Saudi Readymix organizes three seminars on pumping concrete in high-rise structures in three different cities from March 30 to April 1 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, Madina's Le Meridien Hotel and Crown Plaza Hotel in Jeddah, respectively. The seminars are aimed at raising the awareness among industry professionals and in response to a growing trend in the Saudi construction market for high-rise structures, particularly in previously undeveloped areas of the Kingdom. Each seminar will feature three lectures delivered by representatives from Saudi Readymix, the leading ready-mixed concrete producer in Saudi Arabia, and the German concrete pumps and extension pipe manufacturers Schwing and Putzmeister. Saudi Readymix's figures indicate that 22 high-rise projects are currently in various planning and execution stages for 2008, a number which hovered around only one or two per year as recently as 2006. The seminars will present an in-depth look at the challenges of concreting in high-rise structures, such as selection of proper mix design, site preparation, selection of proper equipment, special pumping techniques, and pumping of self-compacting concrete in such structures. “The construction and concrete markets in Saudi Arabia are becoming more diverse and seeing greater investment than ever before,” Redwan Hameed, technical director of Saudi Readymix, and one of the keynote speakers at the seminar, said. He added that it is important for them to share concrete technology knowledge with their clients, consultants, and construction industry as a whole. “The requirements of high-rise structures differ greatly to conventional ones, and we aim to raise awareness among industry professionals to these issues through these seminars.” he said. According to Fadi Mujahed, Saudi Readymix marketing and business development director, high-rises are spreading across all regions of the Kingdom, whereas in the past they were restricted to a few areas such as Riyadh and the Holy Cities. “Some of our current projects contain as many as 20 or 30 towers, and we expect the number and size of such projects to increase over the next few years,” he said. High-rise structures are buildings that are between 12 to 50 storeys or 35 to 150 meters high, anything beyond that puts them in the category of skyscrapers. __
