Save crane time with self-climbing formwork and work platform

POST Rotterdam will soon be a true gem. To get the construction process on the busy Coolsingel moving safely and efficiently, and to save crane time, the joint venture POST Bouw, a combination of BESIX Nederland and Rizzani de Eccher, is working with a large number of solutions from Doka Nederland. These include a self-climbing formwork and working platform, and various lightweight formwork systems.

The new POST Rotterdam consists of a low-rise and a high-rise building. "For the low-rise we have already supplied various systems at an earlier stage," says Denick van Gemert of Doka Nederland. "The high-rise is now under construction, and in it our self-climbing formwork and working platforms SCP and SKE50+, among others, are playing a leading role in combination with the Framax Xlife wall formwork system. The platform is enclosed all around in order to be able to work safely and protected in different weather conditions, even at great heights like ultimately here at POST." The high-rise goes some 150 meters into the air. Peanuts for Doka, according to Van Gemert. "Our solutions are used worldwide on the most high-profile high-rise projects."

Hydraulic cylinders 

The Doka SCP system is also used to make the walls of the cores, while the so-called "shear walls" for each floor are made with the SKE50+ Framax Xlife formwork system. Both systems are self-climbing, but the technology is different. "For the SCP system, we use four strong hydraulic cylinders that push the platform, the formwork, the material storage (such as rebar) and the concrete pump to the next floor in one movement without a crane. And all this is done at the push of a button," Van Gemert explains. "The system rests on twelve brackets, three per cylinder, via cones in the wall. When climbing, the top two brackets disassemble the climbing bolts at each cylinder. Then the cylinder slides out and the two brackets are anchored one floor up in the cone. Then the climbing bolts on the lower bracket are disassembled, the cylinder retracts, and it too is anchored one floor up. The beauty of this system is that on one corner we also push the concrete pump up with it. So there is no need to pour with the crane."

Lightweight systems

The Framax Xlife system also climbs automatically on POST Rotterdam's high-rise, but using the Doka SKE50+ system. "Unlike the SCP platform, which moves up a floor in one movement, the SKE50+ system climbs in 30-centimeter increments via a total of eighteen small cylinders. The 'shear walls' are made up to and including the 22nd floor, after that the contractor continues upward without this 'shear wall'." POST Bouw also relies on Doka systems for the floors and columns. For example, the wet floors are being made with Dokadek 30, a carrierless manual formwork, and the columns with DokaXlight. "Both systems are lightweight and easy to move by hand. That too makes it unnecessary for the contractor to use the construction crane." Finally, Doka Netherlands also delivered the Protection screen Xclimb 60, a 12-meter-high safety screen over four floors that again can climb automatically. "At two points this screen is equipped with a loading platform," says Doka. 

So Doka has delivered quite a few solutions to make the construction of POST Rotterdam safe and efficient. "Soon we will be delivering a second Protection screen Xclimb 60 for finishing the facade. Both screens are anchored to the steel structure already provided for the aesthetic shell." Van Gemert expects that most of Doka's solutions will continue to be used until March 2025. "After that, all materials will be dismantled again as soon as possible and taken directly to our site in Oss. In the meantime, by the way, we are present on the construction site with some regularity to check whether everything is going according to plan."