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Slipforming helps Treasury Holdings get to 15 storeys in 20 days at Grand Canal Dock

The construction team at one of Dublin's tallest buildings at Grand Canal Dock took just four and a half weeks to get to the necessary 15 storeys with the help of  concrete slipforming, according to the project team last month.

"Construction was 4 and half weeks and part of that was finishing and preparing so essentially 20 days top to bottom. They were roughly doing three and half metres of lift per day," said Derek Nolan, director of development at Treasury Holdings. "It took three weeks to put the slipform together and it will take another two weeks to dismantle it- this is the platform they base the whole thing around which lifts itself up around the core." As of last month the construction partnership between Sisk and Treasury have completed out the central core, checking every line and level due to the extreme tolerances in terms of its vertical line. The slipforming process also allows them to self-correct as they go. The team consisted of 12 steel fixers and a foreman, 12 carpenters and a foreman, an operator and an engineer for the slipform jacking and then five concrete crew for the pouring and 4 concrete finishers who follow on and make sure everything is to spec. The speed and teamwork on the slipforming has brought a new focus to the whole project, says Nolan. "It's a great motivator to have a technique like this on site because it really does raise the bar in terms of the other trades - the steelwork, the slabs. It's brings a performance element to proceedings and we're looking for the same elsewhere." At a management level there are 4 setting out and supervision engineers, he adds.

Although the slipforming technique is relatively new to Ireland, Nolan believes there will be an increasing number of opportunities for its use as taller buildings in tight innercity sites become a reality. "It has to be a fairly simple building, it could be multiple cores but it has to be fairly simple plan layout and the height. There are a number of taller buildings — nothing like CanaryWharf or New York standards — hopefully there will be opportunities in the future to take advantage of taller buildings perhaps in the Docklands. Generally the bigger contractors here are up to speed (on new processes), its just a case of them being able to put them into play if the opportunities are there."

The 15 story office tower has been designed by international architects DEGW and O'Mahony Pike, working in close co-operation with the DDDA Architectural team. It will provide over 200,000 sq.ft of prime office space within a fully regenerated quarter of the city which forms the premier entrance to the South Docklands office environment. The 15 story development will extend some 60 metres above the Dock.