million square-feet of concrete, and 80,000 tons of steel, according to
the Saudi Gazette.
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There are plans for a 98-feet sky terrace on the 157th
floor. When completed, it will be the highest terrace in the world.
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The structure will overlook the Red Sea -- posing additional
challenges to the building process. It's particularly important that the
foundations -- 200 feet deep -- won't be affected by saltwater from the ocean.
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Wind load is another issue for buildings of this magnitude.
To counter this challenge, the tower will change shape regularly.
"Because it changes shape every few floors, the wind
loads go round the building and won't be as extreme as on a really solid
block," Gordon Gill explained to Construction Weekly. Gill is a
partner at Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the design architects
for the project.
Delivering the concrete to higher floors will also be a
challenge. Possibly, engineers could use similar methods to those employed when
building the Burj Khalifa; six million cubic feet of concrete were pushed
through a single pump, usually at night to ensure the temperatures were low
enough to ensure it would set.
Though ambitious, building the Kingdom Tower should be
feasible, according to Dr. Sang Dae Kim, the director of the Council on Tall
Buildings.
"At this point in time we can build a tower that is one
kilometer, maybe two kilometers. Any higher than that and we will have to do a
lot of homework," he told Construction Weekly.
