Dubai Metro – The Longest Driverless Metro in the World

Dubai is at the forefront of building “Taller Longer Lighter” structures, with the Burj Khalifa which is the tallest building and the Dubai Metro which is the Longest fully automated driverless metro rail in the world. This paper describes the design and construction challenges in successfully implementing the Dubai Metro viaducts. Majority of the deck comprises a slender precast post- tensioned decks erected by launching gantries while the longer span decks are box-girders erected by balanced cantilever method. The viaducts are mainly supported by a single-pier and single mono-pile arrangement which significantly reduced the substructure costs. Significant challenges were posed by the onerous construction loading from the overhead gantries used to erect deck segments. Other critical issues including the fatigue performance of cranked reinforcement, rail- structure interaction and the design of elastomeric bearings are discussed.