Work on Corinthia Tripoli Hotel's foundations completed

by a staff reporter

How can one possibly dispose of 2,000 tons of cement (a full shipload), 6,000 tons of aggregate, 4,000 tons of sand and 1,000,000 litres of water in a mere 48 hours?

That is exactly what Corinthia's Quality Project Management Ltd and Attard Bros Co. Ltd managed to do recently, when a workforce of 60 Maltese and 120 other nationals conducted a major continuous pour of a 5,500 cubic metre concrete "raft" foundation, acting as a platform for the 28-storey tower block of the Corinthia Tripoli Hotel in Libya. This will be one of the two towers featuring prominently in this impressive hotel. The raft foundation for the lower, 14-storey tower block was cast in April of this year.

The current, and larger of the two "rafts", designed to carry the high tower's load of 100,000 tons, sits on top of 220 massive concrete pillars, each measuring one metre in diameter and buried to a depth of 23 metres into the ground. These were cast earlier this year using another 4,000 cubic metres of concrete.

To-date, 40,000 cubic metres of concrete have been batched on the hotel site. 230 workers, including 80 Maltese project and construction managers, architects, engineers, surveyors, laboratory technicians and skilled labourers will have been engaged to complete this immense project according to the established time frame and to exacting five-star Corinthia standards. "This is the biggest and most ambitious overseas project undertaken by Quality Project Management Ltd to date, indeed, by any Maltese company. The dedication and professionalism being demonstrated here by all the employees concerned certainly augurs well for the company's future prospects both in Malta and overseas," said Quality Project Management Ltd chairman, Gerald Borg.

When completed by around May of 2002, the five-star Corinthia Tripoli Hotel is set to become a prominent landmark in the Libyan capital. The hotel will feature 300 luxurious rooms and suites all with panoramic sea-views, various catering outlets, outdoor and indoor pools, a fitness centre, an outstanding conference and business centre, an office block and an independent 6,000-square-metre shopping mall.