Just-in-time

Covering 65000 M² when complete the arena plaza, budapest, hungary will notonly be the country's biggest shopping centre but also one of the largest in the CEE with over 200 shops and 22 cinemas. Construction will also have consumed more than 53000 m³ of concrete.

The contracting JV of Epszerk-Pannonia Invest, Bajer and Zsigrai es Tarsa is using several different Doka formwork solutions, including Framax Xlife, Dokaflex and Staxo load-bearing towers to complete over 200000 m³ of slabs and walls, presenting some interesting logistical problems on site. The solution was “just in time delivery”.

The central formwork/engineering challenge was the casting of three double ellipses with in-situ concrete. Designed as skylights for the shopping concourse, they are up to 30 m in diameter. Some 3900 Staxo frames served as the falsework, while the sidewall formwork used bespoke formwork, which gave a maximum deviation from the skylights projected size of just 5 mm.

The tower units were pre-assembled on their sides at ground level. Then stacked on top of one another by crane, making it possible to carry out the works in a cost-effective way, despite the huge quantities needed said construction manager Laszlo Fentös.

The skylights rest on 10 slender, rectangular columns. Casting these used Framax Xlife Universal panels. Adjusting these in a 50 mm incremental grid permitted optimum forming of the required column cross section, and dispensed with the need for a separate column formwork system. This in turn, said Mr Fentös, reduced rental costs and site logistics.

Elsewhere, the 25 m high walls of the cinema complex used Doka's MF 240 climbing units and Top 50 large-area formwork for 6 m high castings.