BEIJING, Jan. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- When the Burj Dubai tower opens Monday, there will not be a single elevator to carry people to the 160th floor. Instead they will have to change. No elevators are installed to travel all 160 floors of the 818 metre tall tower. Instead, they are strategically grouped to align with the floor layout, offering passengers a direct express service to their destination by bypassing other floors.

A general view of the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest tower, in Dubai Jan. 3, 2010.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    In what is described as an 'intelligent elevator installation,' Burj Dubai will have 57 elevators and eight escalators streamlining the travel needs of the residents and visitors to the tower. These elevators also mark the highest installation in any building.

    Each elevator zone serves different customers, from visitors to office workers, to hotel guests, to residents, thus maximising their efficiency as a result and saving time, by the use of a sky lobby system.

    The sky lobby is an intermediate floor where residents, guests, office staff will change from an express elevator to a local elevator, which stops at every floor within a certain segment of the building. Burj Dubai’s sky lobbies are located on level 43, 76 and 123 and will include a lounge area and a kiosk, amongst other amenities.

    All elevators have been supplied and installed by global elevator leader Otis. The main service elevator, positioned in the central core of Burj Dubai, has the world’s highest elevator rise at 504 meters (1,654 ft), more than the height of the Taipei 101 in Taiwan (448 meters) and almost one-and-a-half times as high as the Empire State Building in New York (381 meters). Racing at 9 meters per second it also has the world’s longest travelling distance for an elevator. Another service lift in the spire, has the world’s highest landing at 636.9 meters.

    The double-deck elevators, with built-in light and entertainment features including LCD displays, will exclusively serve visitors to At The Top, Burj Dubai, the world’s highest outdoor observation deck situated on level 124. At the same time it will carry office workers to the sky lobby at level 123.

    The double-deck units, used for the first time in the Middle East by Otis, are the highest rising double-deck elevators in the world and will travel at a speed of 10 metres per second. They have a capacity of 12 to 14 people per cab. Another highlight is the state-of-the-art circular observation elevator that serves three floors in the Armani Hotel restaurant area.

    Unique to the elevators are 24 'green technology' machine-roomless elevators featuring flat polyurethane coated seat belts that reduce energy consumption by up to 50 percent compared with conventional units. These energy-efficient Gen2 elevators do not require any additional lubrication, making them cleaner for the environment.

    Passengers enter their chosen floor using keypads or interactive touch screens before entering the elevator. The system, after assessing the passenger requests, automatically assigns the passengers travelling to the same or nearby floors, thus reducing waiting time and travel time. According to reports it will take only 15 minutes to arrive at the 160th floor, given the lift isn't full.

    (Agencies)

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