SeaWorld Abu Dhabi is set to be home to the world’s largest and most expansive marine-life aquarium, containing 25 million litres of water and housing more than 68,000 marine animals, including sharks, schools of fish, manta rays and sea turtles. A main focal view of the aquarium will present visitors with the “Endless Vista”, an impressive 20m tall vertical window across multiple levels revealing stunning aquatic scenes. MLA’s role as Specialty Structural Engineer on the project included design of the reinforced aquatic concrete pools and other aquatic concrete elements that require watertightness and durability under high-pressure loading and can support the loads from the building frame. Responsibilities for the project structural design was shared between multiple engineering design teams. The structural design approach utilizes the reinforced concrete walls of these large, multilevel aquariums as both the primary liquid containing structural system and the lateral force resisting system. As part of the lateral structural system, MLA designed the pool walls to also meet the requirements for an ordinary shear walls system in the moderate seismic region of the UAE. MLA also provided structural design and support of various theming elements throughout the facility’s aquatic features.

Key Project Staff:

Michael Leonard, P.E., S.E. Director of Engineering
Myles Parrish, P.E., Project Engineer
Aaron Eversman, P.E., S.E. QC Engineer
Linda Ji, P.E. Project Manager
Serena Baxter, P.E., S.E. Structural Engineer