INTRODUCTION

Spinnaker tower also known as Portsmouth millennium tower is a millennium commission

project that was aimed to change the international notable sight of the south coast of
Britain. It is the tallest accessible structure in the united kingdom outside London, It is 170
metres above the sea level and hence a tourist attraction. Burj Khalifa tower is a skyscraper
in Dubai, and it is the tallest man made structure that has ever been built to include
residential spaces and also has been the world’s tallest building since 2010. The architecture
is a combination of cultural effects and sophisticated technology. The decision to embark on
this project is based on the fact that the government saw the need to diversify from being an
oil based economy to a tourist environment.

PROJECT ENVIRONMENT

Spinnaker tower which was originally called Portsmouth Millennium tower was constructed
to reflect Portsmouth’s maritime’s history. The location of the tower is in one of the busiest
harbours in the UK, so the risk of ship impact was firstly addressed and they provided an
independent piled ship impact structure in front of the tower’s raft. Again because of the
shape of the proposed tower, it had the risk of being affected by the wind so; series of wind
test were carried out to alleviate this.

United Arab Emirates, Dubai was previous known to be an oil economy but the government
felt there was a need to diversify so the invested in tourism, and because so many beautiful
structures were already being built, the government felt there was a need to construct a
tower that would be on record. The concept of Burj Dubai tower’s structure emerged from
the geometrics of the desert flower in the region. Before the commencement of the tower
construction, extensive concrete quality and testing control program were put in place to
ensure all the contractors that were involved agreed fully with it (Abdelrazaq, Kim, & Kim,
2008), wind climate studies was carried out and the data gotten was used for in the wind
tunnel, this also helped to determine the relationship between wind load and wind
response, cladding test was carried out in order to determine wind speed and the direction
considering the fact that the tower would be Y shaped. Pedestrian level wind study was
carried out so as to improve pedestrian’s comfort in exterior area (Irwin & Baker, June 2006).
STAKEHOLDERS AND THEIR IMPACT

The stakeholders of involved in a project can have positive or negative impact on the
project, this can be seen from the spinnaker tower project, so many stakeholders were
involved .The stakeholders that were involved were Millennium commission, Portsmouth
city council , Portsmouth spinnaker ltd (PSTL), Mowlem, Tax payers, Berkeley. In 1999,
Millennium commission delayed the approval of fund and this brought about a delay of two
years, the construction contractors that were employed too had no experience of a tower
project and this caused another delay of six months. Portsmouth spinnaker i.e. PSTL ltd ,
had no experience of managing a large project as spinnaker tower and hence they
mismanaged the project and this brought about cost escalation i.e. the council had to pay
for damages and legal cost because they failed to enter into a contract with them at the
initial stage (Arthur, 2004). City council employed the services of Mowlem contractors to be
their construction contractor. Introducing Mowlem into the project brought about delays
because of the initial jobs that had been done by previous contractor.

On the other hand, the stakeholders that were involved in burj khalifa tower project were,
Adrian Smith who worked with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) as the architect, the
chief structural engineer was Bill Baker, the primary contractor was Korean – based
Samsung Corporation, Belgium based Besix and arabtec who were the supervision
consultant engineer were sub-contractor, Hyder Consulting was the construction project
manager and Turner Construction Company was chosen as the construction project
manager. Otis was the lift contractor, Emaar properties were the developer, although
taxpayers were initially told that they would not contribute towards the millennium project
but when it went over budget, they had to contribute £12 million (Payne, Oct 2005). The
stakeholders in Burj Khalifa had experience in tower projects previously, that was even part
of the reason why the project was successful, there was no delay in way and the project was
on time i.e. it commenced in January 2004 as stated to the original plan and it was opened
in January 2010, because of the positive impact of the stakeholders, the project was also not
over budget.
PROJECT LIFE CYCLE

The project life cycle for the two projects has been classified into the following stages:

PLANNING PHASE:

In the planning phase of Spinnaker tower, because the city council and other contractors
that were involved were not experienced in tower construction, so they had preliminary
sketches and drawings that were done, again at the initial stage, they had funding approval
issues with the millennium commission, which caused delay of two years (Griffiths, Sep
2004). Three designs, ’ The Globe’, ‘Spinnaker’ and ‘Triple Tower was proposed by HGP
Greentree Allchurch Evans and the German tower specialists Leonhardt Andra were put out
for public acceptance and 60% chose Spinnaker because they felt it reflected Portsmouth’s
unique maritime heritage .

HGP Greentree Allchurch Evans submitted a planning application to the city council in 1998
which was supported by an environmental report that proofs that no environmental effects
were envisaged and that the tower would not just be viewed in Portsmouth alone but other
areas like Hampshire, Sussex, etc. The proposal was finally approved on September 1999 and
a revised application was submitted to the city council in January 2000 because PSTL had
started erection so changes had to be factored in the revised version (Griffiths, Sep 2004).

Burj Khalifa was properly planned from the onset, all the contractors that were used were
experts in their field, even the architect Adrian Smith who is very famous for the dynamic
tower structure he always design, that was why being an Islamic city, an Islamic architecture
with desert flower hymenocallis that was grown in the region concept was used as the
footprint of the building.

EXECUTION PHASE:

Piling work commenced in November 2001, and in 2002 a pre-cast raft was built in order to
build the main concrete cast. Slip- forming technique was applied to construct the concrete
A-frame of the tower. The steel sections were fabricated by Butterly in Derby in 2004 and the
first stage was they erected a system of trestle supports at the ground level which will aid
connection of other sections when forming the lower bows. A glass that supports it’s self
with glass fins and stainless steel posts was put in place and finally internal fit work which
took place from January 2005 to September 2005 .

In Burj Khalifa, a structural system called the buttressed core that had a hexagonal core
reinforced buttresses that formed Y shape was put in place so that the building can support
itself laterally and can also twist (Poulos, August 2010). Reinforced concrete was used and
while construction was on, although in tower construction history, to pumping thousands of
cubic metres of concrete that was needed was always very difficult but this was properly
handled by the building contractor. Special mixes of concrete were prepared to overcome
difficult pressures of the massive weight of the tower and during this process batch of
concrete were tested in order to know if it could stand pressures.

CLOSURE:

Spinnaker tower was finally opened in October 2005, six years after the original opening
time. It attracted over 100,000 visitors in the first two months and even the day it was finally
opened, Portsmouth council boss was trapped in the lift of the tower for over one
hour( (BBC, October 2005). Burj Khalifa was completed in 2009 but was officially opened in
January 2010 with a grand celebration and so many people were eager to see because it was
the tallest structure that has ever been constructed.

PROJECT RISK

Risk register for Burj Khalifa tower

Challenge Risk Solution Benefits

Numeric Significant hazards and risks Project drawings to be All relevant risk
design hazard can be hidden annotated information is collated
in one place
Potential Integration of design and Haskell design Safety symbols are
liability claims construction safety build(US) will be placed where the
responsible since they hazard is on the
have cooperate drawing
liability coverage
Graphic Missing the important risk Will use optimal Risks are pinpointed on
important issues while planning cost number standard the actual drawn plans
data at the or when designing industry wide symbols
point of use
on drawings
How to put Seeing the hazards SHE box or key cross Design team and
hazard and graphically on drawings referenced with contractor’s supervising
risk data on symbols on the and pricing team are
drawings drawing aware of the significant
issues
Time wasting Too much un-helpful After prices, contracts All operatives
information can be put on and construction irrespective of
drawings by designers methodologies are nationality and
which are of no benefit to agreed the design education should be
anyone and diminish the stage drawings will be able to decipher the
risk reduction process augmented by the relevant information at
contractor’s team. point of use.
Delivery of The absence of such Using links with trade Safety information
relevant site information can lead to associations, about lifting , handling
safety deaths and injuries component and fixing provided by
information to manufacturers and the “experts”
site operatives suppliers to provide
at the visually explicit safety
workface information suitable
for everyone including
foreign workers and
other operatives with
reading difficulties
To avoid Inhalation of fibres will Client to instruct Reduction in likelihood
exposure to cause asbestosis or appropriate survey of asbestos exposure
free asbestos mesothelioma analysis of building before , during and
fibres of and site and provision after, and in future
designers of accurate asbestos construction works
survey drawings and
 report to design team
Unprotected Fall form height during Designers to highlight Enables contractor to
slab and roof construction typical roof edges and identify key safety
edges slab edges issues that he needs to
respond to by
traditional methods eg.
Full scaffolding.

Adapted from (Browntigg, Oct 2009)

Risk for spinnaker tower

Risk Recommendation Priority Responsibility

1=Low

2=Medium

3=Medium
Completion of A system to ensure that members of 2 Head of risk and
task the team have the capacity to finish all project management
the tasks should be put in place
Prince2 Prince 2 training should be made 2 Head of risk and
knowledge available to project managers, team project management
members and other people that are
part of the project reviewing board
Detailed reports describing projects 2 Project managers
progress should be made available to
the project review board
Systematic opportunities to develop 2 Head of risk and
and share learning about project project manager
management techniques and
experiences should be developed
Lack of The council should appoint a Head of 3 Corporate director
expertise Risk and Project Management and a
Risk Manager with the necessary
expertise to promote and implement
effective risk management across the
council.
A risk register should be compiled in 3 Head of risk and
order to identify actions to be taken to project management
reduce the council’s exposure to risk
Identified risk A framework should be put in place to 3 Risk manager
reduce the risks that has been identified
and their success should be monitored
Outdated risk Risk management strategy should be 2 Risk manager
management reviews and updated to reflect the risk
framework management framework’s draft
Risk Programme of risk management 2 Risk manager
management training should be put in place for the
knowledge councillors , officers handling the risk
management aspect and other staff
Mechanism Opportunities to share knowledge on 2 Risk management
for learning risk management should be put in place sub- group
internally

Adopted from (Bryant, 2005)

PLANNING SCHEDULLING AND MANAGING RESOURCES

In the spinnaker project, the planning was not properly done, the funding approval was
delayed buy two years, professional and experienced skill was not used, instead the council
setup their own project management team, they went further to choose an Berkeley
architects who have never designed a tower before and they did not even have a contract
with them so six months later, Berkeley withdrew from the project. The council later choose
Portsmouth spinnaker ltd (PSTL) in 1998 as their construction contractor and PSTL had site
access issues with Berkeley which caused another delay of one year. The council again
terminated their contract with PSTL because of the six months delay that they had, and since
there was no signed contract between the two of them at the initial stage, city council had
to pay for damages and legal costs.

City council later chose Mowlem as their construction contractor and signed a contract with
them without considering cost escalation. They also had a number of scheduling issues, for
example, they could not resolve the rights of ownership of the image they wanted to use
which caused them to have to pay £100k per year. Resources were not properly managed
which made them have quality control issues e.g. The paint they used in painting peeled
and also the concrete crumbled (Griffiths, Sep 2004).

Burj Khalifa was properly planned at the initial stage, because of the unique structure that
was to be built, Emaar properties carried out a research on the architecture firm that has
worked on amazing tower projects and they finally approached Adrian Smith of Chicago’s –
based architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) because of Jin Mai tower that he
designed in 1993. Hyder consulting built a structure that will accept tolerances (Vertical or
lateral) and that would not compromise the execution of the tower project and also it’s long
term performance which also include supervising the sub-contractors like Otis that were
responsible for the elevator systems. Part of the plan Hyder consulting came up with was
that they came up with an extensive sequence analysis that actual predicted the movement
of the building as it was being built.

The contractors changed the outrigger wall panels into composite element in order to speed
up the construction process. The pinnacle and its cladding attachment were raised three
steps higher with a degree of tolerance despite the wind conditions and the spire geometry.
A creative survey process was employed from the onset and a GPS survey technology was
used to build the tower at great heights. Analytical work was carried out in order to study
the iteration of the spire and the crane while the construction was going on and this was
because of loads that were on the spire and also the possible effect of wind (Louise, Dec
2009).

Burj khalifa was properly planned and scheduled and also the resources were properly
managed by the contractors, architects, e.t.c., that was why it was not over budget and it did
not exceed the stated time frame unlike spinnaker project, the project was not well planned
at the initial stage and there was even lack of expertise that was why they had delay and
went over budget and again and again the resources they had was badly mismanaged

HOW COST, TIME AND QUALITY WAS MANAGED

In spinnaker tower, iron triangle i.e. cost quality and time were not properly managed, the
initial cost was £28 million and the project finished off with an overall cost of £38.2million
(reference David Greenhalgh, pdf on desktop). Also the project was supposed to commence
in 1995 and to be opened in 1999 so it can be used for the millennium celebration in 2000
but the project did not start until 2001 and it was completed in mid-2005, which was six
years later than the agreed opening date. On the other hand, Burj Khalifa was properly
managed, the initial cost of $1.5 billion was what was used for the construction of the tower
(Stanglin, Jan 2010) , it was not over budget and also the project was to start in 2004 and
opened in 2010, the project was properly managed by the contractors and Emaar properties,
the only delay they had was for two to three months, and it was just to ensure that the
construction work was properly finished.

LEADERSHIP, TEAMWORK AND COMMITMENT

In spinnaker tower project, Portsmouth city council relied on weekly and monthly reports to
monitor the progress of the project and when Portsmouth spinnaker ltd(PSTL) were still in
charge, because of their lack of expertise, they had issues with the chain of activities
because the tasks could not all be completed simultaneously in the project and in the
weekly reports they submitted to the council (David, April 2006), the problems were
escalated which brought about delay because their contact was terminated by the council
and as a result the project was delayed by two years and because there was no real contract
term initially by the council and PSTL, , the council had to pay £922,075 to PSTL for
settlement and £940,000 for an in an out of court settlement (Auditor, March 2004). Later
Mott Macdonald services was employed to manage the project management aspect in
2002, through working closely with the other contractors and sub-contractors, they were
able to save 2million and also six months off the predicted plan, they closely controlled
budget and secured funding.

While on the other hand Burj Khalifa project was well handled by Emaar properties,
combined efforts by the contractors helped in achieving the best and the most expensive
building cladding in any project they even took their delayed by two to three months just to
ensure that all fine finish places were in place, because they felt there was no point rushing
a project and later on, faults would be discovered.

SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES

Burj Khalifa tower and Spinnaker tower projects had no supply chain issues and that was
why Spinnaker tower won two awards for best regeneration project and the overall project
of the year and Burj Khalifa won multiple awards and even got a world record.

REFERENCES

Abdelrazaq, A., Kim, K. J., & Kim, J. H. (2008). Brief on the construction planning of the burj dubai
project, dubai, UAE.

Auditor. (March 2004). Report in the public intrest: Millinium tower. Portsmouth: District auditor to
portsmouth city council.

BBC. (October 2005). Council boss trapped in spinnaker.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4351452.stm.

Browntigg, S. (Oct 2009). Safe Design and Communication RIBA- CDM. 11-24.

Bryant, D. (2005). performance detailed report- Project management and risk management.
Portsmouth.
David, O. (April 2006). Understanding and solving the causes of project failure. The CBS interactive
business network .

Griffiths, A. (Sep 2004). The Millennium Tower – a Jewel or a future public burden? 11-14.

http://www.mottmac.com/projects/?id=39661

http://www.systemcorp.co.th/news/pdf/Top%208%20Skyscrapapers.pdf

Irwin, P. A., & Baker, W. F. (June 2006). The Burj Dubai tower- wind Engineering. Structure Magazine .

Louise. (Dec 2009). Building the Burj Khalifa. Big Project .

Payne, S. (Oct 2005). Red faces over Portsmouth's showcase project, £12 million over budget and six
years late . the Telegraph .

Poulos, H. G. (August 2010). The piled raft foundation for the burj dubai- design and performance.
Australia.

Stanglin, D. (Jan 2010). Dubai opens world's tallest building. Ondeadline .