Architecture of Macau Tower, Macao


	Pre-construction analytical studies Foundations Shaft Legs The Pod The Mast Involved parties

As the Tower is built on reclaimed land, the foundations are socketed a minimum of 5m into the good granite, 40m to 50m below ground.
A scale model of the Tower was analysed in a wind tunnel at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
A site specific seismic hazard study was carried out to determine the design earthquake loads.

To distribute the loads from the Tower shaft and legs into the piles below, a 3m thick, 40 m diameter concrete raft spans the top of the piles. To produce this 3300m³ of concrete were placed in only 17 hours - one concrete truck every 1.5 minutes.
Concrete can get as hot as 75°C when it is curing, so to prevent cracking caused by temperature differences, 200m³ of ice was added to the concrete as it was mixed.

The shaft was formed using a jumpform system from Austria. Jumpforming was chosen over slipforming because of the superior surface finish that can be obtained.
The concrete shaft terminates at 248m above ground level.
A 1.3m thick concrete slab caps the shaft and supports the mast, which is braced with a conical lattice truss.

Each leg is 2.7m x 1.7m in cross-section and extends 60m from the foundation raft to the shaft connection.
Precast concrete was chosen to maintain the high standard of surface finish
The legs were attached to the shaft when the shaft was 150m tall.
To ensure the correct load sharing between the legs and the shaft, a force of 830 tonnes was simultaneously jacked into each leg, using Freyssinet flat jacks of 950mm diameter.

The upper floor levels are mainly composite steel beams with concrete floors poured on steel tray decking.
The combination of tension hanger and compression strut to the shaft will ensure that catastrophic failure of the structure cannot occur.

An innovative technique was used to erect the Tower mast. The bottom half of the mast tube was erected with the top half installed inside it. The top half was then jacked 40m upwards into its final position, using the lower half as a guide. This method was also successfully employed on the Tianjin Tower in China.

Owner/Developer
	Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, S.A.R.L
Architect
	CCMBECA New Zealand www.ccm.co.nz www.beca.co.nz
Principal Architect
	Gordon Moller
Project Management
	Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, S.A.R.L. - Property & Works Department
Project Manager
	David Mckern