Big Project ME

079

OCTOBER 2012 www.bigprojectme.com

Cover project

Khalifa Port

Onsite

Marina 101, Dubai

Special feature

Bridge engineering

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

PROJECT COUNTDOWN

ADPC CEO Tony Douglas explains how to manage a project the size of a small country ALSO INSIDE:

PROJECT FINANCE DYNAMICS

THE CASE FOR HSA

DAMAC’S ZIAD EL CHAAR BIM DE-BUNKED

CONTENTS

PAGE 28:

M MIDDLE EAST

A VIEW FROM THE TOP

Why project delays don’t need to end in court.

OCTOBER 2012 11

REGIONAL NEWS TOP TENDERS Rounding up the region’s top road project announcements

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NEWS ANALYSIS HOME MADE SOLUTION How project financing is coming home as the European banking crisis continues

24

IN PROFILE DAMAC MD Ziad El Chaar on the developer’s success signals

28

ON SITE TAV A tour of the re-started supertall Marina 101, at Dubai Marina

33

INSIDER BIG PROJECT MIDDLE EAST 2012 AWARDS How to nominate, who will be there and why you shouldn’t miss out on Big Project Middle East’s 2012 awards ceremony BIG 5 PREVIEW Middle East Concrete and FM Expo organisers explain Big 5’s changing structure

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COVER STORY KHALIFA PORT ADPC CEO Tony Douglas on how to manage a mega project the size of a small country and deliver it on time and on budget

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SUPPLIER NEWS

52

SPECIAL FEATURE BRIDGES Bridge builders from different sectors explain how they built the region’s finest

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ROUNDTABLE INCENTIVISING SAFETY Insurance, legal and construction commentators debate the best methods to enhance onsite health and safety

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CONSTRUCTION IT DE-BUNKING THE BIM Blog author Zola Murray on the motivation behind her daily blog and her hopes for the future of the industry

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COMMENT

68

TENDERS

77

DIARY

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A WORD FROM THE WEB

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

SAEED ALABBAR Why modern sustainability isn’t what it used to be

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EDITOR’S COMMENT

M MIDDLE EAST

BIGPROJECTME.COM

Thinking big WHEN LIVING IN the Middle East – where the worth of a project is based on how many superlatives precede it – it’s easy to feel lost in the scale and speed of developments. After a short while immersed the culture such claims soon fall on deaf ears, making it ever more difficult to capture a ‘wow factor’... intended or not.

But sometimes, the most impressive part of a project is in the detail rather than the bigger picture; not the speed but the long term objective. When writing this month’s cover story the ‘Tortoise and the Hare’ fable came to mind; the importance of the long race, not the short; the competition nobody saw.

Over the course of the last two years, ADPC has steered the construction of Khalifa Port phase one to a timetable so meticulous it was possible not only to schedule a precise handover date, but also a time.

To put that ‘into perspective’ the project area is the size of a small country and incorporates a supporting industrial zone and massive road building projects.

Taking that small country piece by piece, is the only way to comprehend the scale of this particular project.

The port has the first and third longest bridges in the UAE; the world’s largest conveyor belt – at 14km – and the six largest ship to shore cranes. And the story is far from over; construction will continue until full capacity is reached in 2030, at which point Khalifa Port will be processing 15 million TEUs in container traffic and 35 million tons of general cargo.

Yet far from the attention that would surround any other project with so many record breaking attributes, Khalifa Port has developed away from the fanfare despite being one of the most significant pieces of infrastructure currently under construction.

Also in this issue, we gather experts from law, insurance and contracting to discuss the various approaches available to incentivise onsite health and safety and we also visit Marina 101, the delayed highrise at Dubai Marina, that is once again set to become the second highest tower in the UAE! In other news, September marked the opening of nominations for the 2012 Big Project Middle East Awards. The full ‘how to’ guide begins on page 33 and we look forward to receiving your nomination and welcoming you to the ceremony on December 4.

PUBLISHER DOMINIC DE SOUSA GROUP COO NADEEM HOOD MANAGING DIRECTOR RICHARD JUDD EDITORIAL EDITOR MELANIE MINGAS melanie@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9117 ONLINE EDITOR GAVIN DAVIDS gavin@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9118 DESIGN DESIGN DIRECTOR RUTH SHEEHY ruth@cpidubai.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER REBECCA TEECE rebecca@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9168 MARKETING & ADVERTISING PUBLISHING DIRECTOR RAZ ISLAM raz@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9129 COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR MICHAEL STANSFIELD michael@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9128 SALES MANAGER DHANUSHKA ARJUNA dhanushka@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9163 MARKETING MANAGER CAROLE MCCARTHY carolem@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9157 CIRCULATION & PRODUCTION CIRCULATION AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGER rochelle@cpidubai.com ROCHELLE ALMEIDA +971 4 368 1670 DATABASE AND CIRCULATION MANAGER RAJEESH M rajeesh@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9147 PRODUCTION MANAGER JAMES P THARIAN james@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9146 EVENTS & CONFERENCES EVENTS DIRECTOR NAYAB RAFFIQUE nayab@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9157 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER PREIJESH PILLAI prijesh@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9162 DIGITAL WWW.BIGPROJECTME.COM DIGITAL SERVICES MANAGER TRISTAN TROY MAAGMA WEB DEVELOPERS JOEL AZCUNA online@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9100 PUBLISHED BY

1013 Centre Road, New Castle County, Wilmington, Delaware, USA Branch Office PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 PRINTED BY

So until next time, think big

Printwell Printing Press LLC © Copyright 2012 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

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MIDDLE EAST

Melanie Mingas Editor, BPME

OCTOBER 2012

NOW ONLINE You can now get the online edition every month at: www.bigprojectme.com

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REGIONAL NEWS

29

FATALITIES WERE RECORDED ACROSS THE EMIRATE OF ABU DHABI IN 2011

REGIONAL NEWS

EGYPT TO INVEST $8BN IN PROJECTS Government keen to develop areas around the Suez Canal and the south of the country Egypt’s Investment Minister, Osama Saleh has said the government plans to invest $8bn in a string of projects aimed at developing areas around the Suez Canal and the south of the country, in an effort to create jobs and attract investments back to an economy damaged by political unrest.

“The government vision is to achieve integrated development in the Suez Canal Corridor, starting at East Port Said and to open the horizon for urban development outside the Valley and Delta,” said Saleh.

Comprising a combination of government and public-private partnerships,the projects include the construction of a new tunnel under the Suez Canal and a major Mediterranean port to spread Egypt’s population more evenly away from the crowded Nile Valley and Delta region, where the vast majority of the nation’s 83 million people live.

Seven of the 14 public-private partnership projects are ready for investment, while the other half would be launched in the next 18 to 24 months, Deputy Finance Minister Hany Kadry Dimian said.

The projects include solid waste management, drinking water, health, telecommunications and roads, he said.

MANDATORY TRADE LICENSE IS “NEXT STEP” IN HEALTH AND SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS Trade licensing body could be established in five years, say experts at Big Project Middle East roundtable

HEALTH AND SAFETY officers from Habtoor Leighton Group have said a mandatory trade licensing scheme, which would include health and safety training, across UAE construction sites is the “next step” in improving the health and safety of construction workers.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion for Big Project Middle East HLG project safety officer, Keith Finnigan, said similar schemes in Hong Kong and the UK, that saw workers receive a basic standard in health and safety training before being granted a license to work, significantly reduced the number of accidents onsite.

“I think that would be another major initiative here in the Emirates, where everybody who is employed on a construction site firstly must have basic safety training,” Finnigan stated.

“Dubai and Abu Dhabi Municipalities are working towards that and are possibly making it a federal requirement., but then the trades licensing would be the next step on top of that,” he added.

Abu Dhabi Municipality is currently assessing the benefits of such a scheme as part of its EHSMS (Environmental Health and Safety Management System) programme, part of which sees every accident occurring in the Emirate logged by contractors via the municipality’s

environment department. Last year 29 fatalities were recorded. Yet the nature of the system has in the past been called into question as it is dependent on accurate reporting from contractors.

Habtoor Leighton Group, which has initiated its own internal ‘black points’ system for onsite health and safety breaches, reports the number of incidents on its sites has decreased dramatically following the engagement of workers through training programmes and workshops.

The firm says its own scheme is based on the UK’s City and Guild standard and has taken two years to set. Based on this timescale, group manager for OHSE and training, Martin Kelly, predicts a similar system could be introduced to the Emirates within five years.

“Should the authorities commit to it, they could have a system in place that they could roll out to the industry and the tradesmen that are in the UAE would have to become licensed,” said Kelly.

“Within five years everybody who is here could become licensed and those workers arriving next would have to pass a competency standard, or they would have to go into a training establishment to become licensed and gain municipality approval,” he added.

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

THE FULL EXPERT ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON REGIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY IS FEATURED FROM PAGE 56 OF THIS ISSUE

11

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REGIONAL NEWS

RICHARD BOWKER LEAVES ETIHAD CEO replaced “with immediate effect” by board member

60% OF CABLE MARKET SUPPLY FROM UNDEFINED SOURCES Ducab highlights safety concerns over uncertified products AS MUCH AS 60% of all flexible cable wire available on the UAE market is from undefined sources, putting hundreds of buildings at an increased risk of fire and malfunction, according to Ducab marketing manager Ashish Chaturvedy.

Speaking exclusively to Big Project Middle East Chaturvedy says that steps must be taken to prevent the “dumping” of substandard product in the region.

“This market has been a target for such products because its high growth and potential provides an easy way to be able to dump material here at much lower prices,” Chaturvedy said.

He also added that such activity often goes unnoticed as incident investigations struggle to pinpoint the specific cause of fire.

“Out of every ten products on the market, there may be three that are approved and tested by a third party but the other six need to be kept out of the market,” Chaturvedy added.

“In the local market everything is so transient that contractors who are not

so reputed leave two years after installing a product in their project that has no certifications.

“They don’t know what happens after the guarantees expire so the incentive not to deliver substandard isn’t there,“ he continued.

Focussing on education within its distributor network, Ducab is now actively promoting the exclusive sale of certified goods to the electrical industry through its distributors as part of its corporate responsibility to the communities the manufacturing giant operates in.

The most recent exercise to promote the sale of certified products saw Ducab run its ‘Ducab Dragons’ incentives scheme for its top distributors.

Qualifying businesses were trained in Thai dragon boat racing and sent to Thailand on an all expenses paid team building trip. The initiative will be covered in detail next issue.

“The core objective of this incentive for our dealers was to educate them as to the importance of selling certified products,” Chaturvedy said.

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LATE PROJECTS ACROSS KSA have resulted in fines for the firms responsible for delays

BRITISH RAIL EXECUTIVE Richard Bowker has been replaced as CEO of Etihad Rail, the master developer of the UAE’s 1200km rail network, by H.E. Dr. Nasser Al Mansoori with immediate effect.

Bowker, who is only 18 months into his tenure on the UAE’s largest ever transport infrastructure project, will be replaced by Al Mansoori, who was appointed by the board of directors on September 18.

Al Mansoori has served as a board member on the AED40bn project for the last three years. In a statement, Etihad Rail said Al Mansoori will continue with his board duties in addition to the new role of CEO. He “brings extensive transport knowledge and experience having previously held the position of Director General of the UAE’s National Transport Authority (NTA),” the statement continued.

Commenting on this new appointment, H.E. Nasser Alsowaidi, Chairman of Etihad Rail, stated: “It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of H.E. Dr. Nasser Al Mansoori as chief executive officer of Etihad Rail. Dr. Mansoori has been working with us at Etihad Rail since 2009 and brings both a thorough understanding of the company and a wealth of transport and rail knowledge to the role. We are delighted to have him on board in this new capacity.”

KSA ANTI-CORRUPTION UNIT SLAMS SUPERVISORY BODIES “Highest in the world” project costs criticised Saudi Arabia’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha) has blamed weak control of consultants and the supervisory bodies for the small number of service projects which are implemented as required.

This flaw in execution is also due to the fact that “some managers do not know anything about their projects,” President of Nazaha, Muhammad Al-Sharief, was quoted as saying by Arab News.

He also criticised the excessive project costs, which, he said, are the highest in the world, but said the commission had no evidence of corruption or that the costs were overpriced.

However, Al Sharief said the anti-corruption body has several cases related to purchasing equipment and machinery for prices higher than their costs in the projects’ preliminary assessments and estimations, based on the Saudi construction code.

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

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REGIONAL NEWS

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HLG WINS $316M SAUDI HEALTHCARE CONTRACT Construction on King Fahad Medical City to begin 2013

BAHRAIN FLOATS CAUSEWAY TENDERS Construction firms invited to id for phase 2 of maintenance CONSTRUCTION FIRMS HAVE been invited by the Bahraini Ministry of Works to submit their bids for Phase II of the maintenance and painting of causeways, aimed at beautifying interchanges with flyovers.

The project includes four interchanges in Manama and Muharraq, including Sheikh Isa bin Salman Intersection with Al Janabiya Avenue, Sheikh Isa bin Salman Highway Intersection

with Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Highway.

Also included in the package is the Sheikh Isa bin Salman Highway Intersection with Sheikh Salman Highway and finally Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Highway Intersection with Budaiyya Highway, said Raed Al Salah, the roads projects and maintenance director and acting assistant under-secretary for roads at the ministry.

234,000m2 KING FAHAD MEDICAL CITY project area

GCC DEVELOPERS GO LOCAL FOR PROJECT FINANCING European banks replaced by local counterparts for funding

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MIDDLE EAST

GCC project developers are increasingly looking towards local banks to provide financing for projects, marking a significant shift in the way project financing is undertaken in the region, an Abu Dhabi based expert has said.

In an interview with Big Project Middle East, DLA Piper partner Debbie Barbour said that the impact of the Euro zone debt crisis has forced developers to look closer to home for financing.

“While some of the larger European banks we traditionally deal with for project financing are interested in projects in the region, we’re seeing that more and more local banks are expressing an interest and

OCTOBER 2012

stepping up to the plate to provide finance,” she said.

Barbour said that the ongoing political upheaval in certain areas of the MENA region had “greatly impacted” on the availability of project financing.

“However, we’re starting to see projects coming back now, in particular in markets like Egypt.

“Years ago, Egypt was the next big market for project finance, obviously things then got put on hold, but we’re starting to see project financing come back as they’ve got future infrastructure needs,” Barbour explained.

Gavin Davids explores the story in detail on page 20

HABTOOR LEIGHTON GROUP, operating as Leighton Middle East Contracting, has been awarded healthcare project worth $316m by the Ministry of Health King Fahad Medical City, it was announced on Tuesday.

The project, referred to as PPNNCC, will be delivered as a joint venture with Al Latifa Trading and Contracting. It will involve the construction of new medical centres on the current King Fahad Medical City campus to integrate with existing medical facilities.

“This project is in line with our growth strategy to diversify our geographic footprint, and we look forward to working with our JV partner, Al Latifia Trading and Contracting, to successfully deliver this prestigious development for our client,” said Laurie Voyer, CEO and managing director of HLG. Located in the centre of Riyadh, the 234,000m2 project proposes the construction of a central services building spanning four levels and a services tunnel that’s approximately 320m in length. It will also house a Proton Lab, which HLG says it will deliver in a separate contract.

HLG Managing director-elect, Jose Antonio Lopez-Monis said that the project underlined the importance of Saudi Arabia in the Group’s growth plans.

He added that the medical project would be the first of five specialist hospitals built in the Kingdom over the next five years.

“Saudi Arabia is our largest growth market and this project underlines our ability to secure work here,” he said.

HLG has worked on a number of healthcare projects around the region, with the likes of Mafraq Hospital and Arzanah Wellness & Diagnostic Centre in Abu Dhabi leading examples in their portfolio.

Work on the hospital project is expected commence later this year, with the project set to be delivered in stages over the next three years.

REGIONAL NEWS

UAE DENIES WORKERS VISIT VISA BAN Claims of a visa ban for unskilled workers denied processing visit visa transaction for would-be applicants in consistence with standard procedures.

He explained that should there be any further developments, the new procedures would be announced to the public beforehand and be posted on the Ministry’s website.

The Major General added that press reports of the changes were ‘untrue news that were drawn from unofficial and

DSI LANDS FIRST IRAQ CONTRACT Joint $358m contract project at Zubair Oil Field DRAKE AND SCULL International PJSC (DSI) has announced its award of a $358m contract, in collaboration with Italian company Sicim, to install a pipeline at Iraq’s Zubair Oil Field. It is the firm’s first award in Iraq.

The contract, which is divided equally between the two firms, will see DSI provide EPC services for oil and water flow lines, water trunklines, oil transfer pipelines, and connections to wellheads and degassing stations.

unreliable sources.’

He said any official communications from the Ministry of Interior would be released to the media by the Security Information Department.

Earlier this week, a Gulf News report had cited an unknown government agent as saying that the UAE was banning tourist, visit and conference visas for workers from certain labour supplying countries.

The reasoning behind the move was

Also the first major oil and gas contract for the company in the region, a statement from DSI described the work as “substantial”.

“The Iraqi construction market offers massive potential in areas such as oil and gas where there is huge demand for EPC contractors,” commented CEO Khaldoun Tabari.

“The country is also undertaking substantial developments to revolutionize social infrastructure and as such we can expect demand for our services to extend to other key sectors such as healthcare, education, hospitality , housing , waste water and water treatment.

Our work on the Zubair Oil Field marks an important milestone for DSI and will optimize our exposure and market reach.”

One of the largest oil fields in the world, Zubair is located in the southern region of the country, west of Basrah and is to be developed by a consortium led by Italian firm Eni. Tabari added: “Our strong foot print in the region gives us the flexibly to fast track mobilization of resources on the ground.”

Work is expected to complete in July 2014.

that it would help curb the influx of illegal blue collar workers into the country and help protect the country from ‘foreign criminals’.

The unnamed official said that the new regulations meant that some workers from countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Philippines would be banned from applying for visit visas.

300km THE LENGTH of a new road system ordered for construction

by UAE President by August 2013

KSA PENALISES 451 LATE PROJECTS No nonsense approach sees new tenders released for 233 faltering projects CONTRACTORS IMPLEMENTING MORE than 451 projects on behalf of the Saudi Ministry of Education have been penalised for failing to meet the deadlines set for completing the projects over the past three years.

Dr Hamad Bin Muhammad Aal Alsheikh, Deputy Minister of Education has said problems relating to 218 educational projects had been successfully resolved by the ministry, with new contractors in the process of handing over these projects to the ministry according to a set timetable.

The ministry also awarded new tenders for 233 faltering projects and took action against 397 contractors for delaying projects, said Alsheikh.

He blamed the contractors of these faltering projects for being directly responsible for stalling the ministry’s plan to replace rundown school buildings in various regions with new and modern ones, saying the ministry will not hesitate to strictly enforce the penalties stipulated in the contracts against negligent contractors.

“IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH MONEY, I’M SURE THE HUMAN MIND CAN CREATE A LOT HIGHER,” TIM JOHNSON, CHAIRMAN, COUNCIL ON TALL BUILDINGS AND URBAN HABITATS (CTBUH) PREDICTS 1KM TOWERS WILL BECOME A TREND BY 2025.

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

A top government official has denied press reports that there is a ban in place for unskilled workers who wish to apply for tourist visas.

Major General Nasser Al Awadi Al Menhali, assistant undersecretary for Naturalisation and Residency, and Port Affairs at the Ministry of Interior, said that departments of naturalisation and residency across the country were

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REGIONAL NEWS

BIGPROJECTME.COM

BIG BUDGET TENDERS: ROAD PROJECTS The top five highest value tenders for road projects across the region PROJECT NAME: RIYADH AIR BASE TUNNELS PROJECT

BUDGET $411,000,000 CLIENT High Commission for Riyadh Development (HCRD) - Saudi Arabia REGION Saudi Arabia DESCRIPTION Construction of three tunnels with a total length of 3.3 kilometres, including associated works such as construction of groundwater and storm water STATUS Current Project PROJECT NAME: SUBIYA CAUSEWAY PROJECT

PROJECT NAME: DOHA BAY CROSSING PROJECT

BUDGET $2,600,000,000

BUDGET $1,500,000,000

CLIENT Ministry of Public Works (Kuwait)

CLIENT Ministry of Municipal & Urban Planning (Qatar)

REGION Kuwait DESCRIPTION Design-and-build contract for the construction of 37.5-kilometre-long causeway incorporating a bridge spanning 150-200 metres connecting Shuwaikh Port/Ghazali expressway with the Subiya New Town development.

REGION Qatar DESCRIPTION Construction of a crossing at Doha Bay STATUS New project

STATUS Current Project

PROJECT NAME: SUR DUAL CARRIAGEWAY PROJECT PACKAGE 2

BUDGET $265,000,000 CLIENT Ministry of Transport & Communications (Oman) REGION Oman DESCRIPTION Construction of 132-kilometre-long dual carriageway between Bidbid and Sur

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MIDDLE EAST

STATUS New project

OCTOBER 2012

PROJECT NAME: QATAR - BAHRAIN CAUSEWAY PROJECT

BUDGET $3,000,000,000 CLIENT Qatar Bahrain Causeway Foundation (Qatar) REGION Qatar DESCRIPTION Construction of 40-kilometrelong, double-lane causeway between Qatar and Bahrain comprising about 22 kilometres of bridge structures and 18 kilometres of embankments.

STATUS Current Project

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NEWS ANALYSIS

BIGPROJECTME.COM

Home made solutions Gavin Davids talks to the experts about the changes in project finance and how developers are looking at alternative sources of finance to continue strengthening the economy

E

ver since the Middle East discovered its oil reserves, development through construction has been one of the founding principles that the region has built upon. Nowhere else has this been truer than Dubai.

A sleepy trading town a mere 40 years ago, the city has exploded into a

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MIDDLE EAST

“THE MARKET HAS UNDOUBTEDLY SEEN AN INCREASE IN THE QUALITY AND STANDARD OF LEGAL DOCUMENTATION OVER THE LAST 10 OR 15 YEARS”

OCTOBER 2012

bustling metropolis that can measure up to the finest in the world. It’s no exaggeration then to say that Dubai serves as the benchmark for a region that is striving to make its own mark on the global map.

Being a construction pioneer, Dubai has helped the GCC adapt and change the way it approaches the building industry in many ways. However, following the downturn in 2009, the UAE emirate could have the most important lesson of all to teach the region.

As the money flow slowed down during the dark days of the crisis, construction in Dubai ground to a virtual standstill.

Not only was there no money available to start new projects, but existing projects were forced to stop midway through their construction cycle.

NEWS ANALYSIS

operating in Dubai, face is that a large percentage of their funding for projects used to come from off-plan sales.

Unfortunately, as Maclean explains, one of the effects of the down turn has been a significant drop off in terms of the trust investors have in off-plan sales.

“The trust in off-plan sales has not fully recovered and therefore, the amount of funding you can attract for new schemes is variable, it’s definitely significantly less than what it was three or four years ago.

“So what we really need to see are alternative sources of funding and to get the banks to come back into the marketplace,” Maclean asserts.

One such method of funding is to involve corporate investors in financing, he says. With state-backed investors

ABOVE Paul McViety.

ABOVE Debbie Barbour.

“WHILE SOME OF THE LARGER EUROPEAN BANKS THAT WE TRADITIONALLY DEAL WITH FOR PROJECT FINANCING ARE INTERESTED IN PROJECTS IN THIS REGION, WE’RE SEEING MORE AND MORE LOCAL BANKS EXPRESSING AN INTEREST IN PROJECT FINANCING”

having a vast amount of capital behind them, Maclean suggests tapping into those funds to help rejuvenate the market and boost confidence.

“Some of the state-backed investors should be encouraged to provide funds going forward. They haven’t previously been active in this marketplace, but I think they need to be encouraged, particularly if the banks aren’t as active as they were historically and we don’t have off-plan sales,” he adds.

While this is one alternative, Paul McViety, legal director and an Islamic Finance expert at DLA Piper, says that there has been a surge interest in developers looking at Islamic finance as a viable alternative to conventional sources of income.

“There are three key driving factors; first and foremost, it’s an additional source of liquidity. With the continuing crisis in the eurozone, you have few European banks looking at the regional project finance market, (as Debbie mentions). The result is that there has been a switch in focus towards looking for as diverse a pool of funding as possible,” he says.

“The second reason is that there are a lot of corporate firms in the region, particularly in Saudi, who operate on a

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

As the real estate market worsened, developers had to become increasingly clever about how they obtained funding for their construction projects. Banks have become increasingly wary about lending money to projects that do not have clear feasibility studies, while developers themselves have had to start looking at alternative sources of funding, such as Islamic finance and local banks for the money they need.

Debbie Barbour, a partner in the Abu Dhabi office of DLA Piper, is a highly experienced project financing lawyer who has worked extensively in the region. She believes that banks have begun focusing on premium projects that are being developed by participants with a solid track record, making things more difficult for smaller developers who may not have the same extensive history.

“When I moved to Abu Dhabi in 2008, there was a lot of talk about project finance in the region and a lot of deals were about to take off, but obviously with the crisis hitting the UAE in 2008 and 2009, those deals got put on hold,” she says.

“However, we’re starting to see those projects coming back now.”

What has changed however is that developers are now looking more towards local banks for funding, mainly because of the turmoil European banks are facing thanks to the Eurozone debt crisis.

“We’ve seen that some of the European banks are struggling with their own issues.

While some of the larger European banks that we traditionally deal with for project financing are interested in projects in this region, we’re seeing more and more local banks expressing an interest in project financing. [They’re] stepping up to the plate and providing that finance.

“Obviously, they’re quite limited in what they can offer, so perhaps they can’t lend the large amounts that were on offer pre2008, but we’re certainly seeing smaller deals being financed,” she explains.

However, Nicholas Maclean, managing director of CBRE Middle East, points out that because banks were still proportionately more exposed to real estate lending, developers still have a difficult time in obtaining financing for projects.

“The route to financing from banks is not nearly as strong as it once was, because banks are proportionately still highly exposed to real estate lending. As a proportion of their overall lending, real estate is much higher now, that comes about not because banks have increased their lending, but because the relative value of property to what it was three or four years ago,” Maclean says.

Furthermore, one of the biggest problems developers, especially those

21

NEWS ANALYSIS

ABOVE Nicholas Maclean, CBRE.

BIGPROJECTME.COM

wholly Sharia basis, or have a preference towards obtaining Islamic finance over corporate funding.

“The third reason is that when you consider jurisdictions such as Saudi Arabia, historically, there has been conventional financing that has taken place, but the large part of that has been done on the basis of the SAMA Committee’s understanding of conventional financing techniques, and their willingness towards interest,” McViety continues to explain.

“Whereas, for Islamic finance, the Islamic committees uses a very different basis in terms of it being asset based. The returns [on investment] are generated through rental profits [for example]. What you find is that there is a perception, certainly in the Saudi market, that were a financing structure to be adjudicated upon before the local courts, Islamic financing would be on a far better footing than conventional finance,” he adds.

One good thing that has come out of the collective tightening of belts from banks and financiers is that developers have been forced to become a lot clearer in the way they operate.

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MIDDLE EAST

“THERE IS A HOPE THAT ONCE THE MORTGAGE LAW IS PASSED, AND IT HASN’T BEEN PASSED YET, IT WILL RECTIFY OR SOLVE A LOT OF ISSUES THAT FINANCIERS HAVE GRAPPLED WITH OVER A NUMBER OF YEARS AND CLEAR UP SOME LEGAL AMBIGUITIES”

OCTOBER 2012

As Maclean puts it, if developers cannot provide investors with the right structures, such as guarantees of Escrow, guarantees of the recovery of funds, etc, then it will prove very difficult for them to obtain funding.

“The benefit Dubai has had after going through the difficulties is that developers have got to be more organised than they were earlier. The trust has not fully recovered, and therefore the amount of funding for new schemes is significantly less than four or five years ago,” he says.

McViety adds that from a legal perspective, there has been a stronger emphasis on having legal documentation which will pay off in the long term.

“The market has undoubtedly seen an increase in the quality and standard of legal documentation over the last 10 or 15 years. In many ways, the project financing documentation that is put together, if you look at common term arrangements, inter term arrangements, etc, they do follow a very international approach [now].”

He adds that the region is starting to realise the benefits that come with having clear legal guidelines when it comes to project financing, citing Saudi Arabia’s long-awaited mortgage law – along with four other new laws – as a positive step that will help clear up a number of issues that financiers have faced over the years.

“There is a hope that once the mortgage law is passed, and it hasn’t been passed yet, it will rectify or solve a lot of issues that financiers have grappled with over a number of years and clear up some legal ambiguities,” he explains.

Clearly then, the lessons have been learnt across the GCC and as the market continues along its path of recovery, it is clear that investors will be able to have a clearer idea of where they stand, both from a legal and financial view point. n

IN PROFILE ZIAD EL CHAAR

This is

luxury

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MIDDLE EAST

Last year DAMAC’s message to Cityscape Global was one of success: Dubai is back for good.

One year on, managing director Ziad El Chaar reflects on the message and progress made

OCTOBER 2012

BIGPROJECTME.COM

IN PROFILE ZIAD EL CHAAR

WALKING THE TALK With 50 projects currently under construction across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Cairo, Jordan, Lebanon and Qatar, DAMAC continues to shout about its achievements;

in a way only its Middle East target market could possibly understand.

Earlier this year the luxury developer fully embraced the glitz culture of the Arabian world by pledging to give away luxury cars, speed boats and cash to its buyers during the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) an event world renowned for its lavish giveaways.

“We said it was important to do something like this to show the market is growing again because you cannot do such promotion if the market is not there. We have wanted to walk the talk that we gave at Cityscape 2011,” he clarifies.

Far from believing this to perpetuate the heady and financially excessive reputation of the UAE’s golden Emirate, El Chaar says it was all in the spirit of the season He adds: “People like the giveaways here and this is why people come to Dubai.

They like the summer surprises and the shopping festivals. It’s like one giant big circus and everybody loves the circus.”

People may love the circus, but like Dubai’s market it still has a shaky reputation for those who haven’t visited recently. As a developer that has been around since the first upward curve in the early 2000s DAMAC is now using its international media pull to promote the UAE and wider region as an investor haven, with stable and protective legislation in addition to high levels of personal safety and generous salaries.

“We have not yet spread the word enough on how protected the market is here, so this is now part of a new plan that we have, to talk more and more about these laws in our brochures, on the website and in the media.

“Many people did not notice [these laws] in September 2008 because they had too many distractions around them to focus on something like this,” he adds.

ABOVE Managing director Ziad El Chaar.

DUAL FOCUS DAMAC’s other eye is firmly on the luxury buyers’ market and evolving to the needs of the global jetsetter who wants an apartment in every port. Q2 2013 will see the launch

“THE GOOD THING IS THAT, TODAY, YOU CAN FIND HERE A MARKET FOR EVERYONE. DUBAI IS NO LONGER JUST BUILDING FOR THE RICH AND THE SUPERRICH, NOW THERE ARE COMMUNITIES THAT WILL PROVIDE A VERY NICE ENVIRONMENT FOR EVERYBODY”

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

M

uch has happened in Dubai over the last 12 months; the development of investor protections laws, the reinforcement of Escrow requirements and a shift in global market dynamics that has seen unprecedented numbers of foreign investors moving to the Middle East to enjoy the benefits of a tax free life in sun drenched luxury.

Similar sentiments may today resonate across many sectors, but DAMAC managing director Ziad El Chaar has said it all before.

“At Cityscape 2011 we sent a message out to everybody that the market is growing, that Dubai is back and that you need to be in this real estate market. All the factors that have happened over the 11 months since are showing that we can go to Cityscape 2012 and say we were right,” he asserts.

By the end of 2011, transactions were up 20% and figures from Dubai Land Department (DLD) show transactions increased 21% during H1 2012.

While it has its benefits, year round sunshine is not the sole factor behind the rising rate of transactions – and the renewed push in construction. Praising the foresight of government planning authorities, El Chaar observes the heightened activity is concentrated in areas of Dubai that also have high quality infrastructure – not only in terms of 12-lane high ways and metro stations, but social amenities such as schools, hospitals and entertainment facilities.

“The fundamentals of demand in this country are based on geographical location, which I am sure has not changed; life style; and the services provided for all the companies from free zones to business set ups and export markets. This market now is very strong in these terms. “[With this infrastructure] your life in that area is complete. It’s not just about developing an area to have utilities it’s about having great connection to this area and the whole rest of the world. With all these things available in this area and the current prices, this is the most promising real estate market currently,” he continues.

And as the market regains momentum, so too does the diversity of the investor profile, with more ‘middle classes’ residing in communities alongside the rich and super rich, El Chaar goes on to explain, concluding that recent events are testament to a “complete market”.

25

IN PROFILE ZIAD EL CHAAR

BIGPROJECTME.COM

LEFT & BELOW DAMAC interiors at Ocean Heights and the Versace branded residence.

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of Burjside Boulevard – overlooking Burj Khalifa – the first in a string of planned serviced apartment offerings that will offer residents – no matter how long or little they reside in their apartment for – “one of the most comprehensive concierge services”, according to El Chaar and the project is close to selling out.

“The moment you arrive you are offered every service you need, from bookings to car rentals to baby sitting and concert tickets. Anything you would expect a concierge to do,” he says, adding that such developments are helping to evolve competition in the serviced apartments market.

Explaining that the concept brings DAMAC back to its leading luxury standard roots, El Chaar says DAMAC’s serviced apartments brand is rooted on four pillars: luxury, location, rental returns and world class concierge services.

But luxury isn’t just about the branding of a product. As El Chaar himself says; luxury is also about quality, and that means location, design – for which DAMAC has won a number of awards – amenities and the endurance of the built structure.

With contractors selected according to specific qualifications assessed by DAMAC’s technical management team, El Chaar says there are five criteria that must be met: Experience; quality of projects

OCTOBER 2012

“YOU CANNOT HAVE LUXURY WITHOUT QUALITY. WHEN WE HAVE A NEW CUSTOMER TODAY WE DO NOT TAKE THEM TO THE NEW BUILDINGS, WE TAKE THEM TO OUR FIRST BUILDING, MARINA TERRACE, WHICH IS SEVEN YEARS OLD” delivered to date; financial capability; experience in the market; and reputation.

“You cannot have luxury without quality. When we have a new customer today we do not take them to the new buildings, we take them to our first building, Marina Terrace, which is seven years old.

“Once we take them and they see the building and that it is seven years old, they see the quality enduring.

“In terms of building codes, we have one of the best building codes in the world. The quality isn’t just the quality of paint, it’s the quality of the foundations, structure and facades, the glass, the quality of the endurance to any effects whether seismic or otherwise. We have one of the best civil defence codes in the region or even world,” he continues.

This year, the message to Cityscape Global is one of resilience and success, with the promotion of existing projects and the stability of the regional market taking precedent. For El Chaar it’s all about the tangible return on an abstract concept. And free massages for visitors to the developer’s prime location stand.

“The good thing is that, today, you can find here a market for everyone. Dubai is no longer just building for the rich and the superrich, now there are communities that will provide a very nice environment for everybody.

“This Cityscape we will continue to focus on the same products we did last year, including the luxury serviced apartments concept, in which market we will be the number one in the Middle East.

This is our focus.” n

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ON SITE MARINA 101

Rising again

28

MIDDLE EAST

Gavin Davids visits the restarted Marina 101 to find out how work is progressing on what will be Dubai’s second highest tower

OCTOBER 2012

BIGPROJECTME.COM

ON SITE MARINA 101

TAV has completed projects across the entire region, including the Passenger Terminal Complex at the New Doha International Airport and the Midfield Terminal Building at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Furthermore, the contractor has completed three tower projects in the UAE to date, with the first a 30 storey commercial twin tower in DIFC called the Emirates Financial Tower. The owners of this project are MAG and Emirates Financial Towers. The designer is CPG while the project management consultant is Projacs.

Secondly, the firm has also worked on the 79 storey residential Sulafa Tower, adjacent to Marina 101. Owned by Al Sayyah Investment Holding, this project was completed while work was suspended on Marina 101.

Finally, the third tower TAV completed in Dubai is the 52 storey Majestic Tower in Sharjah. Furthermore, the contractor has also worked on the Al Sharaf Shopping Mall (Times Square Centre) and the Towheed Iranian School.

ABOVE The view over Dubai Marina from the top of Marina 101.

FINISHING TOUCH Having kept active and busy throughout its time in Dubai, TAV was well prepared to pick up where it left off at Marina 101, as

“WE DO NOT SEE OUR CLIENTS AS A SIMPLE BRAND, WE SEE THEM AS PARTNERS. IT WAS THE COMMON PRACTICE IN DUBAI, DURING THE YEARS OF THE DOWNTURN, TO GO COLD AND CLAIM OUTSTANDING ISSUES AND ABANDON THE PROJECT”

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

G

iven Dubai’s predilection for all things larger than life, it’s strange that the Marina 101 hasn’t received the fanfare you would associate with a building that will be the second tallest in Dubai, after the iconic Burj Khalifa, once it is complete.

Built by Turkey’s TAV Construction, the tower has had a difficult history, having endured nearly two years of downtime as the developer, Sheffield Real Estate, was buffeted by the effects of the financial crisis.

As far back as December 2010, Big Project Middle East reported that the building was nearly complete, with the superstructure done and just the finishing works to be applied. Obviously, this didn’t happen and it left the building in limbo, waiting for completion as rivals snuck ahead to take its place in the ‘Dubai’s tallest’ lists.

With this scenario in mind, it’s not hard to imagine other contractors packing up and leaving the project, pausing only to take their developer to court. However, this was never the case for TAV Construction, says Yusuf Akcayoglu, Gulf regional director.

“We do not see our clients as a simple brand, we see them as partners. It was the common practice in Dubai, during the years of the downturn, to go cold and claim outstanding issues and abandon the project,” he says.

Having decided to hang in there and ride out the storm, Akcayoglu explains that a large part of their decision was made because of the trust and respect they had for their client. This patient, trusting approach is now paying off, he says, with the project back on track and providing one of the few examples of trust and partnership in Dubai’s construction market.

More famous for its work on airports,

29

ON SITE MARINA 101

LEFT & ABOVE Ugur Anliatamer, TAV project manager, and advancing work inside the tower.

BIGPROJECTME.COM

construction resumed earlier this year.

Ugur Anliatamer, the project manager for the tower, says that the contractor was quite lucky that work stopped when it did; had the finishing works been further advanced, more protection would have been required.

“Because it was just the structure, not that much protection was needed. Of course, the basic items were protected before the suspension of the job,” he says.

Standing 425m high, Marina 101 consists of six basement levels, a ground floor and 101 floors. Covering a total built area of 154,000m2 the project has completed approximately 54% of its work. Breaking it down, Anliatamer says that the aluminium claddings and glass fittings are currently at 39% completion;

30

MIDDLE EAST

“FROM CONSTRUCTION, TO LOGISTICS, THIS IS THE TOUGHEST AND MOST CHALLENGING TASK FOR THIS PROJECT SINCE THERE WAS NO SPACE. THAT’S THE REASON OUR PROGRAMME AND THE USE OF CRANES, HAS TO BE PERFECT”

OCTOBER 2012

MEP works at 40%; while other facilities such as elevators and garbage chute systems are at 20% and 60% respectively.

“Other than this, there are four podiums in the buildings and after this start the hotel levels, between six and 32. From 32 to the 100th floor, it’s all serviced apartments. This means that the building comprises of a hotel and serviced apartments. On top of this, on floor 101, there is a restaurant,” Anliatamer explains.

One of the building’s unique selling points is a special installation, a panoramic lift that runs along the outside of the building, right up to the restaurant. This was recently introduced by the client, and will be a considerable challenge for the contractor.

“The client has introduced a new full height panoramic lift at the front elevation of the building as a major design change. Accordingly, the complete front facade is affected and the design change, as well as the related authority approvals, are now in progress,” he says.

Other issues that need to be finished in time for the scheduled completion date of April 2014 are the external facade and other related glass and cladding work.

ON SITE MARINA 101

RECORD REGAINED With Marina 101 situated in the heart of a cluster of Dubai Marina’s tallest buildings, the construction site is hemmed in from all sides, creating an issue for Anliatamer’s team, who have to be mindful of the noise and pollution levels as they are operating in a densely populated area.

“The most challenging issue was the congestion, the location. This region, the Marina, is Dubai’s most congested area, and having a 101 storey building, without having the space, is very difficult for us, from any point of view.

“From construction, to logistics, this is the toughest and most challenging task for this project since there was no space. That’s the reason our programme and the use of cranes, has to be perfect. They’re working 24/7 over such logistic issues,” he explains.

“We have two cranes on this project.

One is external and is full height, the other is internal. These are our arms; they are the most crucial equipment on a high-rise project. Other than this, the other major equipment are the hoists. We have four coupling hoists in two different locations.

There are also two lifts, each lift having two cages and there is a total of 25 external cradles. All the work is progressing now.”

With all this equipment in and around the construction site, maintenance becomes crucial task for the project manager, and as such, Anliatamer leaves nothing to chance, keeping in mind TAV’s ethos for the highest standards of health and safety on site.

“All these equipments are inspected regularly, every six months. They have to be inspected by the authorities, get third

party approvals. We don’t compromise on safety and our target is zero accidents.”

As a result, the team, which currently numbers 700 workers and technicians on site, are well trained and drilled to be up to speed with the highest safety standards, making health and safety a crucial component of managing the site, which will see the workforce swell to 1300 by the end of the project.

“Because this tower is a super highrise, health and safety is a crucial factor.

Our HSE teams are on site 24/7 and the building is completely under control,” Anliatamer concludes. n

“BECAUSE IT WAS JUST THE STRUCTURE, NOT THAT MUCH PROTECTION WAS NEEDED. OF COURSE, THE BASIC ITEMS WERE PROTECTED BEFORE THE SUSPENSION OF THE JOB”

BELOW CLOCKWISE Gavin Davids and Ugur Anliatamer, workers on site, and demonstrating the challenges of working in an existing neighbourhood.

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

This is set to be accomplished with the help of an external contractor, who will also install all the required cornices, extensions and other decorative features.

Furthermore, the top of the building will have a crown structure installed, taking the building to its final height, but also presenting its own challenges to the project.

“It’s approximately 50m in height and has special cladding,” says Anliatamer, adding that completing the installation on time will be a challenge that TAV is well on the way to meeting.

However, he adds, the biggest challenge, and one that is ongoing, has been dealing with the logistics of the entire project.

31

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EVENT PREVIEW

With less than three months to go to The Big Project Middle East Awards, Melanie Mingas answers your questions on nominations, judging and deadlines THE CATEGORIES

n Product of the Year n Architect of the Year n Facilities Management Firm of the Year

n Editor’s Choice:

Infrastructure Project of the Year

n Outstanding

Development of the Year

n Contractor of the Year n Developer of the Year n Middle East BIM

Application of the Year

n Best Project

Management Software Application

n Law firm of the year

L

ast year The Big Project Construction and Sustainability Awards of Excellence saw 400 of the construction industry’s biggest names gather at Armani Hotel, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, for a black tie gala dinner and ceremony that honoured the biggest, best and brightest firms in the region.

Welcoming Emirati Royalty, infrastructure developers, big name contractors and global brands, the awards recognised the top 15 projects and products across Middle East construction and sustainability.

Following an outstandingly positive response from the event’s sponsors, winners and attendees the 2012 awards will return to Armani hotel, Burj Khalifa on December 4 and nominations are now open.

HOW IT WORKS Any company currently active in the MENA region, with a recent project or product that will be no more than 18 months old on December 4 2012, can enter any of the relevant 15 categories.

When the nominations close, the Big Project Middle East team will compile a shortlist of the top nominations for each category and forward the full nomination to the awards judging panel.

WHO WILL JUDGE? The judging panel is selected from Big Project Middle East’s most prestigious and knowledgeable editorial contacts, currently working in the construction, contracting, finance, legal, property and product development sectors, in addition to government departments.

Each judge is assigned up to five categories.

WHEN WILL THE WINNERS BE NOTIFIED? The winners will be revealed at the ceremony on December 4. All shortlisted companies will be contacted ahead of the ceremony and invited to attend on the night.

WHY NOMINATE? The Big Project Construction and Sustainability Awards of Excellence are a regional bench mark of high standards.

Judged by professionals from sectors as varied as construction, development, BIM, law, the public sector and sustainability, they provide a prestigious acknowledgement of a company’s achievements.

RIGHT:

DOES IT COST ANYTHING TO ENTER? The reputation of B2B award ceremonies

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Ali Al Nuami with CPI founder Dominic D’Sousa.

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EVENT PREVIEW

BIGPROJECTME.COM

2011: THE WINNERS

BIG PROJECT MIDDLE EAST AWARDS 2011: THE VERDICT

n Outstanding Development of the Year Abu Dhabi Ports Company

n Infrastructure Project of the Year

“On behalf of Construction Computer Software, we would like to convey our thanks and congratulations to CPI for arranging and hosting a most enjoyable and memorable first Big Project ME Awards evening.

Construction Computer Software were proud to be associated with these awards and be involved as a Gold Sponsor. The professional presentation, magnificent location and hospitality combined to create an unforgettable occasion that formed the highlight of the year and will hopefully continue for many years to come.” Ian Hauptfleisch, General Manager, CCS (Gulf) L.L.C, Dubai

RTA The Green Line, Dubai Metro

n Retrofit Project of the Year n n n n n n n n n n

Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry Developer of the Year DAMAC Best Water Conservation Initiative Hyder Architecture Firm of the Year RW Armstrong Green Building Project of the Year WMS Metal Industries LLC Energy Efficiency Project of the Year Abu Dhabi Ports Company Sustainable Supplier of the Year Mapei Contractor of the Year Arabtec Construction LLC Product Supplier of the Year LG Electronics Heavy Machinery Company of the Year FAMCO Middle East Construction Software Application of the Year CCS

n Sustainable Interior Design Project of

ABOVE: IBS Mapei’s Laith Haboubi accepts the Sustainable Supplier of the Year award.

the Year Blanchard FZ LLC

n Commercial Interior Design Firm of the Year Al Aqili

n Special Recognition for Support & Contribution to Sustainable Communications DU

has come under fire in the past for unfairly awarding sponsors, major print and web advertisers and close contacts of the editorial team.

Integrity is of paramount importance at Big Project Middle East and while sponsors, advertisers and editorial contacts are invited to nominate their work, the independence of judges guarantees that the winners are selected on merit only.

Nominations close on October 23 2012.

To submit your nomination and find out more about the 2011 ceremony, visit www. thebigprojectme.com/awards/2012.

“The intent of the awards was well received with enthusiasm for the BGreen message of sustainability and environmentalism within the business arena. The Armani Hotel at the Burj Khalifa was a great venue to hold the Awards.

Kudos to CPI. The night was enjoyable as were the speakers, and the awards presentation was one of the best organized we have seen. The quality of the attendees was excellent, it felt like the who’s who of the Construction & Design world of the GCC.” Jeffrey Decker, AIA, Developer Sector Leader, RW Armstrong “Thank you for your email and for giving me the opportunity to share my experience of this very special night. The venue was spectacular, perfect setting for the industry’s most prestigious awards night. All guest speakers provided us with great food for thought, adding to the overall experience and the connections made with some of the industry’s most important players. The fact that we won didn’t hurt either!”

Mohamed Nassar, Managing Partner, WMS Metal Industries LLC “The evening was a resounding success in terms of meeting and being in the company of so many luminaries, stalwarts from within their respective industries. And to be adjudged the best amongst peers from the Commercial interior Design industry was more than what we had anticipated and hoped for.”

“The quality of the nominations itself is a testimony to the high standards that have been maintained in the selection process and to have won it only underlines the dominance of Al Aqili Furnishings’ as one of the leaders in the industry” Mansour Khodjasteh, Managing Director, Al Aqili Furnishings

HOW TO NOMINATE TO NOMINATE YOUR FIRM, PROJECTS, PRODUCTS OR A TEAM MEMBER FOR THE 2012 BIG PROJECT MIDDLE EAST AWARDS, VISIT WWW.THEBIGPROJECTME.COM/AWARDS/2012 AND SELECT ‘SUBMIT NOMINATION’ ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE. WHEN YOU SELECT YOUR CHOSEN CATEGORY A LIST OF ENTRY GUIDELINES WILL APPEAR ABOVE THE ENTRY BOX. COMPLETE THE ENTRY BOX AND CONTACT DETAILS AND CLICK SUBMIT. AFTER THIS YOU WILL HAVE THE OPTION TO UPLOAD AN IMAGE TO SUPPORT THE NOMINATION.

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MIDDLE EAST

FOR ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS, PLEASE EMAIL: BPME.AWARDS@CPIDUBAI.COM

OCTOBER 2012

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4 ARMANI HOTEL DUBAI, BURJ KHALIFA

Recognising Industry Excellence at the Big Project ME Awards 2012 CONSTRUCTION CATEGORIES • Outstanding Development of the Year • Iconic Structure of the Year • Joint Venture Project of the Year • Consultant of the Year • Contractor of the Year • Developer of the Year • MEP Contractor of the Year • Quantity Surveyor of the Year BEHIND THE PROJECT • Architect of the Year • Project Manager of the Year • Young Engineer of the Year SUSTAINABILITY • Best Water Conservation Project • Energy Efficiency Project of the Year • Green Building Project of the Year • Sustainable Solution of the Year EDITOR’S CHOICE CATEGORY • Infrastructure Project of the Year

Submit your Nominations Now Nomination Deadline Tuesday, October 23

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE TABLE BOOKING AND FURTHER INFORMATION

MARKETING MANAGER | Carole McCarthy +971 4 440 9157 | carolem@cpidubai.com

NOMINATION ENQUIRIES

EDITORIAL | Melanie Mingas +971 4 440 9117 | melanie@cpidubai.com

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

PUBLISHING DIRECTOR | Raz Islam +971 4 440 9129 | raz@cpidubai.com COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR | Michael Stansfield +971 4 440 9128 | michael@cpidubai.com

TO SUMBIT YOUR NOMINATIONS AND FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT

Gold Sponsor

Category Sponsor Endorsed by:

Organised by:

BIG 5 EVENT INSIDER

Co-location, co-location, co-location

FM EXPO SHOW HIGHLIGHTS FM lecture theatre: to introduce the concept of facilities management and multiple service providers Innovation area: A live platform of big brands demonstrating their products including Siemens, Dyson, Honeywell and Philips will all be there.

World FM Congress IFMA Training Seminars and workshops Exhibition

DAVID THOMPSON, EVENT MANAGER, FM EXPO HOW DID YOU MAKE THE DECISION TO CO-LOCATE FM EXPO WITH BIG 5?

One of the main reasons is that FM has become so popular recently and the importance of maintaining the value of your asset is key in this region. A number of developers are building assets but not selling them straight away and this is where FM and Big 5 cross over. What you are going to see is a lot of building contractors coming to FM Expo and that will provide an easy hand over for their client, who is the developer or owner.

There are questions asked during and at the end of every exhibition regarding visitor interests and it was flagged that a lot of Big 5 visitors are interested in FM, in fact more than 14,000.

To put that in perspective, you have 4000 to 5000 visitors to FM Expo every year and you have 50,000 going to Big 5. So you have 14,000 in there interested in FM and that’s why we are confident to hit our target with around 7500 visitors.

HOW DO YOU CONDUCT YOUR MARKET RESEARCH IN ORDER TO PUT THE SHOW TOGETHER?

7500 VISITOR TARGET based on interest from Big 5 visitors working in in FM

We have a dedicated data team that is always researching the market and building our data and we spend a lot of time going to market to find out what’s going on. We always have questionnaires for our visitors and we speak to our exhibitors year round.

We have a conference producer active in the market and using a number of techniques to conduct research that is then used to formulate the show. It’s a year round process.

The point is that the FM industry is very much growing in this region, but

people are being educated as to what it is and so what we do as a show is to bring together business opportunity and educate the region.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN INDUSTRY TRENDS INFLUENCING THE FM EXPO AGENDA IN 2012?

The leading thing is education and to try and spread the word but outside of that you are looking at energy management, which is of major importance for reasons of CSR and the savings to be made on utility bills.

Energy management is something that we are promoting quite heavily at the show and Taipei 101 will talk about how they achieved the world record of being the tallest LEED certified building in the world.

There is also an issue with educating the market about multiple service providers.

The whole point is to drive people into the show with an interest in single services, but to introduce them to the whole-service FM concept and within that we have the innovation area.

THE SHOW HAS DEMONSTRATED SIGNIFICANT GROWTH OVER THE LAST YEAR, HOW WAS THIS ACHIEVED?

Not only do we have more exhibitors this year but potentially more visitors too.

According to our pre-registration numbers we are higher than we have ever finished off before and there is still time to go.

FM Expo has always been relatively decent show, but it hasn’t been an exceptional show. Then again I don’t think the market has ever offered anything exceptional if I’m honest.

What we are trying to do is increase the visitor numbers, and quality visitor numbers as well, to really offer a considerable amount of business leads and opportunities.

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

DAVID THOMPSON Event manager, FM Expo.

As Big 5 organisers DMG gear up for the 32nd edition of the show, Melanie Mingas meets FM Expo and Middle East Concrete event directors to talk about grouping shows and staying relevant to the industry

37

BIG 5 EVENT INSIDER

BIGPROJECTME.COM

50%

OF ALL THE SHOW ELEMENTS, WHICH ARE THE MOST RELEVANT TO SOMEBODY WHO WANTS TO LEARN ABOUT FM, FROM THE BASICS ONWARDS?

GROWTH in MEC since the inaugural event in 2011

NATHAN WAUGH Event manger, Middle East Concrete (MEC)

They should definitely meet with as many exhibitors as possible. Many exhibitors say to me that when they first arrive in the region the best thing is networking, especially with those who are established in the region and in terms of finding out what their competitors are doing.

The other features, such as the FM Congress are vital in order to relate to the international case studies and then learn from the local ones also, and there are also a number of free to attend seminars too.

NATHAN WAUGH, EVENT MANAGER, MIDDLE EAST CONCRETE (MEC)

NEW TO MIDDLE EAST CONCRETE

n A second German

pavilion, dedicated to concrete and funded by the German Ministry.

n Increased international

participation and a new US pavilion

n Free seminar programme

has expanded to 40 sessions over 40 days, on infrastructure, architecture and design and production, in addition to panel discussions on crane safety and lessons in how to maximise the output of pre cast factories.

n Concrete Sustainability

Conference, in association with Grey Matters and supported

by National Ready mix Concrete Association (NRCA)

n Concrete TV, showing

product demonstrations from exhibitors on the official MEC website

COMPARED TO THE INAUGURAL SHOW IN 2011 MEC HAS GROWN BY 50%. HOW WAS THIS ACHIEVED?

A large part of the growth has come from Big 5, but a lot of it has been a natural progression.

The companies that were traditionally located across Big 5 and been part of that have seen what we have done in terms or focussing the concrete industry and want to be a part of it. As a result, Big 5 can fill those spaces with companies in show sectors that are really growing, like heating and ventilation, or flooring, for example. In addition, sectors that do not associate with the fit out end of the market, now have a show that is more representative of them, for example formwork exhibitors.

We want Big 5 to be seen as a product segmented show, rather than country, but an extension of that is to pull the concrete sector out entirely and brand it as its own event and industry. Concrete is at the heart of every big construction project and that really needs its own event.

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MIDDLE EAST

“I HAVE FOUND FROM SPEAKING TO SEVERAL KEY CLIENTS THAT THE UAE HAS BOUNCED BACK STRONGER THAN THEY WERE EXPECTING AND THEY ARE NOW DOING MORE BUSINESS THAN THEY WERE DOING AT THE START OF THE YEAR. THAT’S WHAT IS UNDERPINNING THE GROWTH OF THE WHOLE SHOW”

OCTOBER 2012

HOW DID THE INDUSTRY REACT TO THE INTRODUCTION OF MEC LAST YEAR?

Industry reaction to it was really positive among visitors and exhibitors. From a visitor perspective it was great because if they are buying they know they are going to go to Middle East Concrete rather than different country pavilions that may not be related to their sectors.

From an exhibitor perspective, they really liked the opportunity to be round other exhibitors from the same sector, such a admixtures to formwork to concrete block making machines and everything in between. From their perspective it was great because they saw it was attracting their entire core audience in one location.

WHAT ARE THE PRIMARY PRODUCTS AND TRENDS THAT DRIVE THE SHOW’S AGENDA?

There is general growth across the whole region, but particularly in regards to MEC we are looking at the infrastructure projects like the GCC railway in the longer term and other projects across the region in the shorter term.

Saudi Arabia is a big market, as is Qatar and we do get significant visitors from both to the show. But I have found from speaking to several key clients that the UAE has bounced back stronger than they were expecting and they are now doing more business than they were doing at the start of the year. That’s what underpinning the growth of the whole show and it’s what is underpinning the international interest in the whole show.

We are fortunate that we have a very strong network of agents from across the globe and they recognise that not only is the Middle East a great region to sell products into now, but Dubai is the perfect hub to do that from and from that context, MEC provides the ideal base to do that.

WHICH ELEMENTS ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING INDUSTRY REACTION FROM?

Being a bit of a concrete geek, I really like the concrete repair workshop. It’s something that has gone really well, it’s an important issue and it’s something that was very well attended in Saudi and Dubai last year and it’s something that we are looking forward to. n

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COVER STORY KHALIFA PORT

BIGPROJECTME.COM

Project

countdown

40

MIDDLE EAST

0700 hours on September 1 2012 was no ordinary Saturday morning. After two and half years of construction and six months of testing, Khalifa Port’s non-negotiable commercial launch date, and time, arrived. Big Project Middle East speaks with ADPC CEO Tony Douglas about micro-managing a mega-project, logistics and the next phase for this regional first

OCTOBER 2012

COVER STORY KHALIFA PORT

Name of Project

Khalifa Port

Location

Taweelah, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Construction Period

Ongoing to 2030

Client

ADPC

Capacity

2.5 million TEUs of container traffic, 12 million tons of general cargo, rising to 15 million TEU’s container traffic and 35 million tons of general cargo by 2030.

F

or two and a half years Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) has been counting down to a moment that last month made history. From its Mina Zayed head quarters, where countdowns and reminders decorated every wall, the region’s first and largest port of its kind was micro-managed to a delivery schedule so precise it even specified a time; 0700 hours, September 1, 2012.

If time waits for no man then a $7.2bn port development – regardless of how many records it breaks – stands little chance either.

With a fuss – and excuse – free approach to project management, ADPC CEO Tony Douglas worked with project stakeholders to meet one simple challenge: mitigate any risk that would jeopardise the hand over date of the region’s most technologically advanced port.

“It has been a very disciplined process and like all big projects there is a start a middle and an end and it’s fantastic to achieve that first phase mile stone. We have an organisation that has been waiting for this moment for a long time and now the end users have got their hands on their new toys, as it were, they are all very excited,” he adds.

It’s not the only new port in the region; similarly huge operations are currently under development in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq. But what makes Khalifa Port different is its supporting industrial zone – the first phase of which spans an area equivalent of two thirds the size of Singapore – that will soon become one of the world’s largest.

“Nearly two and a half years ago we made a commitment to deliver Khalifa Port and the first part of Kizad, the industrial zone, on September 1,” Douglas continues, adding that the atmosphere at ADPC HQ offices in the weeks prior to launch was one of “intense excitement”, with even computer screen savers transformed into giant countdown clocks.

Business from Mina Zayed will now been transferred over the coming four to five months to Khalifa Port, where first phase capacity stands at 2.5 million containers and could rise to 15 million if demand – predominantly driven by the Kizad industrial zone – saw all three additional quay walls added over the coming decades.

“The masterplan for Khalifa Port, allows

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

“As many will acknowledge, big projects don’t always end at the precise time you say and they seldom finish on time and on budget so we are very pleased,” Douglas tells Big Project Middle East.

Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed Port, a 40 year old destination port that reached its maximum capacity of 800,000 containers this year – up from 517,000 containers in 2010 and 767,000 in 2011 – will now be renovated to become a cruise terminal, with tenders due imminently in order to meet the October 2013 season deadline.

41

COVER STORY KHALIFA PORT

15m

MAXIMUM CONTAINER CAPACITY OF KHALIFA PORT, WITH ALL QUAY WALLS CONSTRUCTED.

BIGPROJECTME.COM

us to extend it further out into the ocean.

If we reach 15 million containers by 2030 that would get you in today’s terms in the leagues of Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Obviously by 2030 I am sure they will be a lot bigger but it helps to give you a sense of scale,” Douglas explains, adding: “The common denominator with our tenants at Kizad is that they need to import big volumes of raw materials and they quite often export their products right the way around the world.”

Creating the facilities to support this vision required some large scale ambition.

LEFT TO RIGHT: How the quay wall developed from 2011 to the present day.

The on and off shore port has the first and third longest bridges in the UAE; the six largest ship to shore cranes in the world; the world’s longest conveyor belt at 14km; a 3.2km quay wall, that will be supported by a further two such structures as the port increases capacity; all built around a 35 square kilometre coral reef, that is protected by a breakwater that stretches 8km.

42

MIDDLE EAST

“MY EXPERIENCE IS LOTS OF PEOPLE ARE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE THINGS THAT DON’T MATTER THAT MUCH AND NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER”

OCTOBER 2012

“This is a deep water port with an industrial zone, or even an industrial zone with a deep water port. It’s a link piece of economic strategy and that’s why Khalifa Port will continue to develop,” he continues.

MEGA-PROJECT, MICRO MANAGEMENT Such a huge development demands a number of specialist project partners, all working on various elements in tandem.

To logistically align that effort is the stuff of nightmares, but under Douglas’s leadership every firm working on the project was bound to its responsibilities and deadlines

by Douglas’ no nonsense approach that ensured delivery could be timed to the hour.

It was a radical strategy for a region known for its “insha’alla” attitude, but it was one Douglas deemed necessary to ensure layers of clarity and accountability.

“The trick is to try and remove some of the mystique of project management by framing ambition,” he says, drawing on professional experience that has seen him work on projects such as Heathrow Airport.

“My experience is lots of people are accountable for the things that don’t matter that much and not a lot of people are accountable for the things that really matter.

“What they try first is the sophisticated book of excuses and then the two stroke motor that goes something like this ‘but but but

COVER STORY KHALIFA PORT

finish date, Douglas recalls that key project elements also had to be planned for execution in tandem.

but’. No, perform against what was agreed,” he asserts.

100 STEPS TO SUCCESS To commit project partners to their responsibilities and deadlines, in 2010 Douglas implemented the 100 Step Plan, which demonstrated the development’s major milestones in a Master Schedule Plan (MSP), subdivided into a series of ‘100 Day Sprints’ (see box) designed to boost efficiency and reduce risk and cost, and the ‘Go Live’ plan.

“We determined what that finish date should be and it was back-flushed against the critical path and all the elements that were critically dependent upon being able to achieve the September 1 date,” he explains continuing to add, with pride, that every project partner was well versed in the principle.

“The key to the success of the 100 Step Plan was the commitment that it received from the entire organisation,” comments Steve Kay, programme manager for design and build contractor Bechtel.

“Through the joint agreement of milestones and the top down commitment to the 100 Step Plan, no-one was in any doubt about the ultimate goal of the project and the key intermediate steps.

“Efficient governance of regular progress review boards, change control boards and tender boards complimented the plan and management of this mega-project,” Kay adds.

Working backwards from a pre-determined

ABOVE: Piling works during Q1 2011.

100 DAY SPRINT

n Sprint 1 Get started n Sprint 2 Recover or accelerate

n Sprint 3 Advance n Sprint 4 Accelerate to the finish line

n Sprint 5 Make it

n

easy for customers and stakeholders to move in Sprint 6 Tie up loose ends

Describing the logic of his management style as a visualisation tool that is 60% communication, 40% project management and supported by “a piece of mental stickiness” embodied in the 100 steps, it was also implemented to defeat the ‘mañana’ approach that such projects are at risk of suffering.

The plans aren’t just written and forgotten, they are confirmed with a signature from every company involved, countersigned

by Douglas and followed up with monthly nine hour long progress meetings, during which performance indicators across construction, health and safety and quality are used to formulate a league table, available for all to see.

“League tables in the competitive world of construction are an emotional tool providing a great amount of focus.

“Like with anything else, nobody wants to be at the bottom of that table and the league table is available for everybody to see. It’s a little human engineering,” Douglas says.

RULES OF THE GAME When it comes to managing projects, Douglas doesn’t employ the usual incentives.

Explaining that project management is “all about clarity” – even if he does say the word is often misused – it’s also about incentivising project partners.

Therefore, continuing the principle of ‘human engineering’, Douglas employs psychological incentives according to the ‘economic game theory’ approach, which turns project execution philosophy on its head to secure best project outcomes for both client and contractor.

“All games presume a winner and a loser and all games have rules so you play with

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

The plans and sprints were not confidential documents. Copies were posted around ADPC head quarters, Kizad site offices and even to Abu Dhabi residents.

43

14-17 April 2013 Jeddah Centre for Forums & Events Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Co-located with

Saudi Building & Interiors Exhibition

THE REGION’S LARGEST CONSTRUCTION

EQUIPMENT EXHIBITION Following a successful 2012 event, the Construction Machinery Show, the largest construction machinery exhibition in the Gulf region, returns to Jeddah between 14-17 April 2013.

With the total value of awarded construction contracts reaching $72 billion in 2011 and with much more to come, the Construction Machinery Show is the ideal opportunity for buyers of construction machinery and heavy equipment to meet manufacturers, suppliers and distributors.

A total of 450 billion Saudi Riyals ($120 billion) will be spent on construction projects between 2012-2016, and much of the development is focused on turning

Jeddah into a world class city, making it the perfect location for the Construction Machinery Show.

The 2012 exhibition proved that Saudi Arabia is the most dynamic country in terms of construction in the region, drawing praise from exhibitors for the quality of his attendees and the number of deals signed on the show floor.

With over 20,000 sqm of space at the Jeddah Exhibition Centre dedicated purely to construction equipment the Construction Machinery Show in 2013 will once again stand out as an event where visitors come to buy.

We will be back in April 2013, Will you?

Find out more. Visit www.constructionmachineryshow.com Gold Sponsor The Construction Machinery Show and its entities are registered trademarks.

The Construction Machinery Show is held alongside the Saudi Building and Interiors Exhibition under the patronage of the Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. Š 2012 Corporate Publishing International. All rights reserved.

Power and Lighting by

Organised by

COVER STORY KHALIFA PORT

and on budget, despite there being no precedent for 5000km in any direction.

FINAL COUNTDOWN It wasn’t just the mega-project itself that had to be managed, but delivery of all ancillaries such as the world’s largest ship to shore cranes, marine tugs, fire engines and the most technologically advanced logistics and tracking system in the MENA region.

“Collaboration and strong project management skills have been crucial to delivering this mega-project on time and within budget,” comments Kay. “The important lesson learned is early involvement of stakeholders and continuation of this relationship throughout the project duration. A good working relationship with our client, Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) and our stakeholders, with a clear focus on delivery, made the process of building the port both smooth and efficient,” Kay adds.

the rules to determine if you will be the winner or the loser.

“Game theory and commercial contracting have an awful lot of similarities. There will be two to three pages to describe what a good outcome looks like and 65 volumes to describe what happens what it goes wrong. The client puts all their intellectual horsepower into avoiding those 65 volumes, whereas the client wants all that effort on what a sophisticated outcome looks like,” Douglas says of the predicament.

Knowing how to shift those rules not only hands control back to the client, but also allows behaviour observation based on the rules of the game.

“Rules are interesting. To prevent being hit with the 65 volumes, firms will say ‘it’ll be fine, we’re on budget’ then we get two months to the finish line and realise we’re a year late, a billion over budget and that we’re all going to end up in the courts for the next three years.

CRANES 30 automated stacking cranes supplied by Konecranes of Finland at a cost of $116.98 million 20 Terex Noell SC624E DieselElectric straddle/ shuttle carriers (also named Sprinters) at a cost of $22.9 million

Following construction of the quay walls and breakwater, the first equipment installation challenge came in the shape of the ship to shore cranes, each in the region of 6000 tonnes.

“It was an incredible feat of heavy engineering because the cranes arrived ready assembled from Shanghai and they are so big stacked up on the ship as they arrive at the port, that it creates a visual illusion and the ship looks like it’s going to capsize. It just doesn’t look logical,” Douglas recalls.

6 ship to shore cranes, the largest in the world, provided by KPMC at a cost of $52,4m

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

“What game theory gets you into is establishing what a win-win looks like.”

In this case a ‘win win’ looks like a multibillion dollar mega port, delivered on time

45

COVER STORY KHALIFA PORT

BIGPROJECTME.COM

KHALIFA PORT AND KIZAD PROJECT PARTNERS n Design Scott Wilson/URA, Moffat & Nichol

n Design field supervision n

Mouchel ME, Atkins, Scott Wilson Marine structures, dredging and reclamation KPMC

n Earthworks

Al Jaber/ Ghantoot

n Onshore Civil and Buildings Al Habtoor Leighton Group

n Medium Voltage Power Systems Larson & Turbro

n Port Special Systems Al Jaber. GIS

n Offshore Civil and Buildings Ed Zublin/ Al JAber

n Offshore Terminal Area The six cranes – reaching a 44m lifting height and a 65m outreach span – were delivered from Chinese supplier ZPMC via specialist cargo ships and as each crane was manoeuvred off the ship, water was pumped into the vessel to compensate for the mass transfer.

Testing on the $52.4m equipment set began at the end of Q1 2012, with further tests conducted on the 20 Terex Noell SC624E Diesel-Electric straddle/shuttle carriers and 30 automated stacking cranes.

Describing the process of isolation and combination testing of all the port’s systems, Douglas says: “It’s a very disciplined approach to process, procedure, system, training,” Douglas shares.

By August of this year around 1800 tests were being conducted daily for automated logistics, endurance, lifting and handling systems, with the whole port put to the test when the Evergreen Dana docked and unloaded the first cargo.

It’s a schedule that has lasted six months, with each test providing a critical project milestone in the port’s development.

46

MIDDLE EAST

Following these were a series of disaster scenario tests, as would happen with any

OCTOBER 2012

major national infrastructure, to cover power failure, fire and natural disaster, among other scenarios.

“You’re talking about taking a level of automation into an environment that hasn’t been tested. You have to be very sure on your selection of the providers and the technical competence of them and our project management team to be able to properly facilitate the testing and commissioning that leads to the acceptance certificates,” Douglas stresses.

The next step is the completion of Kizad, Khalifa Port’s supporting industrial zone, and the conversion of Mina Zayed into a cruise terminal in time for next year’s cruise season.

Both will provide continued opportunities for the construction industry, but most crucially they will cement Abu Dhabi’s post-oil future and position as a regional industrial powerhouse.

“It goes without saying that anybody who has the opportunity to experience a project of this scale in their career is very lucky and very fortunate. I think it is about being lucky enough to be in a situation at a point in time where you can enjoy that benefit, but the Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone is as good as it gets,” Douglas concludes. n

Hyundai Eng. & Consortium

n Primary Infrastructure North CCC

n Infrastructure CentreSouth Al Habtoor Leighton Group

n Sewage Plant Metito

n Medium Voltage Power Larson & Turbro

SUPPLIER NEWS GERMAN COMPANIES

BIGPROJECTME.COM

SUPPLIER NEWS DORNBRACHT NEW WATER CONCEPT INTRODUCED TO REGIONAL MARKET Dornbracht has announced the introduction of a range of accessories designed to create a series of “unique scenarios” using water, called the “Ambience Tuning Technique”, developed as part of Dornbracht’s “Transforming Water” concept.

The “scenarios” are described as balancing, energizing and de-stressing and are delivered via the JustRain, WaterSheet and WaterBar shower fittings.

The central components of the Ambiance Tuning Technique are the eTool, eValve and eSwitch.

Integrated in an open system, they consist of the technical components that allow a user to set the choreography of the water – the pressure, temperature and volume.

Designed by Sieger Design, the three pre-programmed scenarios are activated by keeping the respective

button pressed down for two seconds: the water choreographies then begin automatically. Within the scenarios, the temperature and volume settings of the outlets alternate. This is made possible by the electronic eValve that is installed directly behind every outlet. The eSwitch controls electricity supply and communication between the eValve and the eTool control panel.

The integrated service port in the eSwitch enables configuration and diagnosis of the system.

“Transforming Water marks the next step in the evolution of Dornbracht‘s brand promise The Spirit of Water,” said CEO Andreas Dornbracht. “With the Ambiance Tuning Technique, a variety of jets are combined in pre-programmed choreographed scenarios of water temperature and volume that enhance individual bath rituals.”

PERI PERI EXPERTS ON HAND FOR INFRA OMAN 2012 Peri experts are to attend Infra Oman this month to promote the use of Peri’s products and also explain the benefits of new products that will be showcased during the exhibition.

Held at the Oman International Exhibition Centre from October 2 – 4, the firm’s 18sqm stand will be used to demonstrate its proven formwork systems in addition to the craneindependent PERI LICO. The low individual weights of the elements allow assembly and dismantling

by hand. This means that the formwork crew is still in a position to effectively use crane non-availability in a productive way. The high permissible fresh concrete pressure of 80 Kn/ m2 ensures fast concreting cycles and thus contributes to a very economical utilisation of the equipment.

Also demonstrated will be the PERI UP Rosett Flex, which has integrated safety features, in addition to various technical, commercial and logistical services which support customers in ensuring cost-effective and safe realisation of their projects.

Peri Oman has completed projects for the Bank of Oman and Parliament Building at Muscat Oman among others.

Like other global bases, the office specialises in optimised formwork and scaffolding solutions with efficient engineering and software service, formwork planning design, as well as competent site supervision to ensure the success of your project at all times.

SCHOTT SPECIALIST REGIONAL PROCESSING PARTNER APPOINTED

48

MIDDLE EAST

Technical glass manufacturer Schott has appointed a specialist processing partner for the Middle East, White Aluminium Enterprises LLC. Located in Abu Dhabi, White Aluminium Enterprises has been a key player in the UAE construction market for 35 years and will process all Schott products for delivery from the UAE to anywhere in the region, as opposed to delivering from Europe.

Located in Abu Dhabi, White Aluminium is one of the first aluminium and glass groups in the UAE. They have been a key player in the construction market in the UAE for 35 years. SCHOTT technical glass products such as Pyran S and Pyran Platinum will now be supplied by White Aluminium throughout the GCC and Middle East region.

Under the new contract, White Aluminium Enterprises will stock, process, promote, and sell SCHOTT products in the ME and GCC market whenever there is a demand for it.

Schott has described the benefits of the new partnership as the ability to price competitively, decrease delivery lead times, increase local availability of products, reduce the impact of logistics costs for customers and enhance market penetration.

OCTOBER 2012

SUPPLIER NEWS GERMAN COMPANIES

BIGPROJECTME.COM

HÖRMANN ONE OF LARGEST BIG 5 STANDS FOR DOOR MANUFACTURER Security and energy efficiency will be the key messages promoted by Hörmann at this year’s Big 5 exhibition, held in Dubai next month, when the german door manufacturer takes one of the show’s largest stands in the German Pavillion.

Products that will be on display at Big 5 include Hörmann’s Industrial Sectional Door ALS 40, Rolling Shutter Decotherm S, High Speed Door V5030, Spiral Door HS 7030 PU,

Industrial sectional Doors SPU40, Supramatic Garage Doors, loading technology products as well as a wide selection of Steel Hinge Doors to name a few.

The company also reports a “remarkable” increase in demand for environmentally friendly door solutions, including the ThermoPro doors which can improve thermal insulation by up to 30%, across industrial, commercial and residential applications.

“Though we have seen more demand from industrial and commercial sectors, we also have a strong focus on the residential market,” said Middle East managing director, Darius Khanloo.

“We provide an array of options to match the architecture of any home. All our doors are equipped with a door operator that is virtually maintenancefree and provides the latest in engineering excellence. Some of the innovative safety features that visitors can see at our Big 5 stand include Finger Trap Protection, Photocells that immediately detect people and objects and provides additional level of safety, BiSecur hand held transmitters with FM signals for opening automatic doors and gates, and lockable bottom profile. Innovative products include wicket doors with trip-free thresholds which decrease the risk that persons passing through will trip and injure themselves. With our extensive selection, everyone will easily find their dream door,” Khanloo added.

Recently, the company has compelted projects for Al Merkaaz, Ceva, Khalifa Port and Al Marai.

DILLINGER IMPORTANCE OF EQUIPMENT CARE HIGHLIGHTED Dillinger Middle East director Randhir Venugopal has spoken out to draw attention to the importance of proper maintenance of parts and machinery in desert climates.

Specifying the significance of Equipment that is particularly at risk of damage includes chutes for crushers, pipes for dredging, rolling of wheels over rail tracks, shovels which break into stony ground or facings in cement mills.

“Early replacement of parts cause enormous costs. Even worse are standstills of the whole production facility in service because of unforeseen failure of a wear part,” Venugopal said.

“Equipment wears when two components or particles slide, roll, scratch or hammer on each other. Even tiny grains of sand can destroy a heavy component made of steel plate when they scratch repeatedly over the surface: an abrasive paper can even remove steel. To beat wear, Dillinger Hutte GTS offers specialist heavy plates with a thickness between 6 mm and up to 400 mm,” he added.” he added.

As a solution, Venugopal explained that Dillinger can offer Quenching and protective plates to increase the longevity of kit.

Quenching increases the hardness of steel with a relatively low content of carbon and alloying elements up to 500 Brinell or even higher.

The advantage of a quenched steel compared with a normalised steel is the good workability despite of the high hardness.

GEZE INCREASING DEMAND FOR WEB-BASED CONTROL SYSTEM

50

MIDDLE EAST

GCC customers are increasingly demanding web-based control systems to monitor and maintain security on their premises, according to GEZE Middle East managing director Charles Constantin.

“A high number of affluent residents in the GCC own second, third or even fourth homes outside of the country which they may visit only a handful of times per year,” said Constantin.

“New remote-control building systems allow building owners to oversee the status of their building’s access points, mainly doors and windows, from anywhere in the world and make instant decisions about doors and windows they either want to close or open, for security or safety purposes,” he added.

GEZE, is the developer and manufacturer of SecuLogic, which it describes as “one of the leading remote-control building systems in the world”. SecuLogic uses the web-based remote-

OCTOBER 2012

control and telemaintenance tool Quick Care 320 to securely control and monitor a building from anywhere in the world.

Other trends recognised by Constantin include a demand for smart windows, which can facilitate smoke and heat extraction/ dissipation in a building in the event of a fire and specialist emergency exit systems.

In addition the GCC is experiencing an increased demand for ‘panic lock’ systems, particularly among the region’s wealthiest residents.

“As the GCC builds for its future, local demand is growing for safe and sustainable new buildings. This demand is being led by the Government which recognizes the need for world-leading building quality.”

“New technologies allow for complete control of a building and safe buildings can help save lives.”

SUPPLIER NEWS GERMAN COMPANIES

TREMCO NEW REGIONAL BASE OPENS IN DUBAI Tremco-illbruck has announced the opening of a new logistics centre to serve its Middle East client base, in Dubai’s Al Barsha area.

Opening on October 1, the new centre will take advantage of the favourable business conditions provided by UAE freezone authorities. Tremco-illbruck says the new base will enable the firm to stock materials locally and consolidate orders more efficiently.

“With the growth and diversification of our European businesses, operating from five distinct centres of excellence in Germany, France, Netherlands and UK, plus several North American facilities we bring to market a whole range of leading brands such as Tremco, illbruck, Pactan, Vulkem, Tremstop and Nullifire. However logistics was

becoming a major challenge for our business in the Middle East and Africa due in part to our remote location,” said sales director Stuart Wakeham.

Formed in 2005 Tremcoillbruck was created from the merger of Tremco’s European Sealant and Weatherproofing Division and illbruck sealant systems of Cologne, Germany.

Tremco-illbruck specialize in Silicone, Polyurethane, Acrylic and Hybrid Sealants, Industrial Adhesives and Chemical Anchors, Sealing Tapes, Gaskets, Membranes, Liquid Waterproofing and Passive Fire Protection.

The firm’s products have been used on projects such as the Bahrain World Trade Centre (pictured) and Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates.

DESIGN, CONSULTING, ENGINEERING SERVICES AND STRUCTURAL DIAGNOSTICS

Bridges and Footbridges Motorways, Highways and Roads Structural Diagnostics Electro Engineering Civil Engineering Structures of Buildings Foundations Bridge Inspections Supervision and Project Management cation in accordance with ČSN EN ISO 9001:2001a and ČSN EN ISO 14001:2005 PONTEX Constulting EngineersLtd., Bezová 1658, 147 14 Praha 4, Czech Republic, phone: +420 244 462 231, fax: +420 244 461 038, e-mail: pontex@pontex.cz

SPECIAL FEATURE

BIGPROJECTME.COM

Engineering

the region’s

finest

Big Project Middle East looks at some of the most modern technological applications that make the region’s ambitious bridges projects possible

Project Name

Sheikh Zayed Bridge

Location

Abu Dhabi

Project Partners

Zaha Hadid Architects with design realised and implemented by Bentley Systems

Technology Used

RM Bridge Professional, by Bentley Systems

Construction Time line

1997 – 2010

Length

842m

Concrete volume

220,000m³

Virtual possibility

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MIDDLE EAST

ABOVE Sheik Zayed Bridge is a regional icon.

OTCTOBER 2012

PROJECT DETAILS Featuring cantilevered road decks suspended from symmetrical steel arches, Sheikh Zayed Bridge is known throughout the Middle East for its “fluid” silhouette.

Designed by architect Zaha Hadid, Bentley System’s RM Bridge Professional software was used to achieve the extreme accuracy bridge building requires and facilitate the simulation of engineering and construction.

In this project, the Bridge Information Modelling (BrIM) software was used to aid construction management, structure erection and seismic analysis s well as automated processes, such as the delivery of design data to casting and fabrication.

The BrIM programme was also used to develop the construction schedule, analyse

traffic loading and check the stability of the structure virtually.

The highly irregular nature and varying shape of Sheikh Zayed Bridge posed many engineering challenges. Twists and varying sizes, with few surfaces being truly horizontal or vertical, caused unusual force effects beyond those that are normally experienced, thus requiring a rigorous three dimensional analysis to determine those force effects.

However, when establishing the primary model properties, the BrIM pre-processor functionality dealt with complex geometry and continually changing section sizes.

Such flexibility reduced the time required to assess engineering problems solutions and, as such, those time savings brought a consequent cost saving.

SPECIAL FEATURE

Project Name

Hodariyat Bridge

Location

Abu Dhabi

Details

1.3Km long and 36m wide, connecting Abu Dhabi Island to Hodariyat Island above the Musaffah channel

Project Partners

Design and Build contract awarded

by Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC).

Consultation provided by Parsons

Construction Period

October 2009 to March 2012

Construction Rate

Up to 24m per week on the main bridge including the installation of the stays cables which ranged from 61 to 109 strands each

The first stay cabled bridge in the UAE

RIGHT The 200tn concrete segments were lifted using VSL custom made lifting gantries.

The two approaches were constructed one after the other and the 905m of bridge were completed by mid June 2011; less than 21 months from the date of mobilisation on site.

The central unit consists of two balanced cantilever bridges, suspended to two pylons by 52 stay cables. The central span is 200m long and provides a clearance of 21.5m for ship crossing underneath. The two side spans are 98m long.

It was constructed using precast segments of 36m wide and 3m long, cast on the Abu Dhabi side and transported by barges under their final positions. The 200tn concrete segments were lifted using VSL custom made lifting gantries with the heavy lifting strand jacking technique and equipments.

The last segment of the main bridge was lifted in position on October 11, 2011. By October 18 the central stitch was closed, thus giving a vehicular access onto the island for the first time.

The bridge was handed over to the client on the 28 of March 2012.

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

PROJECT DETAILS The bridge deck consists of three independent structural units: Two approach units of 480m and 425m long on the Abu Dhabi and Hodariyat sides consisting of 55m long spans were built using the incremental launching method. The units were cast on land behind the abutments and launched by strand jacking and sliding above the already completed pier columns.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

BIGPROJECTME.COM

Project Name

Jamal Abdul Nasser Highway, co-located with Al Jahra Road Development

Location

Western Kuwait

Details

Jamal Abdul Nasser Highway project involves the upgrading of the existing highway to high motorway standards, up-grading of associate utility works and bridge works.

Project Partners

The Ministry of Public Works (MPW) – Roads Engineering Department; Louis Berger Group in a Joint Venture with Pan Arab Consulting Engineers.

Construction Period

May 2011 to June 2016p

Project Costs

$8.6m

Driving national standards

n No. of pre-cast

segments 7613

n Total length of

twin carriageway segmental viaduct 8338 KM

n Total length of

single carriageway segmental viaduct – Ramps 6.89 KM

n Total length of

bored cast in-situ piling118.1 KM

n Total elevated deck

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MIDDLE EAST

area 348,946 m2

OCTOBER 2012

PROJECT DETAILS Kuwait Ministry of Public Works (MPW) employed the joint venture of Louis Berger (LBG) and Pan Arab Consulting Engineers (PACE) to undertake the ambitious program of Jamal Abdul Nasser Highway project.

The ongoing construction involves the upgrading of the existing Jamal Abdul Nasser Highway to international motorway standards and includes a number of bridges along the highway.

In addition to transforming the Jamal Abdul Nasser into a unified highway, the project also includes a number of utilities and drainage structures along the length of the project route which will require relocation, protection, and refurbishment.

The project has five key objectives: to segregate between bypass traffic and local traffic flow; increase the Jahra Road capacity thereby minimizing traffic congestions and reducing accidents; meet future traffic demands; improve road facilities and services; improve road safety standards.

BELOW A rendering of one of the completed highway’s elevated stretches.

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

SILGA is a consulting company specialized in engineering projects, mainly focused on civil, industrial and building structures. Its areas of activity are: Construction Projects: SILGA provides its experience in general civil engineering projects, specialized in structures.

On site construction assistance: control, problem solving and partial modifications or extensions of the initial project. Project control and supervision of projects done by other consulting ofďŹ ces. Calculations, drawings and bill of quantities are checked. Supervision often involves full recalculation of the structure. A global approach Besides Spain, SILGA has had the opportunity of working in countries such as USA, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Mauritania, Peru, Bolivia and Portugal, and with several construction codes.

Welcome to SILGA

Civil and Structural Engineering +34 91 639 80 50 • www.silga.es

ROUNDTABLE

BIGPROJECTME.COM

Incentivising

safety

Big Project Middle East meets with insurance, legal and contracting professionals to explore the most effective way to incentivise safety onsite WHAT HAVE BEEN THE MOST SIGNIFICANT RECENT DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE REGION? MF: Abu Dhabi Municipality has

recently issued construction accident statistics for the first time having monitored incidents over a twelve month period. Whether that is going to be adopted across the UAE remains to be seen, but it gives an opportunity to monitor regional progress, which could be a light at the end of a rather dim tunnel at this point.

MK: The EHSMS has an obligation for all

construction companies working in Abu Dhabi to put forward their EHSMS for

“YOU SEE CONTRACTORS WHO REPORT MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF MAN HOURS BEING WORKED AND THEY HAVEN’T EVEN HAD SO MUCH AS A FIRST AID ACCIDENT; YOU KNOW THAT ISN’T REALISTIC”

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MIDDLE EAST

Tel: +966 3 802 4938 Fax: +966 3 826 9894 www.ahqsons.com info@ahqsons.com

OCTOBER 2012

approval. Habtoor Leighton Group (HLG) was one of the first of four to be approved and on a quarterly basis we have to submit our statistics. The intent is to analyse those, establish a baseline criteria, and then set key performance indicator (KPI) targets for the contractors within the sector.

MF: IIT DOES SOUND LIKE A POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT; THERE WERE 29 FATALITIES IN ABU DHABI IN 2011. FROM AN INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE, HOW DOES THAT SOUNDS BENCHMARKED AGAINST OTHER PARTS OF THE REGION? MK: Even one fatality is too many.

KF: Municipalities can collate the statistics on lost time injuries (LTI) and fatalities, and then use the data to implement measures to areas that require it. This gathering of data is totally reliant on companies being open and honest with their reporting, which is sometimes not the case.

MK: Under the EHSMS, we as the main contractor are obliged to report accidents on site from subcontractors and that

ROUNDTABLE

IS REGULATION THE ANSWER OR IS IT A CHANGE OF CULTURE AND ATTITUDE THAT IS MORE IMPORTANT WHEN IT COMES TO HEALTH AND SAFETY? MK: It’s probably a little of both. The changes

in the regulation will have a knock on effect on the culture and one particularly good thing about the legislation in Abu Dhabi is that there is no grey area and it gives us a tool to state a requirement that has legal backing.

If we can use legislation the culture will improve automatically, it’ll have to. The two are very much linked, but the culture is changing on a lot of projects and we can see it. Some sites are better than others, but you can see it in the workers themselves –even though they come from countries where the risks they take are seen as acceptable. I witnessed the same thing while working in Hong Kong, where many workers seemed to have no concept of danger.

KF: Peoples’ definition of risk differs from

person to person, for example we could catch somebody working on a very unsafe scaffold, or not wearing a safety harness when needed, but when they see you they simply put their helmets on thinking that this is the only unsafe act they are committing.

aim should be to prevent them. Health and safety measures implementation help in achieving this goal.

At the same time when you take these mega losses, despite best efforts, at times it’s beyond your capacity to stop them but what you can do is take precautions to minimise the impacts. For example when a fire occurs, how quickly can we respond? The most dangerous thing can be the materials stored on site and the construction waste, which are the breeding grounds for fire.

If you take fire safety as an example, there are a lot of regulations but there are still fires. So how do you reduce the impact of mega losses? If the regulations have been followed you shouldn’t see more than one or two floors of a building burning.

MK: I think in the UAE, the civil defence has taken a big step forward with its introduction of the fire and life safety code and that also covers buildings under construction. Civil Defence has also appointed Houses of Excellence responsible for the projects, to ensure they comply with the fire and life safety code. I think this is something where the insurance industry could help those parties who they insure by being proactive in advising us in how to mitigate risk of loss.

SR: In additional to cultural background there is enormous pressure on the speed of projects so you don’t have time to train people properly and in some cases we see unskilled labourers have been employed without the relevant experience. In the rush to speed things up all the quality process are jumped. We have witnessed this in quite a few projects particularly during boom times I think all these things add together to contribute to the particularly condition we have. From an insurance perspective, there are two types of losses; those which are very big in nature but happen only once every ten years, like a big fire. Then there are the losses that are quite frequent in nature and although they are minor incidences, they still create lost time. So instead of minimising the minor accidents the primary

MEET THE PANEL

MARK FRASER partner, Taylor Wessing

MARTIN KELLY group manager OHSE and training, Habtor Leighton Group

KEITH FINNIGAN project safety manager, Habtoor Leighton Group

Tel: +966 3 802 4938 Fax: +966 3 826 9894 www.ahqsons.com info@ahqsons.com

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

goes against our record, but it shows that there is another contractor involved. The municipality actually follows up with the contractor involved identified and that’s extremely good practice.

57

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ROUNDTABLE

IN A REGION WHERE MONEY AND DEADLINES DRIVE THINGS TO SUCH AN EXTENT, INSURANCE PLAYS A LARGE PART IN INCENTIVISING HEALTH AND SAFETY. HOW ARE POLICIES STRUCTURED IN ORDER TO INCENTIVISE POLICY HOLDERS TO MINIMISE RISK TO THEIR WORKERS? SR: Insurance pricing in the region for

S. RAJAGOPA managing director, Al Nabooda Inurance

MF: Insurers in the region are also likely to

MARK FRASER partner, Taylor Wessing

be mindful of the potential exposure under Article 880 of the Civil Code. Article 880 renders contractors and designers jointly liable for a period of ten years for structural defects. Strict liability of this nature would not be covered by conventional professional indemnity policies which is problematic for construction industry players with responsibility for design.

Furthermore liability cannot be limited and it is not possible to contract out of Article 880 liability.

MK: Minimum Acceptable Standards were introduced into our management system due to the difficulty in identifying the

Tel: +966 3 802 4938 Fax: +966 3 826 9894 www.ahqsons.com info@ahqsons.com

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

Within Abu Dhabi, the municipality has put a lot of effort intro training their inspectors; when they visit sites they know what they are talking about, they understand that we are all health and safety professionals and they are a trained inspector who can know how and where things have gone wrong. That’s important; the inspectors should be properly trained and working with us.

We have introduced what is colloquially referred to as ‘black point inspections’ and it is a very similar system to a driving licence, except when we see an incident that is life threatening we actually look through the whole supervisory chain. Where negligence can be proven, warning points will be given and when a certain number of points have been accumulated, they are released from our employment.

We have written this into HLG’s management system and we are very proud with our management system. This is only one of the initiatives we have introduced.

projects and associated insurance has steadily become softer over the last decade. One of the prime reasons is intense competition within the Insurance Industry. Having said that, there are still a few risks that are not written by the underwriters or the client is not willing to pay the cost. For example, Decennial Liability covering contractor’s lapses during construction which, surface out after the handover. This is despite the fact that according to Article 880 of UAE Civil code that both the contractor and engineer are jointly responsible for structural defects that impair the stability of the building up to 10 years.

Every Underwriter would like to write a portfolio on profitable basis whilst at the same time be competitive to win business.

Any measure that improves the risk is taken into consideration while underwriting.

In simple terms, it should answer three pertinent questions for underwriting: Firstly, can I write this risk? Secondly do I have the capacity to write this risk? And if the answer is yes to the above, then at what terms, rate and conditions can I write it?

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ROUNDTABLE

BIGPROJECTME.COM

“A LOT OF THESE THINGS DON’T COST MONEY TO IMPLEMENT BUT MUST BE THOUGHT OF FROM A HUMAN PERSPECTIVE, NOT FINANCIAL; WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT MACHINES. THERE IS A STRONG EMOTIONAL ISSUE ATTACHED TO THIS TOO.”

legal requirement within all our different areas of operation. To overcome this, we researched all available codes and guidelines, compared this to international best practice, and then wrote an HLG Standard that would comply with even the most onerous requirements. We have an open and honest reporting system.

KF: You see contractors who report millions and millions of man hours being worked and they haven’t even had so much as a first aid incident (cut finger for example) which tells me their reporting culture is less than perfect. Ultimately, this is detrimental to preventing accidents in the future because trends cannot be identified and acted upon.

MK: On one HLG job a company arrived BELOW Some of the posters created by HLG labourers during the contractor’s most recent safety awareness week.

to paint a building and when I saw them set up it was clear they weren’t working safely. I said they couldn’t do the job the way they set out to because it wasn’t safe and a couple of phone calls later their boss said ‘we have to re-quote if you want it done safely’.

And it is very sad but it’s true. If you want it done safely it will cost you more.

KF: The further down the chain you go with subcontractors, that’s where you get the problems.

SHOULD THERE BE A WATCHDOG TO WHICH TO REPORT SUCH INCIDENTS, OR EVEN THE SUBCONTRACTORS THEMSELVES, RATHER THAN LEAVING IT TO CORPORATE VIGILANCE? KF: We issued a black point on one project

in Abu Dhabi. The project manager also

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MIDDLE EAST

Tel: +966 3 802 4938 Fax: +966 3 826 9894 www.ahqsons.com info@ahqsons.com

OCTOBER 2012

received a black point and actually fined the subcontractor AED60,000 who then went to great lengths to ensure it wouldn’t happen again. We subsequently reduced the fine.

MK: I do know Abu Dhabi is looking at trade licensing and the licensing of tradesmen.

In Hong Kong every person who enters a site has to have a trade licensing card, even if it is just as a general labourer. I think that would be another major initiative here in the Emirates, where everybody who is employed on a construction site firstly must have basic safety training. Dubai and Abu Dhabi Municipalities are working towards that, and are possibly making it a federal requirement. The trades licensing would be the next step on top of that.

MK:

It would be the same as the construction scheme in the UK.

HOW EASY WOULD IT BE TO INTRODUCE A TRADESMAN LICENSING SCHEME IN LIGHT OF THE PACE AT WHICH OTHER HEALTH AND SAFETY LEGISLATION HAS BEEN INTRODUCED? MK: Once a competency standard has been decided upon it could theoretically take around five years. For example HLG has its own training academy licensed by third parties and one thing we do is vocational training. QCC has expressed an interest in learning from our experience in this area.

The standard we have set ourselves is the City and Guild Standard, which is a UK certification scheme. It has only taken us two years to set that up so should the authorities commit to it, they could have a system in place that they could implement across the industry that would see tradesmen in the UAE have to become licensed over a two or three year period.

So within five years everybody who is here could become licensed and those new people who come in would have to pass a competency test before they are licensed.

Alternatively, they would have to go into a training establishment to become licensed and gain municipality approval prior to working on site.

It would be like the introduction of the EHSMS, they had a will to do it and it worked. At the moment there is a

ROUNDTABLE

every accident however, we don’t have data from outside the organisation and it would be useful for us to know what types of incidents are prevalent in cdertain areas. all our data is analysed at the corporate level within HLG. We know our biggest risk is working at height, but what we don’t have is data from other companies in other areas that would allow us to identify that for example there is a prevalence of accidents in excavations. With this, we could then ask why. Is it the ground; the availability of equipment to make it stable; or is it just one of those strange anomalies for this year?

But as the contractor it gives us focus to tackle a known risk.

KF: Companies that commit to health and safety will ultimately have fewer incidents and thus claims will be less. For this reason, discounts offered by Insurance companies on premiums is a good incentive.

SR: There is also internal pressure and

commitment in the UAE to make such safety training mandatory. This is a positive step forward and one that will benefit the whole of the UAE. IN TERMS OF INSURANCE PAY OUTS FOR THE MORE FREQUENT INCIDENTS, WOULD YOU SAY THEY ARE LARGE ENOUGH TO INCENTIVISE MORE STRINGENT ONSITE REGULATIONS? SR: Definitely. These incidences are quite high and there are claims made on a daily basis starting from minor bruising to fatal accidents, and more could be done to minimise these risks.

A lot of these things don’t cost money to implement but must be thought of from a human perspective, not financial; we are not talking about machines. There is a strong emotional issue attached to this too.

But one of the things happening here is that we don’t have enough data. We need to know what types of losses are happening and then establish dialogue with industry experts to find a way to improve the situation.

the process of sharing data may reduce a company’s chance of winning a project if they are found to be lacking adequate safety measures. One of the immediate concern would be if a project would finish on time.

MK: It’s almost a certainty that if you have a major incident onsite you will not finish on time and the impact goes far beyond the poor person who isn’t going to go back to their family. The emotional impact on other workers, directors, timescales, the investigators that visit; even for the accidents where there is no loss of life and no physical injury, I have known sites that have virtually stopped work for three months and at the end of that time if the schedule isn’t met you’re into liquidated damages, too. n

MK: The publication of statistics would be beneficial to everybody. We have data on

“[EHSMS] GIVES AN OPPORTUNITY TO AT LEAST MONITOR COMPLIANCE PROGRESS, WHICH COULD BE A LIGHT AT THE END OF A RATHER DIM TUNNEL AT THIS POINT”

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

Tel: +966 3 802 4938 Fax: +966 3 826 9894 www.ahqsons.com info@ahqsons.com

61

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CONSTRUCTION IT

ZOLNA MURRAY

De-Bunking the BIM

WHAT IS THE INTENTION BEHIND YOUR BLOG ‘DE-BUNKING THE BIM’?

‘It seemed like a good idea at the time’ – this platform offered me a way to share my understanding on BIM with people of similar interests, rather than bothering everyone I came across in my everyday life. My knowledge has been built on over more than 20 years, through hands-onexperience, and it needed an ‘outlet’.

When planning the blog I made a couple of rules. Posts would be brief, daily, for 365 days. Brief forced me to get to the point quickly; daily meant gathering subjectrelevant thoughts regularly from past/ present and future; to focus my ideas and arguments into small packages.

This blog was successful because of its self-imposed rules. Although other BIM blogs started to proliferate, being the first with regular and pithy posts enabled a solid reader base to build quickly. BIM blogging has become more fashionable; nearly everybody else is doing it now!

YOUR VIEWS ONLINE ARE QUITE DIRECT – WHAT’S THE AIM OF THE BLOG?

While the field of BIM was established many years ago, it still suffers from ‘widely accepted theories’ that are thin on facts and often far from reality. BIM is a subject I feel strongly about but it is also a developing one producing new angles to explore, some of which are quite uncomfortable at first.

There is a constant barrage of clichéd write-ups. These are of little use to anyone wanting to know more about BIM, and provide very little ‘real information’ to assist the ones that do want to make informed decisions.

I wanted to change this in my own way and be direct and frank about the subject.

I was hoping to start real arguments on BIM, replacing the ‘parroting’ of softwarebabble that seem to be favoured by lots of BIM promoters.

WHAT KIND OF INDUSTRY REACTION HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED SINCE BEGINNING THE BLOG?

Reactions have been active and passive, positive and negative, although mostly neutral, ‘do not quite know what to do with this’ type of feedback.

A large proportion of the industry is notcomfortable with the idea of BIM becoming a major factor in their day-to-day working life and still hope that it will go away, or at least become something that they can off load to other people to understand and do.

I regularly receive favourable comments from those that ‘know’ the subject well, even though they get to feel uneasy about my apparent biases or lack-of towards various software brands, depending on their own standings.

HOW DO YOU BELIEVE BIM CAN CHANGE THE INDUSTRY?

BIM can’t change the industry. The industry can change the industry and only by being determined to do so, as opposed to simply saying it wants to change; BIM can help of course, by assisting those that recognise where the industry is lacking an ability to self-repair, by providing smart tools and processes.

“WHILE THE FIELD OF BIM WAS ESTABLISHED MANY YEARS AGO, IT STILL SUFFERS FROM ‘WIDELY ACCEPTED THEORIES’ THAT ARE THIN ON FACTS AND OFTEN FAR FROM REALITY“

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

ZOLNA MURRAY AEC professional and blog author.

Multi-skilled AEC professional and blog author Zolna Murray talks about the reasons behind her blog, her personal view of BIM adoption in AEC and her views on the future of the industry

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CONSTRUCTION IT

BIGPROJECTME.COM

LEFT: Murray says the potential of BIM modelling is often misunderstood.

THE INTRODUCTION ON YOUR BLOG STATES THAT YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE REFERRED TO AS AN ‘EXPERT’ OR ‘SPECIALIST’ – HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR NICHE?

I’m a multi-skilled AEC professional, an architect-for-life with a combination of skills any good design/project and engineering manager in the field would match. My job is almost always about getting the best out of people, getting information verified and solving problems, get buildings completed, eliminating the need for my party to pay for another’s mistakes.

I use BIM because it is an excellent toolset, I’d use almost anything else that I saw appropriate to do my job well too.

I’m weary of ‘BIM-specialists’ and ‘experts’ as they tend to lack the hands-on experience of making buildings happen and are often just career-BIM-ers that jumped on a passing band-wagon pushed by various software providers.

You take the industry out of BIM and there is little left, some software knowledge and templates. I prefer to deal with the industry with all its complexities as an engineer/manager and BIM happens to be a tool-set that I know quite well and like applying.

WHAT’S THE MOST INVENTIVE REASON YOU’VE HEARD TO NOT USE BIM?

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MIDDLE EAST

These days few people say a straight-up ‘no’ to BIM, I see more of “experts” ignoring it or putting up subtle obstructions to frustrate employment of BIM on projects.

OCTOBER 2012

“I’M WEARY OF ‘BIM-SPECIALISTS’ AND ‘EXPERTS’ AS THEY TEND TO LACK THE HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE OF MAKING BUILDINGS HAPPEN AND ARE OFTEN JUST CAREER-BIM-ERS THAT JUMPED ON A PASSING BANDWAGON PUSHED BY VARIOUS SOFTWARE PROVIDERS”

There still is the universal “BIM does not work” statement followed by the hoary invitation “prove that BIM works”, that I meet reasonably often; the stock response to this is “you prove that you can do fine without it”.

Of course they can’t; where they do, you can expect that any little luxury they’re enjoying is costing someone else money, time and effort.

WHERE DOES THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY LIE IN THE MIDDLE EAST WITHOUT STRONGER SUPPORT FOR CONSTRUCTION IT APPLICATIONS?

The AEC industry is in trouble globally as well as locally. It has exhausted all the ‘easy options’ available to it to prosper from, like the various property bubbles and endless supply of speculative monies, getting cheap labour through globalisation and relatively undemanding and ill-informed clients…

AEC industry working conditions have changed and circumstances will be tougher for some time ahead. New tools and smarter solutions are now needed. IT will be providing some of them. n

All the views expressed by Zolna are her own. To read De-bunking the BIM, visit http://debunkthebim.blogspot.com/ or follow on twitter, via @debunkingthebim.

Zolna will also participate in Big Project Middle East’s November issue roundtable on construction IT

COMMENT

BIGPROJECTME.COM

SAEED ALABBAR

Going green?

ABOVE Saeed Alabbar.

Despite all the good intentions of international building codes, today’s buildings consume more energy per square metre than those constructed in the 1970s.

AESG director, Saeed Alabbar, shares his four step approach to tackling the issue AS AN INDUSTRY we are falling over ourselves to find the latest breakthroughs in technology to help save energy and there have been some incredible advances made in technology. Why then are we using more energy now than 40 years ago? Isn’t engineering about progress?

Unfortunately we as an industry are still not asking ourselves the fundamental question of how much energy does this building consume in real life compared to other buildings. Some fantastic work is being done at the design phase of buildings with building information modelling in order to simulate the performance of buildings before they are built. This is all fantastic work and is a great tool for designers to improve building designs but shouldn’t we then pay more attention to what the building consumes in reality after it is built?

Furthermore, a lot of the analysis done at the design stage is in comparing the building to a theoretical baseline of ‘the same building built to code requirements’.

Therefore if the fundamental design of the building is terrible the analysis that is required by the rating system will not reveal this. So what do we need to do as an industry? Here are my humble opinions: ADOPT A REALISTIC APPROACH We need to start talking about a building’s energy use intensity, the energy consumption per square meter, rather than comparing buildings to theoretical baselines

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SET STRINGENT QUALITY CONTROL GUIDELINES Quality control in the integrity of building envelopes needs major improvement.

Some fantastic analysis goes into building designs to select the right glass and insulation but quite often all this good work is lost during construction as insulation and facades are installed poorly with high levels of thermal bridging and air leakage.

It is not only the contractors that are at fault here. A lot of building envelope designs done by architects in the region are very

OCTOBER 2012

poor with enormous amounts of thermal bridging. There is really little use in specifying the top of the range insulation if heat is allowed to pass through all the exposed elements of the building.

Major savings in energy can be made by addressing this rather simple issue, which would not cost that much to fix.

FOCUS ON THE OPERATIONAL ASPECT We need to move the discussion of green buildings into the realm of building operation. There is a lot of talk about green design and green construction but the objectives seem to stop once the building is completed and received its rating.

Buildings do not consume energy while they are being built. They only consume energy when they are occupied so this should be the most important phase of a green buildings life and we need to pay more attention to the energy efficiency of building operation and begin reporting the energy use intensity of existing buildings.

ENSURE PROPER UTILIZATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGY Before we try to outdo ourselves with the highest technology of systems in buildings, we need to make sure that those systems will be commissioned properly. Far too often when we look at existing buildings we see the most expensive, highest spec building management system turned off because it is not working properly or the operators do not know how to use it. Bridging the interface between construction and operation, through proper commissioning, is essential, particularly now as buildings are becoming more and more high-tech.

Despite these issues, there is a lot of great change that has happened in the industry over the past few years and the government and private sector are both making great strides in the realm of sustainable buildings. However, we must not rest on our laurels and we must wake up every day and ask ourselves the fundamental questions of how we can really make our buildings better. n

iHiB İSTANBUL HALI İHRACATÇILARI BİRLİĞİ

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MIDDLE EAST TENDERS Provided by

UAE THE ADDRESS THE BOULEVARD TOWER CONSTRUCTION PROJECT DOWNTOWN DUBAI BUDGET $1,500,000,000

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PROJECT NUMBER MPP2695-U TERRITORY Dubai CLIENT Emaar Properties PJSC (Dubai) ADDRESS Emaar Business Park, Bldg.

No. 3, Near Interchange No. 5, Shaikh Zayed Road CITY Dubai POSTAL/ZIP 9440 COUNTRY United Arab Emirates PHONE (+971-4) 367 3333 FAX (+971-4) 367 3000 WEB http://www.emaar.com EMAIL enquiry@emaar.co.ae DESCRIPTION Construction of 340-metre, 63-storey The Address The Boulevard Tower comprising a 5-star hotel and serviced apartments consisting of studios, one-two-three and four-bedroom apartments.

PERIOD 2014 STATUS New Tender REMARKS This project will be located in the Downtown Dubai area, next to Burj Khalifa and will be operated by client’s own Address Hotel chain.

It will contain (200) five-star rooms and (542) serviced apartments. UKbased architect Atkins is the design consultant. Levelling works have already been completed.

DESIGN CONSULTANT Atkins International (Dubai) TENDER CATEGORIES Leisure & Entertainment Hotels Prestige Buildings

OCTOBER 2012

AL-FATTAN CRYSTAL TOWERS MIXED USE PROJECT - DUBAI MARINA PROJECT NUMBER MPP1241-U TERRITORY Dubai CLIENT Al Fattan Properties (Dubai) ADDRESS Al Fattan Currency House, 33rd & 34th Floor, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai International Financial Centre CITY Dubai POSTAL/ZIP 747 COUNTRY United Arab Emirates PHONE (+971-4) 282 9999/ 282 1919 FAX (+971-4) 286 5959/ 282 8583 WEB http://www.alfattan.com EMAIL info@alfattan.com DESCRIPTION Construction of two high-rise Al-Fattan Crystal Towers with a total built-up area of about 150,000 square metres in Dubai Marina.

CLOSING DATE November 1, 2012 STATUS New Tender REMARKS This project will be located on the site of old Oasis Beach Hotel. The first tower will have (550) hotel rooms and second will have (490) hotel units together with residential apartments. Turkey’s Rixos Hotels will operate the hotel.

Turkey’s Tabanlioglu Architects is acting as the consultant on this scheme. Client has invited companies to submit bids for the main contract. Prospective bidders include: Local Alec, Arabtec Construction; UK/Local Al-Futtaim Carillion; Local/Australia’s AlHabtoor Leighton Group; Lebanon’s Arabian Construction Company (ACC); South Africa’s Murray & Roberts Contractors; South Korea’s

Samsung C&T and Turkey’s TAV. MAIN CONSULTANT Tabanlioglu Architects (Dubai) TENDER CATEGORIES Hotels Leisure & Entertainment Prestige Buildings TENDER PRODUCTS High-rise Towers Hotel Construction

MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT - AL REEM ISLAND BUDGET $60,000,000 PROJECT NUMBER MPR1389-U TERRITORY Abu Dhabi CLIENT Aabar Properties L.L.C (Abu Dhabi) ADDRESS Abu Dhabi Trade Centre (Abu Dhabi Mall), East Tower, 4th Floor CITY Abu Dhabi ZIP 37624 COUNTRY United Arab Emirates PHONE (+971-2)222 2233 FAX (+ 971-2) 222 2333 EMAIL info@aabarproperties. com WEB http://www.aabarproperties. com DESCRIPTION Construction of a mixed-use development with residential, office and retail components.

PERIOD 2014 STATUS Current project REMARKS The development, which is spread across 65,000 square metres will be located on Plot C14 of the Najmat Abu Dhabi section within Al Reem Island in Abu Dhabi. Local Arabtec Construction has been appointed as the main contractor on this scheme. Contract

covers construction, completion, testing, commissioning, hand over and maintenance of tower.

Contract duration is (22) months from the commencement date.

Construction work has commenced.

Project completion is now expected in the third quarter of 2014.

DESIGN CONSULTANT KEO International Consultants (Abu Dhabi) PROJECT MANAGER Confluence Project Management (Abu Dhabi) MAIN CONTRACTOR Arabtec Construction L.L.C (Abu Dhabi) TENDER CATEGORIES Prestige Buildings TENDER PRODUCTS High-rise Towers

DRAGON MART EXPANSION PROJECT BUDGET $273,000,000 PROJECT NUMBER MPR1400-U TERRITORY Dubai CLIENT Nakheel PJSC (Dubai) ADDRESS Formerly Dubai Palm Developers, Jebel Ali CITY Dubai POSTAL/ZIP 17777 COUNTRY United Arab Emirates PHONE (+971-4) 390 3333 FAX (+971-4) 390 3314 WEB http://www.nakheel.ae EMAIL info@nakheel.ae PERIOD 2013 STATUS Current Project REMARKS This project is in Dubai. It is being developed by a company known as New Mall using a build, operate and transfer (BOT) contract, with client managing the contract until the transfer date. Local Kele Contracting

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8-lane tunnel, including a total of 1.2 kilometres of roads leading to and out of the tunnel.

LAST UPDATED 08/08/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT Department of Municipal Affairs - Abu Dhabi Municipality

ABU DHABI - DUBAI DUAL CARRIAGEWAY PROJECT BUDGET $545,000,000

DESCRIPTION Design and Build (DB) contract for the construction of a new 62-kilometre-long dual carriageway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

LAST UPDATED 27/06/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT Department of Transport (Abu Dhabi)

DUAL INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITIES PACKAGE - KHALIFA PORT & INDUSTRIAL ZONE BUDGET $285,000,000

AL SALAM TUNNEL PROJECT BUDGET $871,000,000

DESCRIPTION Design and construction of Al Salam Tunnel comprising a 2.2-kilometre-long,

DESCRIPTION Implementation of infrastructure facilities for a port and industrial area, including roads, electricity, water and other utilities.

LAST UPDATED 13/05/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC)

“THIS PROJECT WILL BE LOCATED ON THE SITE OF OLD OASIS BEACH HOTEL. THE FIRST TOWER WILL HAVE (550) HOTEL ROOMS AND SECOND WILL HAVE (490) HOTEL UNITS TOGETHER WITH RESIDENTIAL APARTMENTS. TURKEY’S RIXOS HOTELS WILL OPERATE THE HOTEL. TURKEY’S TABANLIOGLU ARCHITECTS IS ACTING AS THE CONSULTANT ON THIS SCHEME”

PARALLEL ROADS PROJECT PHASE 4 BUDGET $504,000,000

DESCRIPTION Implementation of the fourth phase of Parallel Roads scheme involving construction of a 31-kilometre road, with four lanes in each direction; 23 flyovers with a total length of 8 kilometres; including road works, installation of traffic signals, traffic signs, pavements, road marking, lighting and diversion, and protection of existing services.

LAST UPDATED 27/05/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT RTA Dubai

QATAR ABRAJ TOWERS PROJECT - ABRAJ QUARTIER DEVELOPMENT BUDGET $153,000,000 PROJECT NUMBER MPP2671-Q TERRITORY Qatar CLIENT United Development Company q.s.c. (UDC) - Qatar ADDRESS 6th Floor, Office No. 62, Al Fardan Centre, Grand Hamad Street CITY Doha POSTAL/ ZIP 7256 COUNTRY Qatar PHONE (+974) 436 1542 FAX (+974) 435 5219 EMAIL info@udcqatar.com WEB http://www.udcqatar.com DESCRIPTION Construction of (2 Nos.) 40-story Abraj Towers.

STATUS New Tender REMARKS This project will be located at Abraj Quartier Development on Pearl Qatar real estate in Qatar.

Client has invited contractors to submit bids for the main contract on this scheme. Canada’s Webb Zerafa Menkes Housden (WZMH) is acting as the design consultant DESIGN CONSULTANT Webb Zerafa

Menkes Housden (Canada) TENDER PRODUCTS High-rise Towers TENDER CATEGORIES Prestige Buildings

LUSAIL EXPRESSWAY PROJECT PACKAGE 1 BUDGET $1,000,000,000

DESCRIPTION Construction of 5.8-kilometre-long road comprising about 16 lanes, some of which will reach up to two or three levels, including three major interchanges, slip roads, underpasses and a bicycle lane, as part of the 12-kilometre-long Lusail Expressway project.

LAST UPDATED 30/05/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT Public Works Authority ASHGHAL (Qatar)

HIGHWAY & INTERCHANGES CONSTRUCTION PROJECT DOHA EXPRESSWAY PACKAGE 13 BUDGET $640,000,000

DESCRIPTION Construction of 10-kilometre of four lane highway and three interchanges as part of Doha Expressway - Package 13.

LAST UPDATED 23/05/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT Public Works Authority ASHGHAL (Qatar)

NORTH ROAD PROJECT PHASE 3 BUDGET $600,000,000

DESCRIPTION Development of the third phase of <b>North</b> road scheme involving construction of 61

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

has been awarded an estimated $163 million main contract on this scheme.

Project completion is expected in the third quarter of 2013. It is understood that the scheme is moving ahead with the infrastructure work before actual construction work will commence. After completion, this extension will bring total size of the mall to 335,000 square metres. It will provide many more opportunities for retailers, hoteliers and restaurants to prosper at this unique development. Tenants of the mall include Geant (10,000 square metres) and a nine-screen Grand Cinema complex (4,000 square metres), will include a two-storey retail mall with food court and separate terrace offering a range of outdoor dining options, a multi-storey ca park, a 240-room, 8,500 square metres hotel, a civic plaza and its own district cooling plant.

MAIN CONTRACTOR Kele Contracting L.L.C (Dubai) TENDER CATEGORIES Leisure & Entertainment Construction & Contracting Hotels TENDER PRODUCTS District Cooling Plants Hotel Construction Retail Developments

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kilometres of road comprising a fourlane dual carriageway with service roads in addition to nine multi-level interchanges and weighbridge, as well as the development of infrastructure network and landscaping.

LAST UPDATED 10/06/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT Public Works Authority ASHGHAL (Qatar)

BIGPROJECTME.COM

DESCRIPTION Construction of F Ring Road spanning 8 kilometres.

LAST UPDATED 13/05/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT Public Works Authority ASHGHAL (Qatar)

EGYPT NILE TOWERS PROJECT

NORTH ROAD PROJECT - PHASE 2 BUDGET $600,000,000

DESCRIPTION Development of the second phase of North road scheme involving construction of 33 kilometres of road comprising a four-lane dual carriageway with service roads in addition to nine multi-level interchanges and weighbridge, as well as the development of infrastructure network and landscaping LAST UPDATED 10/06/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT Public Works Authority ASHGHAL (Qatar)

RING ROAD PROJECT - DOHA EXPRESSWAY - PHASE 12 BUDGET $522,000,000

DESCRIPTION Construction of F Ring Road spanning 8 kilometres.

LAST UPDATED 13/05/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT Public Works Authority ASHGHAL (Qatar)

RING ROAD PROJECT - DOHA EXPRESSWAY - PHASE 12

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BUDGET $522,000,000

OCTOBER 2012

BUDGET $153000000

PROJECT NUMBER WPR020-E TERRITORY Egypt CLIENT Saudi Egyptian Construction Company (SECON) - Egypt ADDRESS Ganaklis CITY Alexandria COUNTRY Egypt PHONE (+20-3) 5820699 / 5827011 DESCRIPTION Construction of 22-storey Nile Towers consisting a five-star hotel tower and a residential tower.

PERIOD 2015 STATUS Current project REMARKS This project is in Egypt.

The scheme will have a total built up area of 105,000 square metres.

First tower will be a fiver star hotel managed by Hilton International, with a total of (256) rooms and the second will be for residential use and will consist (114) hotel apartments. A joint venture of Dubai-based Arabtec Construction and local SIAC Industrial Construction & Engineering Company has been awarded the main construction contract on this scheme. Work is scheduled to commence in 2012 and completion expected in 2015.

MAIN CONTRACTOR Arabtec Construction L.L.C (Egypt) SIAC Industrial Construction & Engineering Company (Egypt) MEP CONTRACTOR Arabian Construction Company - ACC (Egypt) TENDER CATEGORIES Hotels

Leisure & Entertainment Prestige Buildings TENDER PRODUCTS High-rise Towers Hotel Construction

ROD EL-FARAG HIGHWAY PROJECT BUDGET $1,000,000,000

DESCRIPTION Construction of 35-kilometre-long Rod el-Farag highway with seven major intersections.

LAST UPDATED 23/05/2012 STATUS New Project CLIENT Ministry of Housing, Utilities & Urban Development (Egypt)

SAUDI ARABIA KEMPINSKI HOTEL PROJECT JEDDAH PROJECT NUMBER SPR2550-SA TERRITORY Saudi Arabia CLIENT Al-Eissa Real Estate (Saudi Arabia) CITY Riyadh ZIP 46359 COUNTRY Saudi Arabia PHONE (+966-1) 208 6650 FAX (+966-1) 208 6651 DESCRIPTION Construction of 65-storey, five-star Kempinski Hotel comprising (242) hotel rooms and (104) serviced apartments.

PERIOD 2013 STATUS New tender REMARKS This hotel will be located in Jeddah. It will be a 240-metre high tower, with a total built up area of 79,624 square metres and site area of about 9,710 square metres. It is understood that a tender has been submitted for construction of the hotel. Once a contractor is appointed, building work is expected to commence immediately. Design phase of the

project is close to conclusion. The hotel is scheduled to open in third quarter of 2013.

MAIN CONSULTANT Mohammed Harasani Architects (Saudi Arabia) Perkins & Will (USA) MAIN ARCHITECT Peter Silling & Associates (Germany) FOUNDATIONS, ENABLING AND PILING CONTRACTOR Arabian Soil Contractors Ltd. (Saudi Arabia) CIVIL ENGINEERING CONTRACT Al Saad General Contracting (Saudi Arabia) TENDER CATEGORIES Prestige Buildings Hotels TENDER PRODUCTS High-rise Towers Hotel Construction

ALUMINA REFINERY PROJECT BUDGET $1,500,000,000

PROJECT NUMBER WPR020-E TERRITORY Saudi Arabia CLIENT Saudi Arabian Mining Company (MAADEN) ZIP 68861 CITY Riyadh COUNTRY Saudi Arabia PHONE (+966-1) 874 8000 FAX (+966-1) 874 8300 EMAIL info@maaden.com.sa WEB http://www.maaden.com.sa DESCRIPTION Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract to build an alumina refinery with capacity of 1.8 million metric tonnes of smelter-grade alumina.

PERIOD 2014 STATUS Current Project REMARKS This project will be located in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It is being implemented in joint venture with US-based Alcoa.

The joint venture company will be known as Maaden Bauxite & Alumina Company and comprise a bauxite mine and an alumina refinery. It is the second phase of the $10.8 billion, fully-integrated aluminium complex that Maaden is developing

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with Alcoa, which will include an integrated alumina refinery, aluminium smelter and rolling mill at Ras Al Khair on Saudi’s eastern coast on the Persian Gulf. Client has signed a draft agreement with South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company to build the smelter. Client has officially awarded the $1.5 billion EPC contract to South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company. The contract includes completing detailed engineering, procurement, construction, pre-commissioning, commissioning assistance, start-up assistance and training services. The project is scheduled to be completed by end of 2014. Switzerland’s ABB has been awarded a $24 million contract to supply electricity for this smelter from the Ras Al Khair power plant. Scope of work involves the design, engineering and supply of a new 380kV outdoor, gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) substation at the power plant to feed the new smelter, due for completion in 2013. The contract also includes supply of communication, auxiliary systems and IEC 61850-compliant substation automation, control and protection. The containerized system will be factory assembled and pre-commissioned to speed up site installation.

PROJECT MANAGER Fluor Arabia Limited (Saudi Arabia) Worley Arabia Company Ltd. (Saudi Arabia) MAIN CONTRACTOR Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company Limited (Saudi Arabia) TENDER CATEGORIES Industrial & Special Projects TENDER PRODUCTS --Aluminium Smelters/Plants

YANBU STORAGE FACILITIES EXPANSION PROJECT PHASE 3

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PROJECT NUMBER ZPR800-SA TERRITORY Saudi Arabia CLIENT Arabtank Terminals Ltd. (Saudi Arabia) ZIP 1433

OCTOBER 2012

BIGPROJECTME.COM

CITY Jeddah 21431 COUNTRY Saudi Arabia PHONE (+966-2) 321 1138 FAX (+966-2) 321 1138 DESCRIPTION Engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the expansion of oil storage facility in Yanbu comprising construction of (13) storage tanks with a total capacity of 230,000 cubic metres, loading and unloading pipes, loading arms and associated works STATUS New tender PERIOD 2014 REMARKS This project is in Saudi Arabia. Two companies have been short listed for the EPC contract, but the scheme has been put on hold due to technical issues. Project is expected to proceed in April 2013 and completion is expected in September 2014.

TENDER CATEGORIES Oilfields & Refineries TENDER PRODUCTS Storage

CLEAN FUELS PROJECT PETRORABIGH REFINERY BUDGET $ 1,000,000,000 PROJECT NUMBER MPP2658SA TERRITORY Saudi Arabia CLIENT Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) ADDRESS Saeed Tower, DammamKhobar Highway ZIP 151 CITY Al Khobar COUNTRY Saudi Arabia PHONE (+966-3) 872 0115 / 810 6999 FAX (+966-3) 873 8190 WEB http://www.saudiaramco. com DESCRIPTION Carrying out clean fuel project at PetroRabigh Refinery.

STATUS New Tender REMARKS This project will be located Rabigh on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. It is being implemented in joint venture with Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical.

When completed the complex will meet global product specification requirements by reducing the sulphur content of gasoline to 10 parts-per-million (ppm). Total seven international engineering consultancies are bidding for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract. They include: US’ Foster Wheeler, Jacobs Engineering, KBR; Japan’s JGC Corporation; China’s Sinopec; Spain’s technical Reunidas and Australia’s WorleyParsons. Scope of the FEED includes designing the new facilities as well as an extensive equipment list. This process will include liaising with technology providers to establish most cost-effective technology.

Amount of the man-hours required for the FEED is expected to be several hundred thousand.

TENDER CATEGORIES Gas Processing & Distribution Oilfields & Refineries TENDER PRODUCTS Oilfields Exploration & Development

parking underneath on the ground level, including an open air amphitheatre that will be used for public and cultural events.

PERIOD 15/12/2013 STATUS Current Project REMARKS This development will be located between the Muharraq Club and Arad Fort in Bahrain.

Local Al Moayyed Contracting Company has been awarded the main contract. Construction work has already commenced and is scheduled for completion in December 2013. The client will provide Property Services, including Project Management, Leasing Management and Marketing.

MAIN CONTRACTOR Almoayyed Contracting Group (Bahrain) TENDER CATEGORIES Leisure & Entertainment Construction & Contracting TENDER PRODUCTS Retail Developments

IRAQ

BAHRAIN

BASRA CULTURAL CENTRE PROJECT PROJECT

MUHARRAQ SEEF MALL PROJECT

BUDGET $ 145,000,000

BUDGET $45,000,000 PROJECT NUMBER SPR1148-B TERRITORY Bahrain CLIENT Seef Properties (Bahrain) ADDRESS Bldg. 2102, Road 2825, Block 428, Seef District CITY Manama ZIP 20084 COUNTRY Bahrain PHONE (+973) 1758 1111/ 1758 2888 FAX (+973) 1758 1900/ 1758 1888 EMAIL info@seef.net WEB http://www.seef.net DESCRIPTION Design and construction of Muharraq Seef Mall comprising two floors offering approximately 30,000 square metres of retail space with ample

PROJECT NUMBER NPR013-IQ TERRITORY Iraq CLIENT Basra Governorate (Iraq) CITY Basra COUNTRY Iraq WEBSITE http//:www.basragov.net DESCRIPTION Construction of Basra Cultural Centre.

STATUS New Tender REMARKS This project will be located on a 15,275 square metre plot of land near Shatt Al-Basra and will form part of a new administrative complex in Iraq. UAE-based Dewan Architects & Engineers has been awarded a contract to design and supervise construction of the centre.

Design on the building’s facades has randomly-placed diagonal squareshaped openings, reminiscent of the dots in Arabic calligraphy, which gradually reduce in size as they near the main entrance void, consisting

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of coupled curvilinear gradual architectural elements that resemble an open book. Central void also contains sequential ramps, which link on different levels and connect two parts of building, representing the space’s role as the heart of the project where social interaction akes place.

DEISGN CONSULTANT Dewan Architects & Engineers (Iraq) TENDER CATEGORIES Construction & Contracting Leisure & Entertainment TENDER PRODUCTS Public Buildings

KALAK REFINERY EXPANSION PROJECT PHASE III

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PROJECT NUMBER MPP2685-IQ TERRITORY Abu Dhabi CLIENT KAR Group (Iraq) CITY Erbil COUNTRY Iraq PHONE (+964) 6622 44083 EMAIL kar@karbusiness.com WEB http//:www.kargroup.net DESCRIPTION Carrying out expansion of Kalak Refinery to increase capacity to 185,000 barrels a day (b/d).

STATUS New Tender REMARKS Client is planning to launch the expansion of Kalak Refinery near Erbil in semiautonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Expansion will boost the capacity to 185,000 barrels a day (b/d) from current 80,000 b/d. It consists of (2 Nos.) 30,000 barrels per day modular complexes, as well as a new 15,000 b/d condensate processing facility. The new process units will be provides by the US’ Ventech Engineering, which include modules for crude distillation units, naphtha hydrotreater, catalytic reformers, Isomerisation units, demercaptanisation systems and supporting utilities.

TENDER CATEGORIES Oilfields & Refineries TENDER PRODUCTS Refinery, Offsites & Utilities

OCTOBER 2012

BIGPROJECTME.COM

ACID PLANT CONSTRUCTION PROJECT BUDGET $30,000,000 PROJECT NUMBER MPP2684IQ TERRITORY Iraq CLIENT Midland Oil Company (Iraq) ADDRESS Boob Al-Sham, AlRashidiya CITY Baghdad COUNTRY Iraq EMAIL mdoc.dg@mdoc.oil.gov. iq WEB http://mdoc.oil.gov.iq DESCRIPTION Design and build (DB) contract to build an acid plant, including (6 Nos.) acid storage tanks capable of holding 50 cubic metres each, a 600 square metre chemical storage area along with office and control buildings.

STATUS New Tender REMARKS This project will be located at the East Baghdad oil field in Iraq and cover site area of 3,000 square metres. Client has invited companies to bid for the DB contract. Deadline to submit commercial proposals have not yet been set.

TENDER CATEGORIES Industrial & Special Projects Construction & Contracting TENDER PRODUCTS Chemical Plants Commercial Buildings Construction & Addition Works Tanks (All Types)

LIBYA OFFSHORE PLATFORM CONSTRUCTION & ONSHORE GAS PRODUCTION COMPLEX UPGRADE PROJECT BUDGET $30,000,000

PROJECT NUMBER MPP2696-LI TERRITORY Libya

CLIENT Mellitah Oil & Gas Services Company (Libya) ADDRESS Dat El Imad Complex Tower 1 CITY Tripoli ZIP 91651 COUNTRY Libya PHONE (+218-21) 335 0746 FAX (+218-21) 335 0890 EMAIL aomar@mellitahog.ly WEB http://www.mellitahog.ly DESCRIPTION Engineering, procurement, installation and construction (EPIC) contract to build an offshore platform and upgrade of onshore gas production complex.

STATUS New Tender REMARKS This project will be located in Libya and divided into two segments; Offshore and Onshore. Offshore element covers basic and FEED for natural gas and associated condensates production through a wellhead and production platform. These will be located at Block NC-41 concession, about 75-kilometre off the cost of Libya in waters with depths of 93-145 metres.

Platform will include gas separation and dehydration facilities processing 160-million cubic feet a day (cf/d). Once processed, the dehydrated gas and partially stabilised condensate will be exported to the existing onshore Mellitah Complex, in the Northwest of Libya, through (2) dedicated sub sea pipeline for final treatment. Onshore portion of the scheme consist of upgrade of Melittah Complex, increasing production to 12-billion cubic metre a year (cm/y), through the addition of two new treatment trains. Client has invited companies to pre-qualify for a contract to design the scheme. The front-end engineering and design (FEED) contractor will provide engineering documents and a scope of work for the EPIC phase, as well as updated costs and times schedules to allow client to make a final investment decision. However the appointed FEED contractor will not be invited for subsequent execution phase. Interested firms

have been requested to submit prequalification documents by October 14, 2012.

TENDER CATEGORIES Gas Processing & Distribution Oilfields & Refineries TENDER PRODUCTS Gas Exploration & Production Gas Processing & Separation Oilfields Exploration & Development

KUWAIT INFRASTRUCTURE WORKS PROJECT - SABAH AL-SALEM CAMPUS BUDGET $355,000,000

DESCRIPTION Implementation of infrastructure works involving construction of service roads, secondary substations and car parks for the new Sabah al-Salem Campus - Packages B5 and A5.

LAST UPDATED 09/05/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT Kuwait University

OMAN SOHAR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT PROJECT BUDGET $300,000,000

DESCRIPTION Construction of an airport terminal at Sohar with capacity of 500,000 passengers a year, a 50,000-tonne-per-year air cargo terminal, including runway and associated works, a fire station, fuel tanks, lighting and drainage system.

LAST UPDATED 28/05/2012 STATUS Current Project CLIENT Ministry of Transport & Communications (Oman)

CONTACT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Michael Stansfield

D +971 4 440 9128 M +971 55 150 3849 michael@cpidubai.com

SUPPORTING AN INDUSTRY EXHIBITION. CONFERENCE. TRAINING.

5 – 8 November 2012 Dubai World Trade Centre THE REGION’S MOST EXCITING CONCRETE EVENT ‘MIDDLE EAST CONCRETE’ WILL BE BACK AGAIN THIS YEAR! Middle East Concrete will provide a global showcase of products including admixtures, precast solutions, machinery and more.

Co-located with The Big 5, this is the only complete event to provide products, training and education solutions to the Concrete industry.

Register and save AED 50 by visiting

www.middleeastconcrete.com/bpr2

Silver Sponsors:

Co-located with:

OCTOBER DIARY

INFRA OMAN OMAN INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION CENTRE OCTOBER 2 – 4 A directo gateway to the infrastructure investments of Oman, the exhibition unites leading companies in the industry, ministry officials, CEOs and other senior managers, to facilitate networking with key decision makers.

CITYSCAPE GLOBAL DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE OCTOBER 2 – 4 The international property investment and development event returns to Dubai to showcase the region’s latest real estate, retail and office developments.

INTERMAT MIDDLE EAST ABU DHABI INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION CENTRE OCTOBER 8 – 10 Exhibiting a diverse range of machinery, materials and equipment for construction and infrastructure, the show returns to Dubai after another successful event helpd in Paris in April.

Earthmoving, lifting and crane equipment will all be showcased to international buyers along with foreign delegates.

IRANCON MIN TEHRAN PERMANENT FAIR GROUND OCTOBER 26 – 29 IranCon Min offers international trade and industry an attractive and successful market platform, with guaranteed customer contact and the chance

to establish lasting business relationships with the biggest growth markets in the Middle East.

BIG 5 DUBAI WORLD TRADE CENTRE NOVEMBER 5 – 8 Returning two weeks earlier than usual, the 2012 edition of Big 5 will be supported by satellite events such as PMV Live, FM Expo, Middle East Concrete, GAIA Awards and the Green Build Conference.

HAPPENING THIS MONTH...

20% INCREASE in visitors to Sudan Build 2012, compared to 2011. Up to 85% of these visitors will be foreign

INTERNATIONAL

ARABAL GRAND HYATT, DOHA NOVEMBER 20 – 22

METALEX VIETNAM SAIGON EXHIBITION & CONVENTION CENTRE OCTOBER 4 – 6

Organised and hosted by Qatalum, the 16th edition of the aluminium conference will be the only one in the world to be attended by every single primary aluminium manufacturer in the Gulf region.

This machine tools and metalworking technology exhibition explores the enormous opportunities in both domestic and international trade for pump and valve, mold and die, wire, tube, cable technology, sheet metalworking and welding technology.

BELOW Machinery showcased during Intermat Paris, April 2012.

SUDAN BUILD INTERNATIONAL FAIR GROUND, KHARTOUM OCTOBER 3 – 7 As the first specialised construction and building exhibition in the country, the 10th edition will showcase more than 10,000 products from 30 countries.

AUSTRALIAN CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT EXPO RNA SHOWGROUND, BRISBANE OCTOBER 4 – 6 More than 500 renowned brands are showcased at the event, including innovative and integrated technology earthmovers.

YAPEX BUILDING EXHIBITION ANTALYA EXPO CENTRE OCTOBER 18 – 21 The YAPEX Exhibition, a trade fair for building materials, has enjoyed

steadily increasing popularity, since the inaugural event in 1993.

ASIA CEMENT SUMMIT SHERATON BANGALORE OCTOBER 5 – 6 This event will be inclusive of conference, exhibition and face-toface B2B meetings. This is the only event of its kind in the region.

INDEX DESIGN MUMBAI MMRDA EXHIBITION CENTER, MUMBAI OCTOBER 18 – 21 This show gathers companies with a strong design competence; those whose products and designs have pushed out the frontiers of the industry as a whole; industry leaders; and companies who have an in-house design team as well as well known product designers working with them.

INTERPORT EXPOCENTRE FAIRGROUNDS, MOSCOW OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 2 Concerned with port construction and operation the show will deal with the constructive interaction between the key players in the field of port construction and the authorities in the concerned field.

OCTOBER 2012

MIDDLE EAST

MENA 2012

77

WORD FROM THE WEB

BIGPROJECTME.COM

A Close Call Gavin Davids says that a recent Central Bank report has shown just how close the UAE came to a mortgage crisis on par with the United States. Perhaps it’s time to be thankful for what we’ve got.

78

MIDDLE EAST

GAVIN DAVIDS

OCTOBER 2012

IT HAS BEEN nearly five years since the global financial crisis began and it’s been amazing (and vaguely terrifying) to see how quickly the world’s economic landscape has been changed, perhaps irrevocably.

In that time, we’ve seen some of Europe’s largest economies fall to their knees, while even the country with the highest GDP in the world, the United States, has become a shadow of what it once was.

Despite all this, we here in the GCC region have been largely insulated from the worst of the crisis, thanks in a large part to the abundant natural resources that have allowed the countries in the region to carry out their economic plans without having to cope with the issues faced by their European counterparts.

Of course, there have been massive challenges faced, especially here in Dubai, but when compared to the rest of the world; it could have been much, much worse.

And for that, due credit has to be given to the economic leadership of the GCC, which has seen the entire region retain its standing as a hotbed for construction, development and growth.

That’s not to paint a rosy picture though, as recent studies by the International Monetary Fund have shown; we were perilously close to having our own version of a real estate mortgage crisis. And that, as I’m sure the majority of you would agree, would have been a very bad thing.

The UAE Central Bank has claimed that strong government financial support helped the country avoid falling into a real estate mortgage crisis similar to that of the US. The apex lender says in its 45-page financial stability review report that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has identified 46 systemic banking crises in which more than two-thirds were

preceded by boom-bust patterns in house prices.

“The UAE real estate market witnessed a similar pattern. Fortunately banks avoided a major crisis largely because of the high concentration of the domestic development activity in the hands of UAE governmentrelated institutions which benefited from the government support at a crucial time,” the Central Bank says.

“This has enabled the bust cycle to evolve in a controlled environment and limited the systemic spill-over,” it explains further.

The data showed the real estate in the UAE grew by almost 16.1% in 2007 before slowing down to 2.6% in 2008 because of the global financial crisis.

In 2009, the sector contracted by 13.2 %, and slightly rebounded by 0.1 and 0.7% in 2010 and 2011, respectively, the report showed.

Sobering figures, I’m sure you’ll agree, but when compared to the alternative, I’m fairly sure we’d all take them.

So I suppose what I’m trying to say is, we should be thankful for what we’ve got.

It sounds glib to say this, but I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard complaints about how hard it’s been for construction firms over the last five years.

Of course it has; after all, we’ve only been in the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

But in all seriousness, these firms deserve a lot of credit for sticking it out through the bad times, and now they’re deservedly getting their just rewards. We’ve come through the bad times together, and now it’s time to start reaping the benefits. n

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