Quality and what it involves - Doka

Quality and 

what it involves 

International Site Review 

1/2000 

Doka self-climbing formwork 

at the Verrieres viaduct.

Formwork News 1|2000 

2 

Quality and what it involves 

At the beginning of the 21 st century, 

the construction industry is confronted 

with fierce competition that obliges 

contractors to achieve the very maximum 

in performance, in an increasingly 

international environment. 

In this situation, the contractor more 

than ever needs a reliable formwork 

partner - one who will not only supply 

modern equipment, 

but also the knowhow 

about using this 

equipment in the most 

efficient way. With the 

ever-shorter construction 

periods allowed 

nowadays, it is more 

important than ever 

for the formwork 

Alfred Zimmermann equipment to be 

available quickly 

when it is needed and - where required - 

for formwork units to be delivered preassembled. 

For Doka, “Just in time” is 

quite the opposite of a hollow buzzword, 

but is an everyday working reality. 

For Doka, however, customer service 

does not finish when the goods are 

delivered. Far from it - for delivery 

simply marks the start of the after 

sales service which in many cases, 

particularly with more complex projects, 

can have a crucial influence on the 

profitability of the site. With its technical 

advisory services and detailed resource 

scheduling, Doka streamlines the 

client’s forming sequences and ensures 

that the formwork is used in the most 

cost-effective way. 

In addition, Doka can provide training 

for site personnel, and a comprehensive 

supervising-foreman service for the site. 

Here, an experienced Doka expert is on 

hand to supervise the site crew when 

they assemble and use the formwork 

for the first time, but also to help with 

any modifications that may be needed 

to the formwork. 

With its dependable formwork 

systems and comprehensive range of 

service offerings, Doka gives the building 

industry the tools it needs to get 

optimum forming results and a smooth, 

trouble-free construction sequence. 

Alfred Zimmermann 

Vice President Deutsche Doka 

Formwork Challenge 

on French Viaduct 

The 720 m Verrieres viaduct features a radius curve of 1800 m 

and has five supporting piers (P1 - P5), two large abutments 

and a bridge deck - which will be ‘pushed’ across the completed 

piers from one side of the valley. 

An impressive element of the Verrieres viaduct will be its 

supporting piers, particularly the two central piers P2 and P3 

which will both be 140 m high. To enhance the aesthetic 

appearance of the viaduct it has been designed such that all its 

piers have the same cross section at any given elevation. 

T 

wo sets of Doka self-climbing 

formwork totalling 750 m2 have 

been supplied for the project’s main 

joint venture contractor comprising 

Spie Batignolles, Razel, SOGEA, 

Dodin Sud and Victor Buyck. 

Piers P1, P4 and P5 are all conical 

in shape over their complete height, 

as are the top sections of P2 and P3. 

Where these two piers differ however 

is for the first 50 m with a 

parabola profile. Whilst certainly 

pleasing to the eye, according 

to Herwig Steininger, General 

Manager of Doka France, the design 

posed a few headaches for the 

formwork designer. 

“It was this complexity of design, 

working within a tight schedule with 

minimal production losses, and 

limited manpower that made the 

project so demanding and one of 

the most difficult to date,“ added 

Mr. Steininger. 

In order for the finished concrete 

to follow the parabolic profile, a 

formwork system was required 

where individual panels could be 

connected and packed securely to 

the overall support system. 

Designing the overall system at its 

headquarters in Amstetten, Austria, 

Doka incorporated as much 

preassembled componentry as 

possible, to ensure that both 

One of two 140 m high piers where 

Doka self-climbing formwork is used.

On completion of each four metre lift 

of concreting the Doka self-climbing 

formwork has to be adapted. 

Contents 

Doka know-how for Brazilian 

cable-stayed bridge 

T 

he Ponte St. Amaro railway 

bridge in São Paulo is Brazil’s - 

and Doka Brasil’s - second cablestayed 

suspension bridge. The 

Doka team came up with a formwork 

solution of convincing quality. 

For the 68.70 m tall tower, Doka 

climbing formwork 150 F with 

large-area formwork Top 50 is 

being used alternately with dam 

formwork. Above the 18 m mark, 

the casting steps (each 2.40 m) are 

executed without through-ties. The 

towers taper from 7.0 m x 2.0 m to 

5.5 m x 2.0 m. 

The 117.90 m long free-cantilevered 

section of the bridge superstructure 

is being cast in 6.50 m 

long sections formed using Doka 

Top 50. 

“When it comes to challenging 

projects in the field of transportation 

infrastructure, all paths lead to 

our door“, notes a satisfied Günter 

Leitner, Managing Director of Doka 

Brasil. ■ 

Contractors: OAS 

formwork systems could be adapted 

as quickly as possible. This was 

achieved by pre-planning all the 

changes required for the subsequent 

climb upwards. 

Herwig Steininger confirms, 

“The design process was extremely 

complex in order to ensure simple 

use of the system on-site“. 

According to project director 

Vincent Preysass, Doka undertook 

to guarantee lifting sections on the 

conical elements in three days. “In 

practice,“ he adds, “we have been 

achieving average cycles of just 

two days with a work force manpower 

of only nine people“. ■ 

Contractors: Spie Batignolles, Razel, SOGEA, 

Dodin Sud and Victor Buyck 

Page 

Piers and superstructure with Doka 4 

Difficult formwork assignment 

mastered with Doka 4 

“Climbed“ with Framax 5 

Economically and fast – with Framax 5 

Tunnel formwork à la carte 6 

Ahead of schedule with 

Doka systems 8 

Accelerated construction sequence 8 

270,000 m 2 of floor slabs 

with Dokaflex tables 9 

Successful reconstruction 

with Doka 9 

World site round-up 10 

Setting new standards in 

automatic climbing technology 12 


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4 

Shin Tanyang Bridge, Korea 

Piers and superstructure with Doka 

K 

orea’s new Central Highway will 

greatly improve the infrastructure 

of the east of the country. The 

motorway crosses mountain ranges 

and very many rivers. On the Shin 

Storda Bridge, Norway 

Tanyang Bridge, two of the four 

pairs of piers rise straight out of the 

water to a height of around 85 m. 

In collaboration with the selfclimbing 

specialists from Doka HQ 

in Amstetten, the project engineers 

from Kumkang Doka came up with 

an “all-in-one” formwork concept, 

including free cantilevering, for the 

whole bridge. 

The advantage for the customer: 

The individual construction 

sequences could be optimised, 

which also meant that the material 

was used in the most efficient way. 

The ingenious solution required 

only a small number of simple 

system elements. As the pairs of 

piers taper upwards conically, a 

telescoping shaft-platform solution 

with Top 50 formwork was 

developed for the inside formwork, 

which automatically adapts to the 

tapering cross-section. 

On the outside, the formwork 

was “climbed” without a crane, by 

SKE 50 automatic climbers. Here 

too, a telescoping platform solution 

was used to automatically adapt 

the formwork to the shorter crosssections. 

For the free cantilevering 

work, Kumkang Doka also delivered 

a total of 16 scaffold carriages 

as part of the deal. ■ 

Contractors: Dong Bu 

Difficult formwork assignment mastered with Doka 

T 

he high adaptability and ease of 

assembly of the Doka formwork 

were particularly appreciated by the 

contractors NCC Anlegg AS in the 

work on the superstructure of the 

Storda Bridge. 

The Doka superstructure formwork 

was made up of 66 preassembled 

5 m units, greatly 

facilitating the work of erecting and 

lifting the formwork. The Doka 

transport fork proved most useful 

here, as it made for very fast and 

easy handling of these assembly 

elements. ■ 

Contractors: NCC Anlegg AS

“Climbed“ 

with Framax 

T 

hree walls, each 120 m long and 

22 m high, with stiffening ribs at 

regular intervals, were constructed 

in a particularly efficient manner 

using climbing formwork MF 240 in 

conjunction with Framax. The formwork 

operations here were carried 

out for a warehouse in Metz, 

France, by BDW / Quillery. ■ 

Contractors: BDW / Quillery 

Economically and fast – with Framax 

O 

nly 2 months were available 

for the construction of the 

service-water reservoir and cleaning 

tank of Inchon Airport, Korea. 

One-third of the tank, which has a 

capacity of 16,200 m 2 of water, is 

criss-crossed by transversal bulkhead 

walls. 

3000 m 2 of Doka framed formwork 

Framax were used to form 

this 30 m x 90 m tank, with its 6 m 

tall outside walls. On schedule! ■ 

Contractors: Chang Il 


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6 

Tunnel formwork à la carte 

Rectangular tunnel being built at St. Anton-am-Arlberg railway station in 

Austria using the cut-and-cover method and unusual forming cycles. Of the 3 

load-bearing tower units with the straight slab-formwork elements, the ones on 

the outside are left standing as temporary shoring. 

An example of what the Swiss like about Holzco- 

Doka’s tunnel solutions: Here we see a portal 

carriage solution for the noise abatement gallery at 

Leutzigen, with a section length of a huge 20 m, a 

width of 11.70 m and attached tilting elements that 

add another 2 m to the width. The whole construction 

is lowered by 10 lowering wedges on each side, 

and moved ahead on 4 sets of heavy-duty rollers. 

A complete solution for a light-railway tunnel at 

Munich Airport: A Staxo load-bearing tower unit 

carries the cover-slab formwork, consisting of readyassembled 

elements of Doka wall formwork FF 20 

from which the side-wall formwork is suspended. 

After the tower-rows have been lowered, the fittingstrip 

has been removed and the outside towers have 

been drawn in towards the middle, the entire crosssection 

is moved ahead to the next section. 

M 

ore than with any other type of 

civil engineering project, it is 

tunnel construction sites whose 

success depends on the chosen 

formwork solution, from the point of 

view of both handling and 

efficiency. When the Doka Formwork 

Experts moved into the tunnelformwork 

field some 25 years ago, 

this was mainly dominated by the 

steel-formwork traveller, i.e. by 

special tunnel-forming machines. 

Doka’s idea was to introduce lowcost 

standard components from its 

wall and floor formwork ranges. 

Element-type wall formworks or 

even ready-assembled formworks, 

for example. Or falsework solutions 

from the Doka bridge-building range 

- and load-bearing tower units from 

Doka’s experience with heavy floor 

slabs. All these have the advantage 

that these formworks now start to 

pay off even after only a few times 

of use (i.e. forming-sections). Not 

just because these standard parts 

are in any case cheaper and easier 

to install, but also because of their 

high degree of reusability. 

At first, the cross-sectional adjustments 

were made using e.g. 

adapted steel walings. Later, special 

plates were used to bolt standard 

walings together as falsework to 

make portal frames. This has the 

advantage of leaving generous 

access openings for site traffic.

Then Doka engineers hit on the 

idea of placing supporting construction 

frames (as used in singlesided 

formwork) on their heads and 

using them as “pre-fabricated and 

ready-to-use“ load-bearing assemblies. 

For the tunnel roof and sidewall 

formwork, there is now a 

“collection“ of standardised struts 

for supporting the formwork and 

making the final shape adjustments. 

This principle also applies 

to the latest development: A complete 

portal-frame solution with Vshaped 

columns as a load-bearing 

unit. The result is a tunnel formwork 

which - depending on the 

type of superstructure it is completed 

with - can be used for both the 

cut-and-cover technique and the 

mining technique. Assembly by the 

“Doka Ready-to-Use Service“, i.e. 

pre-assembly of still-transportable 

units, means much lower assembly 

costs than would be the case for 

on-site assembly. 

All in all, these ideas - that is, 

putting together tunnel formworks 

“à la carte“ - make for optimum 

handling, with labour savings when 

it comes to plumbing and shifting. 

Not to mention the attractive material 

and assembly costs, which mean 

that the equipment pays off after 

only a very few consecutive uses! 

Another Doka development that 

favours larger assembly-units is the 

articulated connecting plate for 

polygonal linking of steel walings 

at exactly defined angles. This component 

makes it possible to accommodate 

any desired shape, and can 

be re-adjusted and re-used again 

and again. ■ 

The 110 m long Smecka Tunnel in 

Slovenia was built in 10 m sections, 

in weekly cycles. The entire inside 

formwork was shifted here in just 

half a day each time. After the 

tunnel forming operations had 

been finished, the versatile Doka 

equipment was dismantled and 

re-used in a new configuration for 

an underground water reservoir. 

Doka tunnel formwork for an underground railway station in Milan: The traveller 

for the underground concourse is constructed from Doka supporting construction 

frames ‘Universal’, as normally used for single-sided wall formworks. Placed 

upside down and bolted together with steel walings, these carry both the strutsupported 

roof-arch formwork and the side-wall formwork. This means that the 

whole construction is largely assembled from standard components. Note how 

much space the wide drive-through opening leaves for site traffic. 

From cut-and-cover to semi-open to mining: On the Fuchsloch Tunnel under Austria’s 

Arlberg pass, the formwork cross-section with the load-bearing portal frame solution 

is structured in such a way that it can cope with the formwork pressure and with all 

other loads. Nevertheless: The whole thing only uses standard parts! 

7


8 

Ahead of schedule with Doka systems 

40,000 m 2 of floor slab had to be 

formed on the main building of 

the Health Sciences Centre, 

Jabriah Campus, Kuwait, and 

shored at heights ranging from 

4.20 m to 6.05 m. 

W 

hile Dokaflex (with a commissioning 

quantity of 3000 m2 ) 

was used for heights of up to approx. 

5 m, floor-slabs at greater heights 

B 

oth material and labour costs 

were saved in the construction 

of a 13-storey residential and office 

building in Bratislava, Slovakia, 

thanks to the optimised floor-formwork 

concept employed here. The 

use of Dokaflex tables on the typical 

storeys permitted fast formwork 

erection and shifting times, and the 

4-day cycle kept the material costs 

low. After the formwork was struck, 

the new floor-slab only needed to 

be re-propped with re-shoring 

props. In this way it was possible 

not only to achieve a rapid forming 

sequence, but also to place a limit 

on the material costs. ■ 

than this were shored with d2 loadbearing 

towers. Thanks to a highly 

ingenious design concept, it was 

possible to use the same floor-formwork 

superstructure in both cases. 

On all the waffle slabs, incidentally, 

it was decided to dispense 

with formwork sheeting and place 

the waffles directly onto the formwork 

beams. Another impressive 

feature is the huge number of piers 

- 1100 in all - that are being formed 

with just 17 sets of Top 50 column 

formwork. 

Project manager Ahmed Al- 

Taher confirms that thanks to the 

adaptable, use-anywhere Doka 

formworks, the building work is 

actually progressing ahead of 

schedule - despite the fact that 

there were delays in starting the 

concrete works. ■ 

With Doka formwork systems, the building work is actually progressing ahead of schedule at the Health Sciences 

Centre, Jabriah Campus, Kuwait. 

Accelerated construction sequence 

Contractors: BCI Z ˇ ilina, Bratislava

270,000 m 2 of floor slabs 

with Dokaflex tables 

T 

o refer to the new Transportation 

Centre at Korea’s brand-new 

Inchon Airport as just a “station“ 

would be a gross understatement. 

Up to 5 storeys high and with 

270,000 m2 of covered space, this 

structure will be nothing less than a 

complete intermodal transportation 

interchange facility. 

The structure’s varying storey 

heights (from 3.6 m up to 10 m) and 

interlocking layouts made it ideal 

for using Dokaflex tables. The 3 

main floor slabs have a floor-beam 

in the same position every 8 m. 

Cast-in-situ columns are spaced 

every 10 m. In order to keep the 

quantities of material required 

down to a total of 12,000 m2 of 

tables, every table-leg had to carry 

up to 35 kN. 

Logically divided up into fields of 

80 m2 each, the entire floor-slab 

formwork was solved by the Doka 

Formwork Experts using a single 

table-format. The cast-in-situ columns 

were formed with 28 sets of Top 50 

column formwork, and the walls 

with approx. 1250 m2 of Top 50. 

Tableforms are not commonly 

used in Korea. Nevertheless, the 

site found that a “specimen plan“ 

for a 2000 m2 area of floor-slab was 

perfectly sufficient. In the first 

phase of work, and then in all sub- 

sequent phases, 6000 m 2 of tables 

were erected with reference to this 

plan, even though building contractors 

in Korea normally insist on 

detailed plans. After a 10-month 

Successful reconstruction 

with Doka 

I 

n the course of extensive renovation 

work, 6 completely new 

floor slabs had to be built in a 

historic property in Dublin’s College 

Street. For this assignment, the 

Irish contractors L&S Development 

construction period, the shell of 

the structure was completed on 

schedule. ■ 

Contractors: Samsung, Chang Il 

used Dokaflex tables, which permitted 

highly efficient erection and 

shifting of the formwork. The tables 

were moved out into a central inside 

courtyard from where they could 

then easily be lifted to the next storey. 


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10 

Streamlined forming 

operations in Sharjah 

T 

he Juma Al Majid Residential Complex in Al Nahda, Sharjah, U.A.E., consists 

of two 29-storey towers. The project is being formed using 9400 m2 of 

Dokaflex tables for the floors and 3400 m 2 of Top 50 formwork for the walls. ■ 

Precision automatic climbing 

assignment in Minneapolis 

When complete, this 128 m high 32-storey tower in the heart of 

downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, will contain over 93,000 m 2 of 

parking and leasable retail and office space and will house two of 

the area’s most prestigious advertising and law corporations. 

Contractors: ECC Mowlem Joint Venture 

I 

n total, the office tower concrete 

core consists of four nearly 

equal-size cells, which combine to 

around 35 m in length and almost 

9.5 m in width. Concerned about 

timing and affordability, General 

Contractor Mortenson looked 

beyond traditional core-forming 

methods, selecting Doka and its 

unique hydraulically powered selfclimbing 

system. 

The core is “climbed ahead“ of 

the remaining operations, using 

SKE 100 automatic climbers on the 

inside and SKE 50 on the outside. 

For the concrete placing boom, 

SKE 100 automatic climbers were 

also used to make a lifting device 

which climbs together with the 

automatic climbing formwork. The 

climbing operation runs smoothly 

and extremely accurately, and takes 

less than 15 minutes. 

Mike Smalley, Mortenson Project 

Manager, says “We are extremely 

pleased with this job and have 

recognised some additional benefits 

from the Doka system beyond 

the speed and quality. Namely, 

the self-climbing system support 

structure is all beneath the actual 

form system, eliminating support 

structure interference common in 

other self-jacking systems.“ ■

World site round-up 

Optimised sequence of operations 

in Florina 

A 

9-month construction period 

was planned for the shell of the 

approx. 130 m tall cooling tower of 

the S.E.S. Meliti power station in 

Florina in northern Greece. All work 

on the site, including the formwork 

operations, had to be performed 

using a single 2 t rotary tower 

crane. For reasons of cost, there 

was no question of using automatic 

climbing technology. 

Climbing formwork MF was 

used for both the inside and outside 

formwork of each 360° ring. 

Closure plates adapted the 

formwork to the variations in the 

diameter of each climbing section, 

from 76 m (bottom) to 44 m 

(middle) and then to 47 m (top). In 

this way, a cycle time of 2 1 /2 days 

per ring was achieved. ■ 

Contractors: Odon & Odostromaton SA, Greece 

Doka on 12 residential blocks in Singapore 

D 

oka climbing formworks, 

with their suspended 

platforms for finishing-work, 

comply with the stringent 

occupational safety rules of 

HDB Singapore. This is why 

they were chosen by Neo 

Construction for use on a 

residential complex at Bukit 

Panjang, Singapore, consisting 

of 12 blocks. ■ 

Contractors: Neo Construction 


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12 

Setting new standards in 

automatic climbing technology 

With its new office tower in Nuremberg, Germany, the Nürnberger 

Versicherung insurance company has definitely “set its sights 

high”. The 120 m tall, 35-storey tower is part of a huge office 

complex that will house the company’s 2700 head-office staff. 

Austria: 

Österreichische Doka Schalungstechnik GmbH 

A-3300 Amstetten, Reichsstrasse 23 

Phone +43 7472 605-0, Fax +43 7472 64430 

E-Mail: Oest.Doka@doka.com 

Germany: 

Deutsche Doka Schalungstechnik GmbH 

D-82216 Maisach, Frauenstrasse 35 

Phone +49 8141 394-0, Fax +49 8141 394-405 

E-Mail: Deutsche.Doka@doka.com 

Doka branches and representatives: 

Argentina - Australia - Belgium - Brazil - China - Croatia - Czech Republic - Denmark - Egypt - Finland - France - 

Greece - Guatemala - Hungary - Iceland - India - Indonesia - Iran - Ireland - Italy - Israel - Japan - Korea - Kuwait - 

Latvia - Lebanon - Lithuania - Macedonia - Malaysia - Mexico - Netherlands - New Zealand - Norway - Poland - 

Portugal - Romania - Russia - Saudi Arabia - Singapore - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - 

Taiwan - Thailand - Turkey - UAE - Ukraine - United Kingdom - USA - Yugoslavia 

A 

s only 12 months were allowed 

for finishing the entire building 

shell, “deadline-keeping” was a top 

priority for the contracting combine. 

With time pressure like this, you 

need partners who have a successful 

track record of developing skilled 

solutions. 

Assisted by the self-climbing 

specialists from Doka Amstetten, 

the Doka Nuremberg Branch thus 

developed a solution based on 

the Doka Platform SCP. This 

sophisticated self-climbing formwork 

is rather like a “site within the 

site“: All working and storage areas 

needed for the forming operations 

on each storey are integrated 

within the platform. This results in 

a winning combination of maximum 

workplace safety and maximum 

speed. 

For the formwork itself, the Doka 

technical team recommended 

elements that are ideal for adapting 

to the uniform regular layouts of this 

structure: The formwork plans for 

the tower incorporate a total of 

800 m 2 of Top 50 formwork and 

500 m 2 of Alu-Framax. 

Project Manager Fischer of 

Tauber Bau: “In terms of drawing up 

the overall concept, i.e. cycle 

sequencing, formwork solution and 

safety, Doka is the most capable 

partner for this task.“ 

Incidentally, in the run-up to this 

major project, Doka gave intensive 

support not only to the members of 

the contracting combine but 

also to the tendering architects. 

Commitment to customer service 

that clearly paid off in this case. ■ 

Contractors: Tauber Bau, W&F, Bögl Bau, Philipp 

Holzmann and Mauss 

For the Doka address nearest you, please see 

our web-site: http://www.doka.com, or phone 

or fax Doka in Austria or Germany.

Quality and what it involves - Doka

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