쌍용건설

The Korea Post (July, 20)

Touted as Singapore 21st urban icon

Ssangyong dedicates Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore

Ssangyong Engineering & Construction, one of the major builders in Korea, has completed the Marina Bay Sands Hotel that has changed skyline of Singapore emerging as a new urban icon.
The new landmark building in Singapore made a big splash with its grand opening on June 23, 2010 when the SkyPark atop the three tapering hotel towers admitted its first guests to look down over the dege of the infinity pool 57 stories(with SkyPark) above Singapore to the Singapore Flyer wheel and beyond.
Among those who attended the grand opening ceremony included chief executive officers of Ssangyong and U.S.-based hotel and casino giant Sands Group, which had ordered the construction.
The Seoul-based company has recently wrapped up the two-year construction work on the luxury hotel composed of three buildings whose height reaches 200 meters, which joins the ranks of the world’s major architectural masterpieces- Stature of Liberty in New York, Eiffel Tower in Paris, Tower Bridge in London and Sydney Opera House.
The eastern building stands at and angel of 52 degrees. In comparison, The Leaning Tower of Pisa is tilted at an angel of 5,5 degrees. The format has been recognized as a new technology by Korea’s Ministry of Land, Transport and Marine Affairs.
The three buildings, of which rooms total 2,561, share the same roof on a SkyPark with three swimming pools, and observation deck, a spa, restaurants and gardens.
Ssangyong won the project beating other leading global competitors, most of internationally renowned constructors claimed that this hotel is impossible to build due to its unique structure and format. But Ssangyong technical teams did it to silence the naysayers, Ahn Kook-jin, executive director of Ssangyong Construction who spearheaded the project told The Korea Post in a recent interview.
Ssangyong won the $686 million project in September, 2007, which is the single-largest overseas construction order garnered so far by Korean builders.
“In early stage of the construction, experts here and abroad projected that the construction would take around four years. However, we’ve managed to successfully finish the works in 27 months to show off our technological edge across the world,” Ahn added.’
According to reports made by Singaporean news media, the grand opening on June 23 at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) became a made-for-TV junk sport tower climb. The event produced great panoramas of Singapore and skirted any rules around the region against casino advertising.
The developer, Las Vegas Sands Corporation, invited everyone who’s anyone in Singapore, Diana Ross entertained. It was an occasion for the city-state to celebrate.
“Singapore has already won,” independent gaming and leisure analyst Jonathan Galaviz declared, and he’d get no argument from the hundreds attending the gala opening or from the hundreds of thousands who have visited the two IRs so far.
MBS gives Singapore a new, instantly recognizable global landmark. More practically, MBS provides Singapore with a convention center as large as any on Asia and a resident production of Broadway’s The Lion King, now opening in March next year rather than this October as previously announced, according to news reports coming from Singapore.
The hotel, designed by Moshe Shafdie, a world-renowned U.S. architect famous for his complex and modern designs, has three 55-story buildings with three stories underground. It houses 2,561 rooms, covering and area of 302,171 square meters, which is roughly twice the area of 63 building in Yeuido, Seoul, the company explained
“We succeeded in completing the construction of the project just in 27 months, far less than the suggested period of 48 months,” Ahn said pointing out that Ssangyong has proved its world-class construction capability and technological know-how by completing the project.
Ssangyong E&C then used trusses to solve the bending problem cause by vertical load transfer to the two legs of each building. It also built a new floor every three of four days and completed the framework in only 19 months.
The company came up with post-tensioning technology and others for the leaning structure and the ideas that allowed a reduction in time required for the construction period.
“For that reason, the bid for the construction project garnered much attention from construction designer construction companies around the world,” Ahn said.
Ssangyong is currently participation in the new Marina Coastal Expressway project operated by the Land Transport Authority in the Southeast Asian city-state. The five-lane expressway opens in 2020. It could cost the Singaporean government about $40 billion. The project is so massive that work had to be separated into six portions.
The expressway will link the new downtown to the western and north-eastern suburbs of Singapore. Ssangyong E&C is in charge of design and construction of a 0.56kilometer-long underground expressway and a 0.44 kilometer entry road. It will receive 820 million won for building each meter of the road, he disclosed.
Ssangyong also plans to expand business to India, Indonesia and Abu Dhabi, to name just a few.