Skip to main content

RMD formwork for Qatar’s tallest bridge on Doha East Corridor

RMD Kwikform will be supplying tens of thousands of tonnes of its formwork and shoring for construction of Qatar’s tallest bridge on the Doha East Corridor project As well as the bridge, the Corridor contract comprises four interchanges at a total cost of US$612.5 million. Ashghal, Qatar's Public Works Authority, awarded the Corridor project to China Harbour Engineering Design and Construction. Built as a five-lane 11km bypass in Doha, the capital of Qatar, the project will also cater for a rail line
July 6, 2016 Read time: 3 mins
RMD Kwikform will be supplying tens of thousands of tonnes of its formwork and shoring for construction of Qatar’s tallest bridge on the Doha East Corridor project

As well as the bridge, the Corridor contract comprises four interchanges at a total cost of US$612.5 million. Ashghal, Qatar's Public Works Authority, awarded the Corridor project to China Harbour Engineering Design and Construction.

Built as a five-lane 11km bypass in Doha, the capital of Qatar, the project will also cater for a rail line into the city. This will connect with the China Harbour Metro Bridge and intersect with the southern elevated red-line railway.

The largest of the six bridges reaches up to a height of 33m and a length of 840m. The site-team required a formwork solution that was both flexible and capable of withstanding concrete loading pressures.

Varying heights and cambers on the interchange sections required RMD Kwikform to employ its Rapidshor formwork system to create birdcage-interlocked structures to support the construction. Rapidshor shoring was also integrated with steel Superslim Soldiers and GTX timber beams to form the shape of the interchange structures. As part of the formwork design, RMD Kwikform also developed safe access and egress solutions to support the site teams and shift patterns, in addition to the design of special steel pier formwork.

“From a technical perspective, the engineering solution needed to accommodate the clover leaf shape of the interchanges,” said China Harbour health safety and environment manager Eamonn Toland. “From a design perspective we also had to consider the positioning of tower cranes onsite and the integration of the phased lifting process.  

“Equally we spent some time with the RMD Kwikform team designing the access towers for the structures, landing platforms and rest areas for the site. When it came to training and support, we had onsite supervisory support from RMD Kwikform who trained the erection teams and were also responsible for signing off the completed formwork arrangement, working closely with our safety and structural engineers.”

RMD Kwikform provided the China Harbour team with logistical support to meet the challenging timeframe of the project, as Keith Palmer, business development manager of RMD Kwikform explained. “With so much equipment required for the project, we had to coordinate delivery to site to match the sequencing of the erection phases. This involved a large amount of truck movements and organisation from our local yard with some equipment also sourced from other parts of the RMD Kwikform global businesses.

“When it came to the special steel pier formwork, we were also able to design, fabricate and supply these units to the site in less than 12 weeks, helping to keep the project on programme,” said Palmer.

Once complete the project will help to relieve congestion from the capital of Doha, providing much needed relief to the inner city road network. n

Related Content

  • Bentley’s Be Inspired Awards highlight innovation in software use
    January 6, 2015
    Innovation, from design to on-site execution, is alive and well, thanks to a good helping of software application. David Arminas reports from software developer Bentley’s annual global conference, held this year in London Successful project delivery is increasingly about hard men and women using software to get the job done and this year’s global conference in London by US-based software developer Bentley highlighted some innovative - and startling - examples. As usual, the Year in Infrastructure 2014
  • Poetry in motion
    August 9, 2018
    A heavy-lift operation by Roll-iT using Enerpac equipment delivered a bridge deck - with a poem engraved on the underside - to Antwerp’s old harbour Only when the deck of the new Londenbrug Bridge is raised do travellers see the poem by Antwerp poet Stijn Vranken. It is written large on the underside of the 300tonne prefabricated steel deck. People waiting for a ship to pass the raised bridge now contemplate the poem’s message about ships transporting goods and people to and from the four corners of the
  • PPRS: the positive side of structural failures
    March 27, 2018
    You learn from your failures, not your successes. That was the overall message for delegates during the day-two morning session on the impact of engineering structural failures. These lessons are also too often “painful”, said Anne-Marie Leclerq, deputy minister for infrastructure within the ministry of transport for the Canadian province of Quebec. On September 30, 2006, a span of the six-lane Concorde Bridge in Laval, near Montreal, collapsed crushing to death five people and injuring six. Only recently
  • Guiding hand from Pexco
    February 9, 2012
    A lane separation system from Pexco is guiding more than 6,000 vehicles each day through changing traffic patterns.