ABU DHABI, 30th August, 2015 (WAM) -- A major milestone has been reached in the construction of Abu Dhabi Airports? new Midfield Terminal Building, MTB, which will have the capacity to handle 30 million passengers a year. The process of 'de-propping' the centerpiece of the building, the curved roof, has begun, which will give the impression that the state-of-the-art looking 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, Ali Majed Al Mansoori, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Airports, said, "It is truly amazing to witness this great progress. 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 percent complete and it is expected to be 70 percent complete by the end of 2015. We owe this tremendous success to our outstanding construction team, the contractors and the Capital Projects and Construction Division, for masterminding a cutting edge approach for this immensely complicated task. The MTB?s presence on Abu Dhabi?s iconic skyline is reflective of our unwavering commitment towards the redevelopment of the Emirate?s aviation infrastructure."Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2015.
