Skyscraper Science | Kangaroo Cranes and Jump Forming

Technological innovation behind the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa.
Air conditioning allows ever more people to work more comfortably inside skyscrapers, and taller skyscrapers housing more workers offer great profits. The only problem is that bigger skyscrapers take much longer to build. To the reach the dizzying 417 metres of the World Trader Center engineers must invent a new, much faster way of building skyscrapers.
Long before the Twin Towers in New York become the tallest buildings in the world their developers face a mammoth problem. The minute they start construction the clock starts ticking, every day their building is unfinished costs them dearly. So they must work out how to reduce the construction time to the absolute minimum. The solution they come up with is to prefabricate sections of the towers and assemble them like a giant jigsaw puzzle. They build the sections offsite and ship them to the tower’s construction site precisely when they’re needed. The only problem is how to lift the superheavy 50 tonne sections into place quickly enough.
Clip from the “Big Bigger Biggest” documentary series exploring the engineering breakthroughs that have enabled us to develop some of the largest structures in existence.
Watch the complete documentary here - • Burj Khalifa - Skyscra...
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