The team behind the construction of Burj Dubai, on course to be the world’s tallest building on completion, is set to break the world record for the highest pumping of concrete, Greg Sang, Assistant Director - Projects with Burj Dubai developers Emaar Properties told to the members of the British Business Group (BBG).

Mr. Sang is confident the record for pumping concrete vertically, which currently stands at 448 metres, will fall within the next few months. The present record is held by the 508-metre-high Taipei 101 building in Taiwan.

Mr Sang speaking at a meeting of the BBG’s Construction Special Interest Group that took place at Nad Al Sheba described the challenges behind the design and construction of the tower, which is currently 119 levels and over 400-metres high and on course to replace Taipei 101 as the world’s tallest building.

“The Burj Dubai is a high profile project, and there is a lot of interest in it, and so I am very happy to give a presentation to the BBG about the features of the building’s design and how it was conceived,” said Sang.

To date, 267,426 cubic metres of reinforced concrete and 49,684 tonnes of reinforcing steel have been used in the construction of Burj Dubai, the final height of which remains a closely guarded secret.

Sang told the BBG that the usual surveying techniques using lasers to monitor the verticality of the structure were not viable in the case of the Burj Dubai due to lasers’ limited range of around 400 - 500 metres. Instead the Burj Dubai construction team is, as far as Sang is aware, the first in the world to use GPS for this purpose.

Greg Sang has worked on the Burj Dubai project for two-and-a-half years and previously was part of the team constructing the tallest building in Hong Kong, the 420-metre-high Two International Finance Centre.

“It’s always exciting to create landmark buildings, something which becomes an icon for a city,” he said. “I’m lucky in the sense that my work involves creating something physical, and I get a great sense of satisfaction from being able to look back at a project and recall that I was involved in its creation.”