HAVING completed work two weeks ahead of schedule on the landmark Hazaa Bin Zayed stadium, which opened earlier this year, Bam International is pressing ahead with the other components of the stadium and mixed-use complex project in Al Ain, UAE.

The contracting company has been using Meva’s formwork to undertake the civil and infrastructure works on the prestigious project that spreads over an area of 500,000 sq m in the Abu Dhabi emirate.

The project includes the 25,000-seat football stadium, sports centre, commercial centre, a community with 700 residential units in a complex of apartments and green spaces, two office buildings covering 20,000 sq m and a chain of 50 restaurants and retail outlets plus a 172-room five-star hotel.

Bam has been relying on Meva’s formwork engineering team to come up with solutions for the complex, technically demanding and logistically challenging job.

“It’s running smoothly and both contractor and developer are satisfied with the progress,” says Joe Farina, Meva general manager, who heads Meva KHK operations in Dubai, UAE.

The stadium, one of the most modern facilities of its kind in the Middle East, opened early this year and is the new home for the famous Al Ain Football Club.

The contractor used the heavy-duty Mammut 350 wall formwork for constructing the stadium’s 18.8-m-high and 43-m-long walls. Some 1,820 sq m of the formwork was used to pour the walls.

“The Mammut 350 is ideal for large and high walls. Supporting fresh concrete pressures up to 100 kN per sq m, it allows any pour speed up to a height of 4 m,” says Farina.

MevaDec was used for fast pours.

The MevaDec slab formwork system was used to pour the 32-cm-thick slabs at heights of over 4 m. The cycles of 2,150 sq m were planned and carried out in a way that pouring was fast and without interruptions.

“The system’s drop heads allow for early stripping and fast material relocation. When the slab had set enough for early stripping, the panels and beams were removed and used for the next cycle. Only some props were left for reshoring until the slab had completely set. Early stripping saves 40 per cent of material and allows cycles of only three days per slab,” Farina explains.

For efficient column pours, the contractor used the CaroFalt column formwork system. This is a foldable and movable system with an access platform, integrated ladders and safety cages and complies with all valid safety standards. It consists of four identical panels with articulated links which are assembled like a windmill. Different and varying column section dimensions – from square to rectangular – ranging from 20 cm to 60 cm on each wing were easy to set via the 5-cm notches on the setting rail. Once attached, all accessories remain in their position. This way, the access platform and ladder do not have to be assembled and disassembled again and again, Farina points out.

Meva KHK developed and optimised the formwork plans together with Bam International. The concrete works on the stadium and the shopping centre were completed in only 18 weeks, and not in 20 as planned.

“Saving time was only possible thanks to Meva’s excellent support all the way from planning the job until finishing it,” says the Bam project management team.

All Meva formwork systems are equipped with the all­-plastic facing alkus. While nailable like wood, alkus does not absorb water or leave colour stains on the concrete. “The all­-plastic facing constantly delivers the same top concrete surface quality no matter how often it has been used. The alkus can be repaired with identical material and makes refacing, waste and costly disposal of toxic material a thing of the past. What’s more, alkus needs much less release agent than plywood or other facings require,” Farina points out.