How the Tower Crane Helped Build the Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa is now the tallest and most established building in the world. From the initial designing of the building back in 2004 to the finished product when it was finally opened in 2010, so much thought, effort and manual labour had to be considered when building this magnificent structure. From the concrete foundations to the steeple at the top, the building stands at precisely 830m or 2716.5 feet. Just to give you some perspective, another large building you will be familiar with is the Empire State Building, which stands at381m (1250 feet). The Burj Khalifa is the 21st century’s eighth wonder of the world and has set many records in architectural affluence.

The backbone behind this amazement is a lot of man-hours. 22 million hours to be exact. This involved 60 different contracting and consulting companies with the help of 12,000 workers every day for 6 years to help contribute to the construction of the building. With the collaboration of assistance and aid of the tower crane, 163 floors; 58 lifts ( which run speed of 10 metres per second) 304 hotels and 900 apartments were assembled within the building.

How Cranes Helped Build The Burj Khalifa

Without the help and source of the tower crane, or tower crane(s) and other high-level cranes, none of this work would ever have been possible. The machines were working 24 hours for the majority of the production, with about 35 machine workers operating them around the clock. The loads on the cranes normally consisted of holding heavy steels; welding and scaffolding equipment. Diesel was also carried to help power the tower crane.

The assembling of the tower crane was pretty straight forward, as this required sections of the crane being moved up to a higher level. However, the dismantling of these cranes was not as smooth running. The first crane was lowered in 2007, another the year after, leaving one prominent crane stuck at the top. This left people wondering if this would be achievable to dismantle and descend. Another smaller crane was sent up to support and dismantle some aspects, then lowered. The last few components of the crane were dismantled automatically and independently. The disassembling process of the Burj Khalifa had to be an organised and well-formulated operation for everything to run as smoothly as possible.

The Burj Khalifa is the monarch of all architecture projects and nothing like we have ever seen before. This is and will continue to be a dazzling asset to the United Arab Emirates… until the next big skyscraper is designed (with of course the help of many different cranes.)

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