Design of Ain Dubai Observation Wheel
Situated at the Bluewaters Island with a towering 250 m height, Ain Dubai knocks out the London Eye (135 m) and the Las Vegas giant wheel (167 m), by a significant margin, making it the tallest Ferris wheel in the world.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Starneth Engineering were the primary design and construction contractors for the project while KCI the engineers designed and engineered the complete wheel structure. The construction began in May 2015, and its completion was postponed due to the pandemic. The wheel opened only on 21 October 2021.
In totality, Ain Dubai is designed with 48 capsules, each of which can accommodate 40 visitors, which means a maximum of up to 1,750 people can ride the Dubai Eye at a given time. Each of the 192 cables has a force of 300 tonnes at their pinnacle and they all meet at the center. The length of each spoke on the wheel is about as long as a professional football pitch!
It was made using 11,200 tonnes of steel to work, which is 33% more than what was used to construct the Eiffel Tower. The wheel rim of the structure weighs close to 9,305 tonnes, which is equivalent to the weight of 16 A-380 airplanes. The wheel has been designed to have a lifetime of 60 years, or 300,000 cycles, and to withstand one in a 2,475-year earthquake and a 100-miles-per-hour storm.
