Article tools: Share:

Tilt-Up Education at Big-05, Kuwait

Big-05

By: Mohamed Zaid, CEng. M. ASCE, Senior Structural Engineer, Associate member – ACI-551 / ACI-423

The Big-05 exhibition is an event that is held annually in Kuwait and many other cities around the world. The event attracts architects, engineers, interior designers and other key buyers.

The Big-05 includes CPD (Continuing professional development) certified workshops, and on of these workshops, covering tilt-up concrete construction, was held on Sep.15, 2015. The workshop was presented by Mr. Mohamed Zaid (Design Manager) and was reviewed by Tilt-Up Concrete Association (TCA) technical director, James Baty. A portion of the material based on “The Architecture of Tilt-Up” was supplied by the TCA.

The presentation held previously to construction professionals in Dubai – November 2014, where attendees have a good back ground on precast concrete, compared to what is observed in Kuwait city that almost except two of the attendees didn’t work closely with precast concrete and never heard of tilt-up construction as one of the choices in the construction field, the raised question on compilation of the project referred to consultants that wanted to know more about the tilt-up, they were specific about their interest to try the tilt-up concrete in their project starting from boundary walls that can be made of tilt-up (precast on site) as a trail to compare the cost and time cycle, a discussion after the presentation was held on the panels weight that may go for and again surprisingly the length of the boundary wall that expected they can for according to their crane capacities at site for a boundary wall with 4.00 meters height measured from higher level road was 20 meters and weight of 24.00 tons, where the panels as proposed in precast divided each five meters noted the difference in time cycle of the construction and less joints appears in the boundary walls elevation. However, still that proposed trail isn’t the best out of tilt-up since as noted the panels weight would be up to 100 tons, but however they would consider the tilt-up in their projects if succeeded in the first trail with boundary walls.

Big-05

The audiences were able to identify the differences between the precast and tilt-up concrete as they recognized that they will have to go for a trail at site to have their own experience about the construction method, expecting more communication with TCA to gain more knowledge about the design, detailing and construction of the tilt-up.

Kuwait compared to Saudi Arabia don’t face a challenge of logistics for the area is served can’t be compared, referring to number of precast factories that exist in Kuwait, the ability to supply the products as per demanded by the contractors is limited, most of the projects as observed rely on the precast hollow core slabs as the only element to purchase to help the project, faster production of the hollow core slab is the only advantage they gained from precast concrete, tilt-up construction

The key points discussed during the workshop were as follows.

  • The maximum weight of the panels that can be cast at one time using tilt-up compared to precast concrete construction
  • Panel dimensions compared to precast concrete
  • Minimum panel thicknesses according to ACI-318 compared to ACI-551
  • Skilled labor requirements for tilt-up
  • Connections between elements and the similarities between precast and tilt-up

POST WORKSHOP FEEDBACK

“I will be happy to introduce more to our clients about the tilt-up as we’ve never heard of it “ Mr. Mohd Ali – Oil&Gas Field

“We will go for a trail boundary wall to have both construction system compared and surely we can understand the benefits that we will gain from the tilt-up, if so we will go for it for any further project” – Mr. Moh’d Hamed, Main contractor

Leave A Comment

Get Connected

Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Connect with us on LinkedIn
Subscribe to us on YouTube

Archives

About us

TILT-UP TODAY, a publication of the Tilt-Up Concrete Association, is THE source for Tilt-Up industry news, market intelligence, business strategies, technical solutions, product information, and other resources for professionals in the Tilt-Up industry. A subscription to TILT-UP TODAY is included in a TCA membership. Subscriptions for potential TCA members are also available. If you would like to receive a complimentary subscription to the publication, please contact the TCA.