Record concrete pours seen in 2017

The biggest UK concrete pour of 2017 may have been at the new Airbus centre at Filton near Bristol in December. The installation required 3,500 tonnes of concrete to be poured over a period of 24 hours.

To transport the huge quantity of concrete for the Airbus centre required 240 lorry loads. Concrete from lorries was poured every six minutes. The completed floor is part of the Airbus Wing Integration Centre, where engineers research construction improvements for aircraft wings. To house an aircraft wing requires a floor space of more than 10,000 square feet, which is equal to about two football pitches.

Though sizeable, the Airbus concrete flooring was not the largest concrete pour in the world during 2017. According to Guinness World Records, the biggest was for a residential block in Dubai, United Arab Emirates that required 21,580 cubic metres of concrete. The pour took over two days between May 18 and 20 last year. Over 500 workers were used during the pour, supervised by lead engineer Nabil Korbaj. Strict safety measures were taken to make sure that no worker was injured when pouring such large quantities.

Most industrial concrete floors are much smaller than these two projects. It remains to be seen whether concrete floors will be constructed in 2018 to qualify for a new British or World concrete pouring record. In theory, there is no limit to the size of a concrete pour as long as there are enough trucks and workers available.