The Asian Games has created a building boom in Qatar. As many as 40,000 athletes and entourages are expected in the city of Doha during the three weeks of the games in December 2006.
The Al Jazeera Tower will be a five-star hotel being purpose built for the Games. As the construction work on this $41million project started as late as March 2005, the time scheduled for the erection and completion is tight.
The new hotel building has a footprint of just 30 x 30m. The complete overall site is not much bigger. The hotel building will have two basement floors, a ground floor and 36 other floors. The work by February 2006 had progressed to the 10th floor.
Mr D Loganathan, plant and machinery manager at Larsen & Toubro Qatar LLC said: “The jobsite is very cramped which is why an internally located floor climbing crane saves valuable space.”
He added: “We have chosen the Liebherr self climbing unit as it also saves on erection costs and a lot of time-consuming operations on the ground.”
The crane has a cross-section of just 1.9m and is therefore particularly suited for operations in narrow shafts. It is being lifted 12m every two weeks.
The 132 EC-H 8, delivered by local Liebherr dealer Inma Co Qatar LLC, has a final hook height of 178m.
A 25-year-old Liebherr unit also working on this site is still performing well with minimum breakdowns. “It is virtually maintenance free,” Loganathan stated.
