Le Mottee Group is very proud to be associated with the Burj Dubai which, when completed, will be the Worlds Tallest Building.
A Little History behind our Involvement.
Prior to June 2004, the tallest buildings in the world were the twin towers in Malaysia that are formally known as the Petronas Twin Towers. These buildings were built by two contractors; one a Korean company known as Samsung Engineering and one a Japanese Company. The towers were completed in 1996 and stand 452 metres high. Ian Sparks was the Surveyor in charge of all aspects of surveying for Samsung Engineering which was contracted to build ‘Tower 2’ and the ‘Skybridge’.
Of particular interest, due to the difficulty involved, is the structure known as the “Skybridge” that can be seen in the photo below. The trick was that the two towers were built by separate contractors and to ensure that the bearing points were correctly installed Ian had to check the construction of the other contractor which, given the fact these two monoliths were set out by two differnt surveyors speaking two differnt languages using differnt survey techniques was always going to be intersting. The “Skybridge” is some 175 metres up in the air and the two towers move and sway independently of each other so the complexities of getting the thing built and then into place were substantial and in all likelihood had never been faced before. For the record the centre of the “Skybridge” lies within 20mm of the centre point between the two towers when there are no external influences.
Upon completion of that project Ian returned to Australia where he took up positions with Mepstead and Associates in Sydney and subsequently Le Mottee Group.
In June 2004 a rival Company to Samsung completed a building known as Taipei 101 which, as the name suggests, is in Taipei and stands 508 metres high. However, unknown to that rival Company the Samsung Corporation were already well advanced with plans to build a new tower in Dubai known as the Burj Dubai that will stand in excess of an incredible 700 metres high. That is over 40% taller than Taipei 101. Research has shown that there has not been a single case in history where an engineering milestone has been surpassed by such a percentage in one step.
The Samsung Corporation did not hesitate to contact Ian to seek his involvement once again. Ian explained that he was now part of an Australian Company and a contract between that Company and the Samsung Corporation was prepared and subsequently executed. Accordingly, Ian has been travelling to Dubai for about 10 days every three months to oversee the project. His role is slightly different this time in as much as he is obviously not there to actually set out each progressive floor but after initially writing the procedures for the project, establishing control all around the site and hiring the onsite surveyors he now attends the site to discuss technical matters and provide quality assurance.
There can be no doubt that Ian’s reputation in the international construction industry is first class and this has enhanced the image of Australian Surveyors in the eyes of the international community and Le Mottee Group is proud of him and his work and grateful for the additional expertise he brings to the Company.
The building is well under way as can be seen in the photos below:
