Safely to the highest heights

Park Central Towers grow into the Makati sky with MAC and MGS

The formwork design was closely coordinated by international MEVA teams in Singapore, the Philippines and Germany. The south tower has 69 floors, the smaller north tower 56, each most of them 3.15 m hgh. In addition to the MAC system (MEVA Automatic Climbing) and the rail-guided protection system MGS-H, the slab formwork MevaDec and wall formwork Mammut are being used. MDBI, a joint venture of Bouygues Batiment International and Makati Development Corp., knows these systems from many jobs and appreciates their efficiency, flexibility and safety. The project mainly uses material from MDBI‘s own stock, and as many parts as possible are to be reused for environmental and economic reasons.

Automatic climbing at great heights

The MAC allows both towers in Makati to grow rapidly, providing workers with a comfortable environment and protection from the elements. The system climbs, hydraulically and crane-independently, together with the wall formwork as a complete, fully enclosed unit. This optimises the construction process and is safer than systems with individually climbing platforms. The fact that work can be carried out on the wall and slab simultaneously also proves to be a major advantage in terms of efficiency and time savings. The suspended Mammut wall formwork can be moved by hand in three directions and precisely adjusted to the geometry of the structure. The elements can be retracted manually, ensuring that the formwork can be stripped quickly and easily. The upper platform provides plenty of working space, storage area and allows the integration of concrete placing booms. Small teams operate the automatic climbing system and from the trailing platforms, the bearing pockets that have just been used can be dismantled and used for new climbing stages. This reduces the material costs, as no lost build-in parts are left over in the concrete.

MGS-H: Seamless protection

Structural fixtures on the buildings required layout revisions, but that was no problem for the flexible rail-guided screen system MGS-H with freely selectable sizes of the units. They adapt to the shape of the building, enclose complete floors and fall edges without gaps, and maximise worker safety. The MGS-H remains permanently connected to the structure and can be attached to the slab and the wall. The screening is completely closed in with perforated or unperforated cladding sheets or with various fabrics. The system is firmly anchored to the building and windproof – not only in the working phase, but also in the lifting phase.

Quickly formed slabs with MevaDec

The over 1,000 m² slabs of the taller south tower of the Park Central Towers are being built with the lightweight, ergonomic MevaDec. The components are easy to clean due to their low concrete adhesion, so little time and resources are needed for this work. Another advantage is that MevaDec predefines the prop grid according to the system, so only the props that are really needed have to be provided and mounted.

MevaDec offers three slab-forming methods in one system. MDBI used the fast drop-head-beam-panel method for this project, where construction of each floor is subject to tight time constraints. It consists of only three components – panels, primary beams, and props with drop-heads. The panels can be freely inserted and slid into place, also passing over the drop heads, to ensure maximum flexibility and make MevaDec readily adaptable to any building geometry. Thanks to the drop head, the primary beams and panels are lowered by 19 cm with just a few hammer blows. This makes early stripping possible, thus allowing optimised material stock on the construction site as well as rapid construction progress. Thus, slabs can be completed in only three-day cycles.

Featured Products

• MAC automatic climbing system
• MGS-H screen system
• Mammut wall formwork
• MevaDec slab formwork

Project:
Park Central Towers, Makati, Philippines

Contractor:
MBDI Construction Corp., Manila, Philippines

Engineering & Support:
MEVA Singapore; MEVA Philippines; MEVA Germany