On Sunday, the Saudi government released a statement saying Jeddah Economic Company and Saudi Arabia’s Alinma Investment signed a financing deal for $2.2 billion to build Jeddah City, which includes the tower.
When the tower is built it will stand at 3,280 feet. It is expected to be completed in 2020, and the first 26 floors have already been built.
Mounib Hammoud, Chief Executive Officer of Jeddah Economic Company, said the deal will help fulfill the company’s goal of building a world-class urban center that offers an advanced lifestyle. He added it will allow Jeddah to have a landmark that will draw people from all walks of society.
The tower was previously named Kingdom Tower, and when it is finished being built it will have 200 floors. More than 80,000 tons of steel and about 5.5 million square feet of concrete is required for constructing the tower.
It will overlook the Red Sea, but the saltwater could potentially damage it — building the tower is no easy feat. The foundations will need to be built in a way to withstand saltwater, and this is why Advanced Construction Technology Services will test various concretes.
The shape of the tower will change regularly because it will need to counter the challenge of wind load, which is a common issue for buildings such as the Jeddah Tower.
Another challenge is delivering the concrete to higher floors. Engineers may use similar tactics that were used when Burj Khalifa was being built. One method used was pushing 6 million cubic feet of concrete through a single pump and this was done at night because it ensured the concrete would set.
Sang Dae Kim, the director of the Council on Tall Buildings, said building the tower should be feasible, and at this point in time a tower as high as 6,560-feet could be built, but any taller than that, a lot of homework would have to be done.
