Currie & Brown oversees work on Infinity Tower

Consultant Currie & Brown has overseen the continuous pouring of 7,000m³ of concrete to create the 3m thick basement raft slab, including 1,900 tonnes of steel reinforcement to support the twisting Infinity Tower under construction at Dubai Marina.

The firm is already project and cost manager on the £140m scheme for developer Cayan Investment and Development to build the world's tallest tower featuring a 90° twist. Each of the 75 floors of the residential apartment development will be rotated by 1.2° to achieve a full 90° spiral, creating the shape of a helix.

Over two days, 10 concrete placement pumps, 40 concrete mixer trucks, three concrete batching plants and a multinational site team of 500 worked in temperatures in excess of 40°C to complete the task.

The concrete was mixed with ice at the batching plants and delivered to site with a maximum temperature of 27°C.

Additives to the concrete included plasticiser/retarders, which produced a flowing concrete and a setting time of four hours. An extended setting time was essential to avoid cold joints in the slab. The concrete surface was finished with helicopter power floats and then covered with polystyrene insulation for the seven-day curing period.

Mark Taylor, Currie & Brown’s regional managing director for the Middle East & Central Asia, said: "Our dedicated team has ensured that, in conjunction with Cayan Investments and main contractors Arabtec Construction LLC, the significant challenge of this concrete pour has been met."

The building will be completed in 2010.