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High Rise Building in Chicago, USA
26 Floors in Weekly Cycles with PERI ACS Self Climbing System
Pioneers of climbing technology, PERI patented the climbing form system in 1973.
Further developments led to the ACS Climbing System, which is being used successfully on many jobsites all over the world. A current project application of the PERI self climbing system is in progress in Chicago, Illinois. A new administrative complex, located between the Sears Tower and Lake Michigan, is under construction.
The building consists of a steel frame with two reinforced concrete cores. These guarantee the stability of the complete building. The so called East Core and West Core reinforced concrete cores climb ahead of the steel construction. The horizontal beams of the steel construction are attached to the core with embedded steel plates. The multistory building, 450'' (135 m) high, has 26 floors with placement heights of approx. 13'' (3.9 m) per floor. Walsh Construction, the general contractor, selected the PERI ACS Automatic Climbing System, because of the many references and the performance capability.
As with most downtown jobsites, space was very limited. Due to the PERI ACS self climbing system which does not require crane assistance, both tower cranes remain free for the completion of the reinforcement, concrete and steel work.
There are 10 outside and 2 inside climbing units on each of the concrete cores. These units can climb together or completely separate from each other. Each concrete section of both cores allows together approx. 15,000sqft of formwork with a total weight of 310 tons to climb up.
The net climbing time for each floor height is approx. 20 minutes. As the building is located near to Lake Michigan, high winds are frequent, accelerated by the tunneling effects of the breezeways. Climbing is often done in wind speeds of up to 50 mph. The scaffolding is calculated with the necessary safety factors for winds of up to 100 mph.
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Special requirements of the PERI self climbing system were necessary due to the platform loads:
The outside units had an additional 8 tons to the usual load and the inside units had an additional 20 tons for reinforcing materials.
Also during the climbing process, the inside unit had to transport 8 tons of reinforcement steel. |
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A challenging task for the PERI Engineers was the planning and construction of the suspension possibilities of the climbing units, as both cores had many openings varied in size and location up to the 7th floor. |
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More typically placed from the 8th floor and up, many of the anchor locations for the self climbing system were positioned in these openings. |
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Therefore, a special suspension was developed (fixing devices).
After the jobsite personnel were made familiar with the assembly and handling of the self climbing system by the PERI Supervisor, the goal of weekly cycles in which one east and one west core section were to be completed, could be reliably achieved. |
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PERI scope, Issue 1, 1996
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