PT shop drawings, tendon layouts and stressing schedules

Coordination before the tendons are fixed

MEP sleeves, shafts, curtain-wall embeds, late openings and column moves all push tendons sideways. Dubai Municipality’s rules say curved tendons should be avoided where possible. Where curvature is needed it must not exceed 1:12, and additional reinforcement is required. We resolve deviations on the drawing, not on site. The structural-integrity tendons through each column core are the detail most often lost when a layout is shifted, so we check them again after every revision.

Tolerances that belong on the drawing

Dubai’s regulations set placing tolerances of ±5 mm vertically and ±100 mm horizontally. They also require the theoretical elongations to be shown on a separate sheet, with site-measured elongations within ±10%. Many project specifications, and ACI 318, use a tighter ±7%. We state the band that applies, so stressing records are judged against the right number.

Stressing that matches the programme

Where early shrinkage cracking is a risk, the Dubai rules recommend two-stage stressing: about 25% of the final force once the concrete reaches 10–15 MPa, then the full force at transfer strength. Stressing sequence also matters where PT secondary beams sit on primary beams. We show both on the drawings, not in a later email.

For a Dubai Development Authority PT design approval, for example, the consultant uploads the approved structural drawings, the PT design drawings, the calculations and soft-copy models, the authority’s PT design review checklist and the specialist contractor’s trade licence. Dubai Municipality and the free-zone authorities each have their own portal and checklist. The DDA checklist, for example, covers loads that match the approved structural design, tendon spacing, service stresses, deflection, punching and seismic detailing.

We prepare the drawing set and calculation report in that format, fill in the checklist against our own design, and draft the point-by-point compliance statement if comments come back. Because our team designs the layout and works to Dubai Municipality PT criteria, the engineers answering the reviewer are the engineers who designed it.

Starting from scratch? The full design sits on our post-tension slab design page. If the layout has already been rejected once, a review and comment response may be all you need.