Mid November, Burj Dubai reached the height of 601 m, making the structure the tallest tower in the world. When completed in 2008 it will be the world’s tallest building, nearly twice the size of New York’s Empire State Building and higher than the current title holder, the Taipei Financial Center (Taipei 101) in Taiwan. The final height is being kept secret. Not a secret, on the other hand, is the unique monitoring system Leica Geosystems developed together with Douglas Hayes, Chief Surveyor of Burj Dubai.
Reaching top of concrete for the Burj tower at Level 156, at level 585.7 m, Douglas Hayes was impressed: "We have used our Leica GRX1220, TPS1201 and Nivel 220 systems all the way - the system has proven to be fantastic. Vertical walls are straight, lift shafts are too - standard deviations of concrete core walls are generally around 7mm. At the very top, I have computed the mean displacement of all core walls: delta Easting = 0mm, delta Northing = 5mm from design position. Of course this quality has come about due to a lot of effort on all sides - not just survey. But for our part I am very pleased with the way things have gone! The system has also allowed me to monitor the structure continuously and remotely, from a dynamic perspective as well as from a long term one, to quite amazing accuracy."
