Egypt

Cairo, one of the largest cities in the Middle East, faced a chronic shortage of specialist doctors, medical equipment, and medical facilities at its public medical institutions.

This construction project was aimed at expanding the facilities at the Cairo University Specialized Pediatric Hospital (CUSPH), which predominantly provided paediatric services to poor communities. The hospital was established in 1982 with the support of Japan and is known locally as the “Japanese Hospital”. However, with aging facilities and limited space, a plan was developed to build a new internal medicine building, which improved outpatient services and enhanced its education function as a university hospital.

The retaining wall construction, incorporating below ground excavation, was originally planned to use traditional construction methods.

However, potential negative impacts on adjacent brick buildings as well as high ground water levels led to a change in design to use of sheet pile press-in technology. From among the press-in alternatives, the GIKEN Zero Clearance Method using NS-SP-J zero sheet piles, which had been used extensively in Japan, was adopted to ensure the elimination of dead space between adjacent structures to make effective use of the site while still sharing it with other facilities.