Altair completes first 100 piles for Lanka’s tallest condominium

Construction work on Altair, Sri Lanka's tallest luxury condominium, is on track with the completion of 100 of 288 piles targeted for March 2013, INDOCEAN Developers, the promoter of the iconic project reports.

Announcing the milestone, the company said the four test piles, carried out at the Sir James Peiris Mawatha site overlooking the Beira Lake at 200 per cent of the design load, showed that each pile can successfully bear a load of 2,200 tons, which is twice the load required by the structural design.

“This kind of project demands vision, strength and determination,' said Sushil Mohta, Director of INDOCEAN Developers (private) Ltd., who visited the site during the piling. 'It's about testing oneself, always pushing to the limit. That is why INDOCEAN went out and tested the piles to twice their designed capacity.”

The Altair team that inspected the site also comprised of Directors Jugal Khetawat and Pradeep Sureka, the Structural Engineer Predrag Eror and the Vice President 'Projects Iraklis Andreakis.

'The structural integrity of all our projects is paramount among our values,' Pradeep Sureka said. INDOCEAN Director Jugal Khetawat added: 'We recently completed Wind Tunnel Tests for Altair in London by the wind-engineering experts RWDI whose project portfolio includes the tallest buildings in the world, the Burj Khalifa, Taipei 101 and Petronas Tower. '

Altair's 288 driven piles will be connected to a raft foundation so as to distribute the building loads.

The Piling Contractor for the project is San Piling, a sister company of the leading construction company Sanken Lanka. Piling work is expected to be complete by June this year.

Comprising of two tower blocks, one of which leans on to the other, Altair, with an address of 127, Sir James Peiris Mawatha, will rise to 68 stories, offering its 410 apartments spectacular views of the Beira Lake and the Indian Ocean.

The building has been designed by the globally recognized celebrity architect Moshe Safdie. Besides its 1.5 million square feet of high-end eco-friendly living space, the development will also offer 40,000 square feet of up-market retail space.

INDOCEAN is a venture of South City Group, which brings together over 150 years of cumulative development experience.