Corrientes Administrative Complex | Corrientes, Argentina
High-Rise Concrete Forming for the Corrientes Administrative Complex
Corrientes, Argentina
Modern Infrastructure for More Efficient Public Service
To bring the Province of Corrientes’s public offices under one roof. The new complex brings the provincial government’s agencies together in one location in the city of Corrientes, Argentina, replacing scattered facilities with a single, efficient destination for residents who need public services. It is made up of three office towers that share a similar floor plan and a distinctive hexagonal geometry, built around circular columns, elevator and stair cores, and waffle slabs at both single and double height. When it opens, citizens will spend less time traveling between buildings, and the province will have a headquarters built to meet the demands of public administration today.
Can One Formwork Supplier Handle an Entire High Rise?
Yes. EFCO formed and shored every structural element of this commercial high rise, all three towers, from the ground floor up. PANEDILE ARGENTINA, a well-established name in Argentina’s heavy construction industry, faced a complex project and brought in EFCO to form and shore its most demanding structural elements. EFCO supplied all of the formwork and shoring for this commercial high-rise, covering every structural element in all three towers from the ground floor up. The two companies have a long working history together, but that wasn’t the deciding factor on its own. EFCO earned the job on the strength of its equipment reliability, hands-on engineering support through every phase of planning and execution, and its ability to shape solutions around the project’s requirements. PANEDILE ARGENTINA also had EFCO components on hand from previous projects, allowing the team to put existing inventory straight to work.
The project’s site conditions called for a mix of EFCO systems: the E-Z DECK® shoring system, deployed in both tower and single-post configurations; the EFCO LITE® forming system paired with SUPER STUD®; the EFCO Round Column®; and EFCO DECK® reshoring posts.
How Do You Form One Project With So Many Structural Conditions?
By matching a different EFCO system to each condition instead of forcing one approach on all of them. Most buildings can be built with a single formwork and shoring system from top to bottom. This complex could not. Within the same project, crews formed single-height and double-height waffle slabs, circular columns, and elevator and stair cores, each with its own demands. The waffle slabs were the largest task. PANEDILE ARGENTINA was casting them with its own reusable pan molds, so EFCO adapted its E-Z DECK® slab formwork and shoring to fit those molds rather than forcing a change in method, thereby protecting the client’s construction sequence, safety standards, and pace. Crews carried the single-height bays on E-Z DECK® post shoring and the taller double-height bays on E-Z DECK® shoring towers. Once a slab gained strength, EFCO DECK® posts took over the reshoring so the forming equipment could move up to the next floor. This is elevated slab shoring and beam formwork engineered around the contractor’s existing work.
How Does Reusing Shoring Lower Concrete Cost?
By getting more work out of the same equipment. At ground level, E-Z DECK® shoring towers carried about 10,120 sq ft (940 sq m) of waffle slabs and beams. On the typical floors above, two sets of E-Z DECK® handled roughly 20,240 sq ft (1,880 sq m), and EFCO DECK® posts reshored the same 20,240 sq ft (1,880 sq m) below them. EFCO laid out the shoring so that one set of components could serve both the low and tall bays, reducing the amount of equipment on site and the labor required to move it. The elevator and stair cores worked the same way: using the EFCO LITE® forming system with SUPER STUD® for core wall forming, crews ran a single set of forms on a planned rotation, finishing one stage and resetting for the next without waiting on more material. Reusing components, cutting concrete cycle time, and reducing the labor to reposition equipment are how EFCO reached the Lowest In-Place Concrete Cost (LIPCC) on this job: the lowest total cost to place a unit of concrete once labor, equipment, and schedule are counted together, and a direct source of concrete construction cost savings.
How Were the Circular Columns Formed?
With EFCO Round Column® forms, about 23 per floor. Crews stacked form segments to build each 23.6 in (600 mm) diameter column to a full height of 17 ft 9 in (5,400 mm), then braced each column with telescopic shores adjustable from 11.8 ft to 20 ft (3,600 mm to 6,100 mm). This circular formwork is engineered for a maximum concrete pressure of 3,000 psf (144 kPa), so crews could place concrete at a productive rate while staying within the design limits set by ACI 347-14. Quick-connecting hardware let workers close and strip the column formwork between pours, and using the same setup on every column kept the finished concrete consistent across all three towers.
Why PANEDILE Chose EFCO
PANEDILE ARGENTINA chose EFCO because the job needed more than formwork. It needed a partner that could adapt to the way the client had already built and remain flexible as plans changed. The architectural design was revised more than once during construction, and each time EFCO reworked its engineering and returned it on time, so the schedule held and the crews kept working. EFCO trained PANEDILE’s people on site, supported the work as it went up, and stayed close enough to head off problems before they cost time. Dependable equipment, inventive engineering across changing conditions, clear and honest communication, and fast field service keep the complex moving safely and efficiently, and they consistently deliver the Lowest In-Place Concrete Cost. As project manager Claudio De Gerónimo put it:
“PANEDILE chose EFCO for this building complex because of the confidence the system gives us, and because we already owned components we had purchased earlier that we could add to the needs of the job. When it comes to making decisions, EFCO’s willingness, technical guidance, and engineering expertise are essential. More than once, that engineering had to change due to revisions to the architectural design, and EFCO always responded promptly and on time. We also have to mention that when it came time to train our people, the EFCO team was on-site supporting the process. Technically, the system is strong, reliable, and well resolved, and it adapted perfectly to the particulars of this job, with its hexagonal floor plans and waffle slabs.”
— Claudio De Gerónimo, Project Manager, PANEDILE ARGENTINA
EFCO Equipment
Panedile Argentina
- Claudio De Gerónimo, Project Manager
Emanuel Saavedra, Project Director
Camilo Olivera, Foreman
EFCO Formwork Specialists – Argentina
- Gabriela Loveri, Territory Manager
Mario Patiño, Engineer
Facundo Basilis, Field Supervisor
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