Egypt’s Incredibly Impressive Iconic Tower Nearing Completion
Despite the challenges created by a financial crisis, Egypt continues construction on its New Administrative Capital (NAC) and its many distinguishing features, from a manmade waterway to the tallest skyscraper in Egypt. The latter structure, aptly named Iconic Tower, is slated for completion in 2023 and will become the first supertall skyscraper on the African continent. With 77 floors, Iconic Tower will reach a height of 1,290 feet. Construction has been complicated by several factors, including incredibly hot working conditions and soft desert soil that is not ideal for a skyscraper foundation.
Iconic Tower and Its Place in the New Administrative Capital Project
The ambitious NAC project has a footprint roughly the size of Singapore. Altogether, the business center of the new city will have 20 skyscrapers, with Iconic Tower being the tallest and the first to be built. The structure proves to other developers that such a project is feasible in the desert, which could attract considerably more foreign investment to Egypt. For context on the magnitude of the project, Iconic Tower will be more than 500 feet taller than the structure previously recognized as the tallest building in Africa, The Leonardo in South Africa. As the highlight of building engineering in NAC, Iconic Tower sits in the very middle of the Central Business District.
Even though Iconic Tower is part of the first phase of construction in NAC, it has not been the focus. Instead, Egypt has mostly worked to create space for the government. While the motivation for NAC was overcrowding in Cairo, NAC will become the new capital. After the first phase is complete, the entire government will relocate to this planned city. The primary projects include a new presidential palace, a parliament, and several government ministry headquarters. In addition, the Egyptian military will get its own new home, the Octagon, which is a play on the design of the Pentagon just outside of Washington, DC. The Central Business District was not part of the plan until 2016 when China and Egypt signed a deal under the Belt and Road Initiative. Since then, this district has emerged as a central element for development.
The Swift Progress That Has Been Made on Iconic Tower
The investment from China that came under this deal included funding for the Central Business District, which will have Iconic Tower as its landmark feature. To that end, China has helped immensely in turning the vision into a reality. After all, many people looked at the project and doubted that a supertall skyscraper could ever be built in the middle of a sandy desert. The China State Construction Engineering Corporation has assumed a leadership position in the construction of the entire district, including the supertall skyscraper. This corporation helped implement the solution to the desert problem: a raft foundation consisting of a reinforced concrete slab that helps dissipate the load of the building across a large surface area. Spreading out the load helps prevent the tower from sinking into the sand. The foundation consists of almost 19 square kilometers of concrete.
One of the most impressive parts of this creative approach to a skyscraper foundation was the speed at which it was completed. Engineers introduced a specially designed concrete pumping system that can pour 785 cubic meters per hour. With this system, the entire foundation was poured in about 38 hours. For a while, the project maintained this impressive pace. The concrete core was finished in 808 days and the steel framework for each floor took only about three days. Before long, the 78 stories were complete. The economic crisis, including the skyrocketing price of construction materials, has created obstacles for NAC and the Iconic Tower. Nevertheless, Egyptians are pushing ahead with plans and still indicate that the final tower will be delivered this year, just in time for the completion of the entire first phase.
Growing Anxiety about the New Administrative Capital Project
While NAC is certainly impressive, it has also generated some anxiety among the Egyptian people. Some worry that the government has gone into too much debt to complete the project and that the financial hole being dug will come with dire consequences. Another concern has to do with the design of the new government center. After two social uprisings forced regime change in two years, the new building seems purposefully designed to prevent such revolutionary gatherings from happening again. Furthermore, the average price of a home in NAC is currently about 16 times the average household income in the country. In other words, NAC seems a place for the wealthy and privileged to escape Cairo while leaving the average Egyptian behind.