SIBCO (Pepsi) mega plant floor built with time and cost savings

The challenge

This project was one of the first instances of a clad-racking design in Saudi Arabia. A conventional floor using mesh rebar would have needed to be at least 1.2 m thick, using heavy and dense reinforcement. This would also have increased the concrete casting complexity, leading to time delays and durability issues. Hence, RCR Group’s decision to use steel fiber reinforced concrete for the 7,800 m² floor.

The solution

RCR chose Bekaert’s Dramix® 4D 65/60BG fibers, a then-new product with high tensile strength. Bekaert’s design team undertook both structural and value engineering analysis to demonstrate economic and service performance. Slab thickness was reduced to almost half (700 mm) and 3,900 m³ of concrete (around 40%) was saved along with 370 man hours. Importantly, rebar fixing, a common source of workforce injury, was largely eliminated.

Fiber was supplied in time from Bekaert’s Dubai distribution center and Bekaert engineers devised the casting method statement while working with RCR to oversee precisely controlled fiber mixing and quality control on site.

It is estimated that this approach yielded a cost saving of around €185,000.