KONE, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, has initiated the very first phases of its elevator installations at the Kingdom Tower construction site in Jeddah.

The Kingdom Tower project, which is owned and developed by Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), will be the world’s tallest building once completed in 2018 and is expected to rise to a height of more than one kilometer.

KONE Areeco, KONE’s Saudi Arabian joint venture, has been involved in the planning and design of all vertical transportation systems for the Kingdom Tower over the past two years in conjunction with KONE’s global experts.

The project team arrived on site last January and is currently working on pre-installation activities concerning the fitting of the elevator system’s guiderails, which is expected to begin toward the end of this year. The installation of the guiderails, as well as the eventual installation of the KONE elevator cars, will then progress as the Kingdom Tower’s central structure rises over the coming years.

KONE’s engineering and project management teams are meticulously preparing for the next phases of the project, which will cover the manufacturing and delivery of KONE’s vertical transportation solutions. For a building with such unprecedented height, KONE will deliver advanced technology: the world’s fastest and highest DoubleDeck elevators, supported by the revolutionary KONE UltraRope technology, as well as the latest People Flow Intelligence solutions.

“I am delighted we are now at the stage of taking the next leap with KONE in the construction of the Kingdom Tower,” said Mounib Hammoud, CEO of Jeddah Economic Company, owner and developer of the Kingdom Tower and Kingdom City, which is chaired by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holding Company.

In total, KONE will manufacture and install 57 elevators and eight escalators for the Kingdom Tower project.