In 2013, Saudi Bauer Foundation Contractors – a subsidiary of Bauer Spezialtiefbau GmbH, a specialist foundation engineering company based in Schrobenhausen, Bavaria – executed the foundations for what will be the tallest building in the world: the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The foundation work was completed at the end of 2013.
Kingdom City is a new urban quarter on an extensive 1.9-square-mile site in northern Jeddah. The Kingdom Tower will be the major landmark at the heart of the new neighborhood. With a height of 3,284 feet, it will dwarf all previous record-breaking buildings worldwide.
Saudi Bauer installed long piles for the foundation of the mammoth building. The work involved installing 72 360-feet-long and 4.9-feet in diameter piles; a further 154 piles of 4.9-feet in diameter and between 160 to 291 feet in length; and 44 piles with a diameter of 5.9 feet, all down to a depth of 164-feet.
The drilling was carried out using BG series rigs from Bauer Maschinen GmbH. The long piles were installed using two modified Bauer BG 40 rotary drilling rigs specially configured for long kellys.
Bauer Group offers services, equipment and other products for a variety of foundation drilling and civil engineering sectors. Founded in 1790, the company now employs more than 10,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit www.bauer.de/en.