19 sep 19 | Construction Week Online
Expo 2020 Dubai video features HE Reem Al Hashimy praising Al Wasl Plaza; says 'she carries the original name of Dubai'
By Neha Bhatia
Expo 2020 Dubai has revealed a video – featuring HE Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director General of Expo 2020 Dubai; Expo 2020 Dubai’s chief development and delivery officer, Ahmed Al Khatib; and architect Gordon Gill, among other stakeholders – detailing the engineering required to place the final piece of its Al Wasl Plaza into place.
Al Hashimy says during the video that “Al Wasl is not like any other building” on the World Expo’s 4.38km2 site, adding: “She is the heart of the site – she carries the original name of Dubai [and is] by far the most beautiful, the most exquisite [building].”
Enclosing a space of 724,000m3 and standing 67.5m-tall – higher than the Leaning Tower of Pisa – the 130m-wide Al Wasl Dome's steel trellis encircles Al Wasl Plaza, located at the heart of the 4.38km2 Expo 2020 Dubai site.
The crowning of Al Wasl Plaza’s dome took 14 months of preparation, starting on 26 June 2018, when the final pieces of the dome’s steel trellising were shipped from Italy. The individual elements reached Dubai in July 2018, and the crown was assembled at ground level before being raised.
The final piece of Al Wasl Plaza’s dome will now be welded to the rest of the trellis through a process expected to take 25 days.