Piles and raft: order for the groundwater first
Marina plots sit on coastal ground with shallow, saline groundwater. Chlorides and sulphates attack buried concrete and steel, so the piling and substructure mixes are designed for that exposure: GGBS blends, a low water/cement ratio, and the exposure class and cover your consultant has written into the specification. Send us that specification before the first pile, not on the morning of the pour.
For the raft, work out the volume (length x width x depth) and divide by 12, the capacity of one mixer truck. A 30 x 25 m raft at 1.5 m deep is about 1,125 m3, close to 94 truckloads. A pour of that size needs a sequence agreed in advance: truck spacing, pump positions, standby equipment and the cold joint plan if the consultant allows one.
Blinding and the small pours nobody plans
Blinding under the raft and pile caps is usually 50 to 75 mm thick. On a 750 m2 footprint at 75 mm that is roughly 56 m3, five trucks. It is easy to treat blinding as an afterthought, but a late blinding pour delays the steel fixers, and the steel fixers delay the raft.
Superstructure slabs: book the pump with the concrete
Above the podium, most slabs go up by boom pump or placing boom. Our pumps carry booms from 43 m to 57 m, which covers podium and lower floors from the street. Higher floors usually need a static line and placing boom, and that set-up has to be confirmed before you call off concrete. A truck that arrives with no pump ready waits, and in summer the slump does not wait with it.
Marina sites are 11 km from our Al Quoz plant in a straight line, reached by Sheikh Zayed Road or Al Sufouh Road. Peak traffic lengthens that trip, so we set a retarder dose for the travel time and the slump target for the hour of the pour. Many summer specifications limit placing temperature, which pushes large slabs to night or early-morning starts. Tower management and the master developer often control delivery hours and truck routes; check with them and give us the gate details.
Slots for Dubai Marina are planned with the rest of the day's ready-mix concrete Dubai schedule.
Questions from Dubai Marina sites
- How many trucks for a typical Marina tower floor slab?
- Divide the slab volume by 12 m3. A 600 m2 slab at 250 mm is 150 m3, so about 13 trucks, plus a small margin for waste and level differences.
- Can you supply concrete at night in Dubai Marina?
- The plant runs 24/7. Night pours depend on the permissions your tower or community gives for deliveries and noise, so confirm those first.