Foundation in the Desert

Dubai's ground is mostly sand and weak rock — poor footing for the world's tallest tower. The fix was to anchor it deep:

• 192 concrete piles driven into the ground, each 1.5 meters across
• A foundation mat 3.7 meters thick, using about 12,500 cubic meters of concrete
• Pours done at night, because daytime heat would crack the curing concrete

The concrete mix was engineered to survive the salty, sulfate-heavy groundwater that would eat through ordinary concrete in a few decades.