by Brianna Crandall — May 20, 2015—KONE Corporation, a Finland-based global provider of elevators and escalators, was selected last year to supply vertical transportation solutions for the impressive Kingdom Tower construction site in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and has now initiated the very first phases of its installations.
The Kingdom Tower project, which is owned and developed by Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), will be the world’s tallest building once completed in 2018 and is expected to rise to a height of more than one kilometer. Designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the tower will house a hotel, offices and apartments, and will feature the world’s highest observation spot at 660 meters.
KONE Areeco, KONE’s Saudi Arabian joint venture, has been involved in the planning and design of all vertical transportation systems for the Kingdom Tower over the past two years in conjunction with KONE’s global experts, following KONE’s development of the UltraRope elevator hoisting technology in 2013 that was said to enable the next big leap in high-rise building design.
The project team arrived on site last January and is currently working on pre-installation activities concerning the fitting of the elevator system’s guiderails, which is expected to begin towards the end of this year. The installation of the guiderails, as well as the eventual installation of the KONE elevator cars, will then progress as the Kingdom Tower’s central structure rises over the coming years.
KONE’s engineering and project management teams are meticulously preparing for the next phases of the project that will cover the manufacturing and delivery of KONE’s vertical transportation solutions. For a building with such unprecedented height, KONE says it will deliver uniquely advanced technology: the world’s fastest and highest DoubleDeck elevators, supported by the revolutionary KONE UltraRope technology, as well as the latest People Flow Intelligence solutions.
“Building the tallest tower in the world is about human ingenuity and the strength of the materials used,” commented Mounib Hammoud, CEO of Jeddah Economic Company, owner and developer of the Kingdom Tower and Kingdom City, which is chaired by HRH Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Al Saud, Chairman of Kingdom Holding Company. “Based on this premise, KONE is the only vertical transportation service provider in the world capable of delivering what we need at the Kingdom Tower—specifically the capability of traveling at a speed of over 10 meters per second with DoubleDeck elevators to reach the highest livable floor in the world in 52 seconds. In addition, the high-speed elevators will rise 660 meters to the observation deck, making it the world’s highest elevator rise.”
“Furthermore, with the use of KONE UltraRope, which is one-third of the weight of traditional ropes, we will be able to fit the DoubleDeck elevators with normal machines, a huge advantage that will enhance the sustainability of the Kingdom Tower by consuming much less power,” added Hammoud. “We are immensely proud to be associated with KONE in a relationship that will add two new world firsts to the many other industry records we are setting in building this mega landmark that will be the pride of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Last year, KONE and JEC jointly announced their partnership, which will see KONE provide all elevators and escalators inside the Kingdom Tower building. In total, KONE will manufacture and install 57 elevators and eight escalators for the Kingdom Tower project.
