Burj Dubai facing 9 month delay

The Burj Dubai is facing up to a nine month delay and is unlikely to be finished until August or September next year, Emaar Chairman Mohammed Alabbar revealed on Monday. Alabbar told reporters in Dubai that the world's tallest building may not be completed until "August or September 2009".

"With a project like this you have to get it absolutely right," he said.

The mega-project was originally scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. The remarks are the second time Alabbar has warned construction of the Burj Dubai has fallen behind schedule. In March the chairman said the tower would likely be delayed by four months, which Emaar said in a subsequent statement was related to the interior design of the tower.

Work on the Burj Dubai was delayed in November when around 40,000 labourers employed by Arabtec, one of the construction companies working on the project, went on strike for a week over pay and conditions. Arabtec Executive Director Tom Berry said at the time the strikes could cause the company miss completion dates for some of its key projects in Dubai, without being more specific. The Burj Dubai currently stands at over 630 metres and its final height is rumoured to be between 700 and 1,000 metres, although Emaar remains tight-lipped on the subject. Local media reports last year said the final height would be 818 metres, citing architects drawings posted on the internet.

In April the tower, already the world’s tallest building and tallest free-standing structure, became the world’s tallest manmade structure, surpassed the 628.8-metre high KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, US. The Burj Dubai is to be the centrepiece of a city within a city, Downtown Burj Dubai. The $20 billion development as a whole will include 30,000 homes, nine hotels, 6.2 acres of parkland, 19 residential towers, the Dubai Mall, and a 30-acre manmade lake.