World’s fastest doubledeck elevators installed in Saudi Kingdom Tower

Press Release Published 05/10/2015

KONE announced today that it has initiated the first phases of elevator installations for the Kingdom Tower currently under construction in Jeddah. The elevators will be the fastest in the world once installed.

As a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, 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.

The Kingdom Tower, which is owned and developed by Jeddah Economic City (JEC), will be the world’s tallest building once completed in 2018.

“I am delighted we are now at the stage of taking the next leap with KONE in the construction of the Kingdom Tower,” said Mr. 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.

KONE’s engineering and project management teams are preparing for the next phases of the project which will cover the manufacturing and delivery of KONE’s vertical transportation solutions.

Therefore, for a building with such unprecedented height, KONE will deliver uniquely advanced technology including the world’s fastest and highest DoubleDeck elevators, supported by the revolutionary KONE UltraRope® technology, as well as the latest People Flow Intelligence solutions.

Hammoud added: “Building the tallest tower in the world is about human ingenuity and the strength of the materials used.

“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 travelling at a speed of over 10 meters per second with DoubleDeck elevators to reach the highest liveable 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.”

The new technology introduced includes the revolutionary KONE UltraRope®, a brand new high-rise elevator technology that is set to break industry limits by enabling future elevator travel heights of 1 kilometer – twice the distance currently possible.

With twice the lifetime of the conventional steel rope, the KONE UltraRope®is also extremely light, cutting an estimated 20 per cent of the energy consumption in high-rise buildings.

Though the technology is new to the region, KONE said that it is currently tendering for 10 other projects where they hope to use the new UltraRope® technology, though the company declined to mention which ones.

KONE and JEC jointly announced their partnership last year with the latter providing all vertical transportation, including 57 elevators and eight escalators.

Kingdom Tower is the centrepiece and first construction phase of the Kingdom City development, located along the Red Sea on the north side of Jeddah.

Encompassing a construction area of 530,000m2, Kingdom Tower is designed by architect Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture and the construction of the building has been commissioned to Saudi Bin Laden Group. Dar Al Handasa is the project’s construction supervisor, while E.C. Harris / Mace JV is managing the project.

For further information, please contact:
Noha Kadora, Marketing and Communications Manager, KONE Middle East, tel. +971 42734500

By: The Big 5 HUB

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