A rticle

Taipei 101 Project Review & Management

By KTRT Joint Venture

Editor’s note: This paper was delivered at CIOBM/MBAM/UiTM International Construction

Conference (ICC 2007) held on September 19-20, 2007.

Located on the east commercial

area of Taipei basin, Taipei 101
has become the tallest building
in the world since October 2004,
and a new landmark for Taipei.
Being general contractor of Taipei
101 project, KTRT JV organised
an effective construction team
to manage this unique project
t h ro u g h d a i l y, we e k l y a n d
monthly meetings to monitor the
project, KTRT JV also carefully
executed PDCA CYLE to control
project schedule, quality, safety
and cost.

During the construction period,

Taipei 101 experienced a huge
earthquake shock, causing the
whole project to be delayed for
about half a year. After careful
ex a m i n at i o n a n d p l a n n i n g,
KTRT JV resumed the work and
completed this unique project
within the owners’ expectation.

I
n Oc tober 2003, Taipei 101
reached a new record (508m high)
and became the tallest building
in the world. Then the shopping
mall podium opened on November
2003, and the tower portion opened
at the end of 2004.

Taipei 101 is the biggest building

BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) case
in Taiwan. Taipei Financial Center
Corporation ( TFCC) paid about
N T $ 2 0 . 6 b n to g e t a 7 0 -ye a r
concession period from the Taipei
City Government in 1997.

Taipei 101 was designed by C.Y.LEE

Project Manager was Turner Steiner
I nternational, and the general
contractor was KTRT JV (KUMAGAI ,
TAIWAN KUMAGAI, RSEA, TA-YO-WEI,
Joint Venture).

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4th Quarter 2007

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Unique Features Of
Taipei 101 Project
Taipei 101’s tower and podium
portions both have five basement
floors, the superstructure tower is
a 101-floor office building (508m
high). The podium is a 6-storey
shopping mall (five above and
one underground), and B2 to B5
are car parks.
The total weight of steel structure
is about 107,000 tons, and
from B5 to 62 nd floor the steel
columns have been filled with
10,000psi high per formance
concrete (HPC).
This building resembles a bamboo
shoot rising steadily and strongly
from the ground. On the top
of each eight-floor section is a
mechanic floor which includes MEP.
Ventilation system, Garbage system,
Fire Fighting water storage tank,
Fire protection shelter rooms, and
Outdoor shelter balcony.
In order to control wind-induced
lateral building movements for
occupant comfort, a world’s largest
tuned mass damper (TMD) about
660 Tons sphere ball pendulum
Magnificent golden ball pendulum
Mimic panel at high speed eleveator
was installed on the 88th floor and
suspended with four group cables
to the 92 nd floor. The sphere of
the TMD consists of 41 layered
steel plates, each with height of
125mm welded together to form a
5.5m diameter sphere with golden
painting. Visitors on the 89 th floor
Observation Deck can watch this
beautiful magnificent golden ball
pendulum.
There are 61 elevators in Taipei 101,
and two of them are the fastest
elevators in the world. Their upward
speed reaches 1,010 m/min and it
takes just 39 seconds from the 1st
floor to the 89th floor.
Special Construction Methods
And Equipment
n One Building Project Using Two
Different Construction Methods
(i). The tower portion used the up-
up method, a very popular high rise
building construction method. Its
underground retaining wall is 1.2m
thick 50m deep slurry wall with
buttress for soft basin formation. We
used the same dimensional slurry
wall to separate tower and podium
portion, and to execute different
construction methods. So called up-
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4th Quarter 2007
up method means when the steel
structure builds from bottom up,
the R.C. work is followed up floor
by floor.
(ii). The podium portion using the
top-down method is a 6-storey L-
shaped steel structure surrounding
the tower portion. At first, we
excavate ground surface and clean
the embedded pin pile steel head
to join with the upper structure
column, and construct the ground
floor with temporar y openings
for subsequent excavation and
ventilation works, so that we can
construct underground basement
and upper steel structure at the
same time to expedite completion
n Concrete Works
The tower por tion basement
measuring around 90m×90m, has
an excavated depth of more than
20m. The mat foundation (thickness
from 3m to 4.7m) is jointed with
2mΦ pile foundation to support the
total weight of the building.
The concrete strength of the mat
foundation is 6,000psi, and the
total amount of mat concrete is
about 28,100m 3 . We divided the
mat foundation into nine units, each
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unit around 3000m3, and poured the
concrete with embedded sensors
to monitor the mass concrete
temperature.
We used 23 layers PE canvas to
cure the concrete for three weeks
in order to control the face concrete
temperature difference with the inner
part within 20, to reduce the heat
impact of mass concrete hydration.
Through computer analysis, the
steel columns from B5 to 62 nd
floor was filled with 10,000psi high
performance concrete to strengthen
the structure stiffness.
To ensure concrete strength and
fluidity, we conducted a lot of trial
mixes and mock-up tests for nine
months in order to pump more than
275m high to the 62 nd floor. We
tested at a batching plant with a
4th
horizontal 1.5km pipe line to pump
into two 2.4m (W) ×3m (D) ×8m
(H) moulds, and tested the core’s
void ratio and concrete strength,
to ensure the HPC quality and
workability.
During construction, the actual
pump height reached was about
428m high on 99th Floor.
n Steel Structure Construction
We divided the steel column into 35
tiers, two tiers from B5 to ground
level and 33 tiers from ground level
to 101 st floor (448m). There were
eight mega columns, with dimension
2.4m×3m with 80 m/m thickness
each. To weld the steel Column at
the jobsite, we needed six skilled
welders (licensed and test qualified)
to weld the joint simultaneously and
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Quarter 2007
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continuously for 24 hours (three

shifts).

To ensure the welding quality, we

used a special wind and water
proof working platform to perform
the work and ultrasonic tests by an
independent surveyor for every joint
after welding.

The podium roof resembles a

Chinese RU YI (meaning lucky
and fortune), spanning more than
70m with traditional Chinese style
was very complicated and needed
trial assembly at the manufacture’s
factory to make sure each detail
conformed to original design before
installation.

KTRT JV COMMITEE

KTRT PROJECT OFFICE

PROJECT MANAGER

3 DEPUTY PROJECT MANAGERS

GENERAL
ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION MEP QUALITY SAFETY
AFFAIR
DEPARTMENT DEPARTMENT DEPARTMENT DEPARTMENT COMMITEE
DEPARTMENT

TOTAL
ACCOUNT QS STRUCTUREE SYSTEM SAFETY
QC

FALSE
ADMIN CONTRACT DECORATION EQUIPMENT
WORK

PLANNING

SHOP DWG

NOMINATED SUBCON. DIRECT SUBCON.

Chart 1

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4th Quarter 2007

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rticle

Nominated Subcontractors

Structural Steel Nippon Steel-China Steel Structure JV (NSC-CSSC JV) JV)

Curtain Wall Josef Gartner (HK) Ltd.

Elevator/Escalator GFC Ltd. (Toshiba Elevator)

Tuned Mass Damper Motioneering (RWDI Group)

Phase Two Works Samsung Corporation

Security Works Seimens Building Technologies Ltd.

Lighting Works Lancaster Co. Ltd.

Chart 2

1. BOX- MEETING

7. THE FINAL
2. PRE-COORDINATE
CONFIRMATION

6. SITE CLEANING 3. PRE-INSPECT

4. PATROLLING

5. SAFETY MEETING

Chart 3

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4th Quarter 2007

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n Bigger Tower Cranes For
Erection Work
The tower portion’s main structure is
supported by eight mega columns,
each mega column weighting about
80 tonnes. In order to erect the
mega columns, we installed four
bigger tower cranes, two tower
cranes with capacit y to reach
1250MT another two is 600 MT.
Four tower cranes (2-600MT and 2-
400MT) were used at podium area
to erect the steel structure.
n Hoist Tower For
People And Material
In high-rise building construction,
we need to lift a lot of materials
and labour to work on every floor.
Weekly lifting plans and updated
daily lifting schedule were planned
every day. At the south side of
the tower portion, we installed
six lifting cages on three sides of
the hoist tower, with each lifting
cage’s capacity about 3 tonnes
(or can take 30 people/lift), each
lifting from ground level to 91 st
floor (about 393m) taking about
four minutes.
So far, it was the tallest hoist tower
in the world during construction
time. n
n Jacking Up Method For
Communication Pinnacle
On the top of 101 st floor is a 60m
high communication pinnacle
which weighs about 475 tonnes.
We have constructed a working
platform at the 96 th floor to install
the communication pinnacle, and
used four sets of 220 tonnes VSL
jack between the 97 th floor and
101st floor to jack up the pinnacle
step by step to the world record
height of 50m.
Construction Organisation &
Nominated Sub-contractors
To deal with the complicated and
tight schedule project, we needed an
effective construction organization.
The construction organisation chart
of Taipei 101 is shown in Chart 1.
In special case, the general
contractor (KTRT JV) had to sign
contracts with some nominated
sub-contractors, without owners’
(TFCCS’) written approval. The
general contractor cannot modify
or change any specifications or
item of the contract or terminate
nominated sub-contractor’s contract.
The nominated sub-contractors are
shown in Chart 2.
Management Methods &
Techniques
n Construction Management
Principles
● Reinforce site safety and
environmental protection
practices.
● QA/QC activities to ensure
construction safety
● Complete the Taipei 101
project efficiently.
Based on the above mentioned
management principles, KTRT JV
executed PDCA cycles to control
Project Schedule, Quality, Safety
and Cost.
Daily Safety Activity Promotion
The following daily safety activities
were performed to achieve the goal
of zero accidents and to implement
the safety policy thoroughly (See
Chart 3).
n Management Techniques
During the construction period,
we received more than 570 O.W.I.
(Owner’s works instructions), and the
whole project was delayed about
half a year due to the impact of
the huge earthquake. At the last
stages, some mechanic floor’s space
arrangement had to be modified. We
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4th Quarter 2007
could not follow normal procedures
to proceed with the work. Through
frank negotiation between the
owner’s top management and KTRT
JV ‘s representatives, both parties
tried to solve jobsite problems
quickly and gave some incentive for
additional night shifts to expedite
work. Finally, we received Open
Permits on time for podium and
tower separately.
CONCLUSION
The completion of Taipei 101 project
relies on the win-win strategy for
both owners (TFCC) and general
contractor (KTRT JV).
All parties in this project had the
same idea to develop a new skyline
for Taipei. Taipei 101 now is a
landmark for the city.
So far Taipei 101 is the tallest
building in the world, which is
located on soft ground and in an
earthquake zone.
(Editor's note: Burj Dubai Tower is
the tallest building in the world since
August 2007)
REFERENCE
Taipei new sky, www.ktrt.com.tw.
2004.
Tai-Huang Lin, Introduction of
Concrete Work of Taipei Financial
Center Project, engineering monthly
issue Vol.73, No.6 Jun.2000.
Tai-Huang Lin, Introduction of
Taipei Financial Center Project,
engineering monthly issue Vol.76,
No.5, Dct.2003
Tai-Huang Lin, C.C.Lee , W.C.Chen,
General Contractor ’s Contract
Management of High-Rise Building
Taipei 101, engineering monthly
issue Vol.76, No.5, Oct.2003.
Tai-Huang Lin , Taipei 101 Project-
Review, engineering monthly issue
Vol.78, No.4, Aug.2005.