MOVEMENT CONTROL OF HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS DURING CONSTRUCTION

High-rise buildings are widely being constructed in the Middle-East, South-East, and East Asia. These buildings are usually willing to stand for the landmark of the region and, therefore, exhibit some extraordinary features such as super-tall height, elevation set-backs, overhangs, or free-form exterior surface, all of which makes the construction difficult, complex, and even unsafe at some construction stages. In addition to the elaborately planned construction sequence, prediction and monitoring of building's movement during construction and after completion are required for precise and safe construction. This is often called the Building Movement Control during construction. This study describes Building Movement Control of the KLCC Tower, a 58-story office building currently being built right next to the famous PETRONAS Twin Towers. The main items of the Building Movement Control for the KLCC Tower are axial shortening and verticality. Preliminary prediction of these items are already carried out by the structural design team but more accurate prediction based on construction stage analysis and combined with time-dependent material testing, field monitoring, and site survey is done by the main contractor. As of September 2010, the Tower is under construction at level 30, where the plan abruptly changes from rectangle to triangle. Findings and troubleshooting until the current construction stage are explained in detail and implementations are suggested for future applications.