Large areas shored quickly and safely with Staxo 40

With a view to the future, Dubai has been working hard to diversify its economic base. One focus of investment activity is in expanding the emirate’s tertiary and postgraduate educational provision. A recent example is the first phase of construction work on the Manipal University Science & Technology Campus in the renowned Dubai International Academic City. This architecturally discerning complex of buildings is characterised by cantilevering floor slabs, by atria that extend across three storey levels, and by a spacious terraced storey. To help it accomplish these technically demanding construction tasks, contractors Sobha Contracting LLC are relying on the formwork expertise of Doka and the benefits of its new Load-bearing tower Staxo 40 system.

Up to 50 percent time-savings for more efficient forming operations

Due to the narrow time-window allowed for shell construction, and to the large area of slab to be formed on each storey, substantial quantities of equipment are in use on this major project. A total of 8000 m² of the highly adaptable Dokaflex 1-2-4 floor-slab formwork and some 3600 Staxo 40 load-bearing tower frames are in service here for casting the curving slab floors. Thanks to the low frame weight, of just 15 to 24 kg, the small number of separate components and the logical assembly sequence, the site crew are achieving much shorter set-up times with Staxo 40 than with conventional cuplock systems. Time-and-motion studies on the site have measured time-savings of up to 80 percent – a crucial advantage when it comes to shoring large areas of slab efficiently. V.K. Prasad, Project Manager at Sobha Contracting LLC, gives this testimony to the powerful performance of Staxo 40 on the site: “Before, with other systems, we had too many small parts and the chance of losing them or not assembling them properly was higher. But here it has all been made with a minimum number of components so safety-wise it’s much more reliable, and it is more economical. The system concept is so straightforward that after a short training session from the Doka Formwork Instructor, our crew were immediately able to erect the shoring towers correctly and above all quickly.”

Safety right down to the last detail

Site Management were also convinced by the system’s high standard of safety, with its tested anchorage points for personal fall arrest systems, integrated safety catches for fixing the diagonal crosses, sturdy ladderways and the facility for creating gapless planking decks. Thanks to the use of the finite-element method in the constructional design process, Staxo 40 also excels for its combination of high stability and reduced frame weight. This enables the system to deal safely with the large shoring-heights of up to 12 metres encountered in the building of the Manipal University Dubai Campus.