22/04/2010
Record-breaking Concrete Pour at The Shard
BASF Construction Chemicals (UK)’s Admixtures division has played its part in history as a new record for the largest UK continuous concrete pour was achieved this April at The Shard in London.
The Shard is a futuristic, inspirational mixed use urban village concept tower designed by architect Renzo Piano. Adjacent to London's busiest strategic transport hub at London Bridge, the Shard will become the tallest building in Western Europe, standing at 310 m.
The structure’s core is slipformed in reinforced concrete and is progressing at an impressive rate of three metres a day while the basement levels are being built top down simultaneously.
Subcontractor Byrne Bros was appointed by main contractor MACE to carry out the concrete substructure and superstructure works in a contract worth more than £50 million. BASF Construction Chemicals has been working with technical consultant OTB Engineering to supply admixtures for the concrete from supplier London Concrete being used in the structure’s concrete core and basement levels to ensure consistent strength, quality and speed of cure.
The record-breaking concrete pour started at 5pm on Friday 16th April and went on till 4am on Sunday 18th April. The programmed time had been 36 hours for 5000 m3 of concrete, using four concrete pumps. The actual placement time for 5480 m3 was 35 hours, beating the schedule both on time and volume.
The total volume of BASF admixtures used in the pour was 11,000 litres of Glenium® Sky 569 and 5000 litres of Pozzolith® 100 XR.
Previously, the UK’s largest continuous concrete pour from a ready mix supplier was 4800 m3 (at the new Wembley Stadium).
Said Brian Williams, Southern Regional Sales Manager for BASF’s UK Admixtures business: “We worked with OTB to engineer new product Glenium® SKY 569 with this project in mind. Key requirements were quality of finish and speed of cure to support fast-track working without sacrificing other performance properties.”
Glenium® SKY 569 is based on BASF’s Total Performance Control™ concept, developed to ensure that ready-mix producers, contractors and engineers get a concrete of the same high quality as originally specified, starting from production at the batching plant, to delivery and application into place, and followed by the hardening process. Utilizing Rheodynamic™ concrete technology, it provides a concrete mix with exceptional placing characteristics and accelerated cement hydration for early strength development and high-quality concrete.