The process of ‘de-propping’ the centerpiece, a curved roof, of Abu Dhabi Airports’ Midfield Terminal Building (MTB), has begun.
The roof will give the impression that the structure is floating on 18 steel arches.
In this first of nine de-props, a team of 45 specialists, with 60 hydraulic jacks, systematically removed 30 temporary supports used for constructing the roof element, in one of the most complex engineering feats of the multi-billion dollar infrastructure project.
The supporting structure for the MTB central roof consists of 18 inclined arches of varying heights, and a roof grillage, in total weighing around 20,000 metric tons.
By completing the de-propping process by February 2016, the roof will be a free-standing structure, floating above 18 mega-arches, which will feature the world’s longest indoor arch spanning 180 metres, 52 metres high, and weighing around 1,000 metric tons.
Commenting on the occassion, Ali Majed Al Mansoori, chairman of Abu Dhabi Airports, said: “We are extremely proud to maintain our track record of achieving key construction milestones safely in spite of the project’s architectural complexity.
“Currently the whole project is 55% complete, and it is expected to be 70% complete by the end of 2015.
“We owe this tremendous success to our outstanding construction team, and the contractors for masterminding a cutting edge approach for this immensely complicated task,” Al Mansoori added.
MTB will have the capacity to handle 30 million passengers a year, state agency WAM reported.