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Procedia Engineering 14 (2011) 1089–1097

The Twellfth East Assia-Pacific Conference

C on Structurral Engineerring and Coonstruction

Dessign andd Constru

uction oof Sentossa Integrated Reesort
Develoopmentss in Sing
gapore wwith Meega Steell Trusse s using
Chinnese Struuctural Steels
S
H. Y. LEE1,a,b aand Z. X. HOU
H 2,b
1
AECOM Building
B Engineeering, Hong Kong g SAR, China
2
C
Centre Research Institute of Buildding and Construcction, Beijing, Ch
hina

Abstract

This paper ddescribes the construction of

o the Sentosaa Integrated Resort
R Develoopment in Singngapore which h
is one of tthe major deevelopments to attract vissitors all oveer the world.. The first pphrase of thee
Developmennt is completeed within 3 years
y throughh the use of precast
p concreete and steel construction..
Moreover, hheavy mega stteel trusses aree fabricated w
with Chinese steel materials, and the entirre fabrication,,
transportatioon and erectioon process is found to be highly successsful through implementatiion of quality y
assurance mmanagement syystems.

© 2011 Published by Elseevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

Keywords: Larrge scale construcction, fast track construction, Chinnese steels, qualitty control.

a
Corresponding author: hy.lee@
@aecom.com
b
Presenter: hy.lee@aecom.comm and hzxlxl@sinaa.com

1877–7058 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.137
1090 H.Y. LEE and Z.X. HOU / Procedia Engineering 14 (2011) 1089–1097

1. Introdu
uction

As shownn in Figure 1, the Sentosa Integrated Reesort Develop pment is locatted at the norrth-east of thee
Sentosa Islaand, Singaporee with approx ximately a 6500 m long waterfront frontin ng the Cruise Bay, and thee
total site areea is about 49 hectares. It co
omprises a colllection of theematic hotel reesorts, family leisure themee
parks, a museum, a casinno, retails and other entertaiinment facilittates. It involves the constrruction of a 2
level basemeent substructuure, six hotels with a total oof 1800 rooms, namely, i) Hard
H Rock Hottel, ii) Festivee
Hotel, iii) C
Crockfords Hotel, iv) Hotel Michael, v) E Equarius Hotel, and vi) ESP PA Villas. Othher attractionss
include the theme park of the Universaal Studio Singgapore having g 22 show and d ride attractioons. It should
d
be noted thaat the 2 level basement sub bstructure meeasures approx ximately 375 x 818 m at L Level B1, and d
353m x 395m at Level B22, as shown in n Figure 2. Thhe key featurees in the civil and
a structurall design of thee
Developmennt include:
x Landd reclamation works
w on 2 sittes.
x A 2 llevel basemennt substructuree on a raft founndation with drainage
d blank
kets.
x Openn cut excavatioon retaining syystems with ssoil nails.
x Undeerpinning and strengthening g works to thee existing Senttosa Express Monorail.
M
x 74 m span mega trrusses providing a column-ffree ballroom m inside the Haard Rock Hoteel with a floorr
area oof about 7,0000 m2.
x 58 m span mega trusses
t provid
ding a columnn-free showroo om inside the Festive Hoteel with a floorr
area oof about 5,0000 m2.
x Supeerstructures foor six hotels adopting a m mixture of reiinforced concrete and pre--cast concretee
consttruction togetther with a number
n of 200 m span traansfer beams and slabs too support thee
superrstructures.
x Overr 80 types of steel roofs and
d canopies.
x Part oof the theme park
p of USS sits on the e-deeck of the basement supporting an eco lag
agoon.
x Mostt of the indoor rides are hooused within a long span stteel structure with precast ccladdings and d
greenn roofs.
x Largee span ETFE canopies prov viding weatherr shield to thee park users.
It should be noted thatt the constructtion site was hhanded over to the client in
n December 20006 while thee
project was planned to be completed by b early 20100. With this huge
h amount of
o constructionn, and a tightt
design and construction period,
p the cllient specifiedd fast track co
onstruction in
n all the strucctures and thee
 H.Y. LEE and Z.X. HOU / Procedia Engineering 14 (2011) 1089–1097 1091

buildings. T
This paper describes some of
o the key des ign features of
o the Develop
pment, in partticular, that off
the Festive Hall togetherr with the deesign and connstruction of the mega steeel trusses foor the Le Viee
Showroom iinside the Hottel.

Figure 2: Consttruction site of thhe Development

2. Structu
ural system off the festive hotel
h

The Festiive Hotel is a L-shaped reiinforced conccrete structuree, a 9 storey toower, a numbber of transferr
structures att L3 and L5, and
a a 2 level basement
b subsstructure (Levvels B2 and B1).
B Moreoverr, a 60 x 80 m
showroom is located at thhe central porttion of the Hottel at Level B1,
B namely, thee Le Vie Show wroom. Theree
is a further 10 m deep basement
b below the Show wroom for faccilities use. Itt should be nnoted that thee
swimming ppools and the landscaped deeck at Level L L3, shown in Figure
F 3a, aree located direcctly above thee
Showroom w which are suppported by a number
n of 58 m long megaa steel trusses so that the Shhowroom can n
provide a 5,0000 m2 colummn-free floor area
a for the par ark users, showwn in Figure 3b.
3

(a) Swimm
ming pools and laandscaped deck at
a Level L3 (b) The LV Showroom with a column-free spa
pace and a floor
area of 5,000 m2
Figure 3: Loadiing and support conditions
c of 58 m long mega steeel trusses
1092 H.Y. LEE and Z.X. HOU / Procedia Engineering 14 (2011) 1089–1097

2.1. Design consideration

The structural forms of various supporting systems of the entire building of the Festive Hotel are
presented in subsequent sections together with some brief descriptions on the practical considerations of
the building construction.

2.2. Gravity load supporting system

The gravity loads of the buildings include the self-weight of the structures, the superimposed dead loads
(such as finishes, services and utilities loads, etc.) and the imposed loads. These loads are carried by the
reinforced concrete floor slabs at typical floors, which are in turn supported by the load bearing walls or
the shear walls at the typical guest room floors at a 4.1 m centre to centre.

The load bearing walls or the shear walls are supported by a number of columns at the transfer levels, i.e.
Levels L5 and L3, and these columns will go down to the basement level. The gravity loads are finally
transmitted through the podium, and the columns in the basement, the shear walls of the lift shafts as well
as the staircases onto firm soil stratums through the raft foundation and the piling system.

2.3. Lateral load support system

Since the building is only 9 storey high, the wind load is found to be only 0.65 kPa. The lateral loads
acting on to the building is resisted by the shear walls at typical floor through the transfer plates onto the
beam column frames as well as by the shear walls of the lift shafts at the podium level of the basement
substructure. Finally, the lateral loads are finally transferred to the foundation through the beam-column
frames of the basement substructure and the shear walls of the lift shafts.

2.4. Overall structural design scheme

Since the Festive Hotel has over 400 guestrooms and the rest of the hotels also have similar numbers
of guestrooms, the following scheme is adopted for the design and construction in terms of the repetition
of the number of units, and also for fast-track construction.
x Semi-precast floor slabs, and precast or semi-precast bathrooms are adopted for typical floor of
the guest rooms.
x Corridor slabs, shear walls, transfer plates, columns as well as staircases are all cast in-situ.

2.5. Transfer plate system

A staggered transfer plate system is provided at both Levels L5 and L3 to suit the architectural layout
of the building. The transfer plate transfers all the loadings from the guestrooms at Levels L5 and L3
above respectively to the columns below, and then in turn, being carried down to the foundation. The
thickness of the transfer plate is 700 mm at Level L5, and 850 mm with a localized drop head of 1350
mm at Level L3. The transfer plate system is able to provide a large space for function rooms and other
hotel services at the podium level.
The following structural design concepts are implemented for this fast-track project:
 H.Y. LEE and Z.X. HOU / Procedia Engineering 14 (2011) 1089–1097 1093

x To adopt semi-pprecast constrruction to typpical floor slaab at the gueestroom levells in order to o
minnimize erectioon of formworrk, and to arraange constructtion procedures to be carrieed out off sitee
andd yet parallel with
w the in-situ site works, rresulting in siignificant saviing in construcction time.
x To adopt precastt constructionn to bathroomss in order to save
s constructtion time. By doing so, thee
quaality of the finnished produccts is fully guuaranteed by factory
f superv
visors or repreesentatives off
the main contracctor before dellivery to site.
In generaal, due to the relatively high local labourr costs and material
m costs, adoption of ppre-cast workss
reduces the construction cost
c consideraably, and thes e works are carried out in Malaysia
M in w
which both thee
labour and thhe material coosts are low.
Moreover, mega steell trusses with h a span of 58 m at Lev vel L3 suppoorting a numbber of heavy y
swimming ppools and a heavy
h landscaaped area on tthe top of thee trusses, andd to provide a column-freee
space with a floor area off 5,000 m2 as well
w as a highh and clear headroom to thee Le Vie Show wroom below..
Furthermoree, in order to cater for the staggered levvel transfer for fo one side of the L-shapeed building, a
transfer platte at Level L5 and a š-shap ped transfer pllate at Level L3
L are provideed.

Figure 4: Structural form of the twin truss

3. MEGA Steel trusses at

a L3 for the L V showroom
m

The Le VVie Showroom m at Level B1 requires a collumn-free spacce with a large clear headrooom area. Thee
dimensions of the Showrooom are abou ut 60 x 85 m, and it is locatted right below
w the swimmiming pools and d
the landscapped deck at Level L3. Hence, seven num mbers of 6.25 m deep megaa steel trussess, each with a
span of 43 tto 58 m are prrovided to suppport the swimmming pools with 1.8 m hiigh water andd a landscaped d
deck with 1.2 m soil and plantation at Level L3. Onn both ends off the trusses, twot 2 m diam meter columnss
are providedd as supports.
As shownn in Figure 4, a twin steel--concrete com mposite truss, in the form ofo a Pratt trusss, is adopted,,
and they aree designed to span
s continuo
ously with fixeed-framed con nnections to th
he columns wiith a further 2
m overhangg at each end in both the top t and the bbottom chordss. As the twin n trusses beha
have in a way y
similar to coontinuous beaams, the cross--section dimennsions of both
h the top and the bottom chhord memberss
1094 H.Y. LEE and Z.X. HOU / Procedia Engineering 14 (2011) 1089–1097

of the trussees are optimized according to their structu

tural use, i.e. strength
s and deflection,
d to pprovide a costt
effective dessign.
These truusses are suppported by rein nforced concreete columns withw Grade 55 5 concrete, annd they sit on
n
both sides oof steel stancchions which are inserted inside the reeinforced conccrete columnss. During thee
erection of the structurall steelwork, both
b the megaa steel trusses and the steel stanchionss are installed d
together, andd the portionss of the colum
mns with the innserted steel stanchions
s at the
t truss levell are then castt
with concrette. In the megga steel trusses, the top choord members are a designed to t act compossitely with thee
floor slab w
whilst the bottoom chords aree in-filled withh concrete. Inn this way, commposite actionn in the megaa
steel trussess are readily developed
d to not
n only enhan ance the bucklling resistancees of the mem mbers but alsoo
improve theeir overall dyynamic perfo ormance. Furtthermore, thee mega steel truss designn relieves thee
requirementt of lifting a single
s heavy steel truss duuring construcction, and provides a large headroom to o
create luxuryy spaces for entertainment
e facilities.

Figure 4: Reinfforced concrete coolumns supportin

ng the mega steel trusses

The strucctural design of the mega steel trusses satisfies variious requirem ments of both ultimate and d
serviceabilitty limit statess. For ultimatte limit state, the load com mbination is in i accordancee with British h
Standard BS S 5950 (BSI 2000).
2 For serrviceability liimit state, the limiting criteeria of the steeel trusses aree
specified in Table 1 as folllows:
Built-up box sections are used as the t top and thhe bottom ch hord memberss of the megaa steel trussess
whereas buiilt-up I sectioons are adop pted for both the vertical and the incliined chord m members. Thee
 H.Y. LEE and Z.X. HOU / Procedia Engineering 14 (2011) 1089–1097 1095

thicknesses of the steel plates range from 30 to 60 mm for the box sections, and from 16 to 40 mm for the
I sections. In the original design, all the mega steel trusses were designed to BS5950 with Grade 355 steel
(1) to a BS EN standard. However, the design was modified later because Chinese steel materials were
adopted by the client for the structural steelwork, and Grade Q345 steel (2,3) was adopted. As the truss
design was generally governed by serviceability criteria, i.e. deflection and floor vibration, or more
precisely the stiffness or the flexural rigidity of the trusses, lowering the material grade did not cause any
increase in the total tonnages of the steel trusses. Table 2 summarizes the material grades and the design
strengths of steel members and bolts for the trusses.

Table 1: Limiting criteria of the steel trusses

Self-weight of wet concrete during construction 35 mm

Pre-camber to beams with deflection due to self-weight of wet
10 to 75 mm
Beam deflection concrete
Imposed loads L / 250
Total deflection 110

Nature frequency of floor beam less than 5 Hz

Table 2: Material grades and design strengths of steel members and bolts for the trusses
Steel grade for built-up sections Plate thickness of Chinese steel plates to GB
Strength (N/mm2)
designed in accordance to BS5950 Standards
Q345-B < 40 mm 325
Q345-C < 45 mm 295
Q345GJ-C < 60 mm 325

High strength bolts

Design strengths Strength (N/mm2)
designed in accordance to BS5950
Chinese (GB) Grade 8.8 Shear strength, ps 250
Bearing strenght, pb 720
Tension strength, pt 400
Chinese (GB) Grade 10.9 Shear strength, ps 310
Bearing strenght, pb 930
Tension strength, pt 500

4. Fabrication and erection of mega steel trusses

The mega steel trusses were fabricated in China, shipped in loose cargos to Singapore, and then
assembled by welding on site as shown in Figure 5. A comprehensive inspection and testing plan with
critical holding points during steelwork fabrication was formulated, and written in the contract to ensure
quality workmanship. All welded sections were visually inspected, and selected samples were tested by
an independent testing agency which was mutually agreed among from the contractor and the consultants.
In order to fit in the limitations of land transportation, the mega steel trusses were divided into five to
eight segments with a maximum length of 13.3 m.
A total of 13 mega steel trusses were erected, and the main constraints encountered were site access,
lifting limits, and crane coverage. As permitted by the site condition, as shown in Figure 5, a number of
latticed columns, and foundation boxes and bracings were erected as temporary access roads for two 150
1096 H.Y. LEE and Z.X. HOU / Procedia Engineering 14 (2011) 1089–1097

ton crawler cranes which have a main boom of 48 m m. It should be

b noted that a total of abouut 400 tons off
steel sectionns and plates were
w used to build
b the temp orary access road
r for the crranes.

Figure 5: Assem
mbly of mega steeel trusses on site

Moreover, owing to the t limited caapacity of thee lifting cranees, the mega steel trusses could not bee
hoisted as a single piece in
i one erection process. Insstead, a number of truss seg gments were llifted onto thee
assembly plaatforms in varrious zones. Itt should be nooted that each of the truss segments was iinspected and d
verified by a site staff ass well as by an independeent testing ageent before hoisting, and thhey were then n
assembled bby site weldiing in a horiizontal positiion at design nated assembly platforms. The averagee
constructionn cycle for thhe erection off one mega ssteel truss waas seven dayss, including in installation off
temporary ccrane accessess, temporary supports
s and secondary steeel beams spanning betweeen the trusses..
The whole erection proccess took abo out three monnths to compllete, including g relocating aall temporaryy
structures annd assembly platforms.
p

5. Conclu
usions

This papeer describes thhe constructioon of the Sento

tosa Integrated
d Resort Deveelopment in Siingapore, and d
the first phrrase of the Deevelopment is completed w within 3 years through the use
u of precastt concrete and d
steel construuction. Hencee, it is imporrtant to utilizee effective prre-cast and stteel constructiion to ensuree
constructionn completion within
w a tight design and coonstruction proogramme. Mo oreover, the aadvanced steell
constructionn technology ofo Chinese con nstruction commpanies is connsidered to be highly satisfaactory. Heavyy
mega steel ttrusses are fabbricated with Chinese stee l materials, an nd the entire fabrication, trransportation,,
 H.Y. LEE and Z.X. HOU / Procedia Engineering 14 (2011) 1089–1097 1097

and erection process is found to be highly successful through implementation of quality assurance
management systems.

References

[1] British Standards Institution, BS 5950-1. Structural use of steelwork in building – Part 1: Code of practice for design –
Rolled and welded sections, British Standards Institution, 2000.
[2] GB 50017-2003. Code for design of steel structures, Ministry of Construction, China, 2003.
[3] GB/T19879-2005. Steel plate for building structures, State Administration of Technical Supervision and Inspection,
China, 2005.