Construction
WEEK
CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM 09/09/09
An ITP Business Publication
ARCHITECTURE
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ENGINEERING
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PMV
MATERIALS
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DESIGN
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MANAGEMENT
SPONSORED BY
A SUPPLEMENT OF
SOUVENIR GUIDE
TO THE MAKING OF
DUBAI METRO
CONTENTS
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 1
WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM
UP FRONT
3 INTRODUCTION
4 LAUNCH DAY
Exclusive news and pictures from the launch of the Dubai Metro on 09/09/09.
9 INTERVIEW
Construction Week interviews
construction adhesive specialist Mapei, on its work for the Metro.
12 OVERVIEW
All you need to know about Du-bai Metro - the longest fully au-tomated rail in the Middle East.
EXTERIOR
14 ARCHITECTURE
A look into the creative ideas and reasons why the Metro looks the way it does.
20 PLANNING
What the Metro could mean for Dubai and its future, and what the experts have planned.
25 CONSTRUCTION
A look at the clever engineering techniques that went into build-ing the Middle East’s first Metro.
30 MATERIALS
The use of smart materials is how the Metro was finished on time. Mapei reveals the truth.
35 BUILDING
Construction Week gets on site at
Dubai Metro a year from its first revenue service.
40 MEP
We take a look at how keeping the Metro cool was one of the biggest challenges.
45 PMV
Some of the biggest machines in the world were used to build the Metro. We took a tour.
INTERIOR
50 FIT OUT
Designer John Carolan talks about the trials and tribulations of working on the Metro.
56 FM
Now built, maintaining this mon-ster of a Metro system will be the next challenge. We ask how?
61 WHO DID WHAT
Many companies were involved in building the Metro. We round up a few to get their thoughts.
64 COMPANY INDEX A detailed view of which com-panies did what on the Dubai Metro project.
4
9
25
Dubai has fi nally built its own metro – yet another fi rst for this
extraordinary city.
Dubai is not a stranger to lead-ing the way, and some say it’s been done so often that the nov-elty of it has been lost.
But the great can always be dis-tinguished from the not-so-great and Dubai Metro is up there, at par, with the Burj Dubai and oth-er iconic structures that we’ve seen this city build over the years.
As you watch the ultra modern train glide past the icon-ic Dubai World Trade Centre - one of the fi rst tall towers to be built in the region, you can’t help but smile in won-der at how far this little seaside port-town has come.
It usally takes a lifetime to see such a stark contrast be-tween the old and the new; this city has done it in just over a decade.
I was lucky enough to be among the fi rst few to ride the new Red Line at the Metro launch a fortnight ago.
The trains are good and the stations are what you’d im-agine a Dubai Government project to be - spacious, shiny and glamorous (yes, they even have chandeliers).
The launch of the Metro brought with it the start of a new era - one that will see Dubai transform into a global city, becoming more cosmopolitan than it has ever been. In this little souvenir book, Construction Week captures the entire development of the metro from the time it was announced, to the recent launch on 09/09/09, while highlighting those ‘Kodak moments’ that this country and the world will always cherish.
It is a memory that will remain with each of us, most of whom have watched the Metro being built, and now are standing tall in appreciation of what has become the region’s biggest infrastructural achievement to date.
Congratulations Dubai.
TRACK TIME
"53).%33
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CONRAD EGBERT EDITOR CONSTRUCTION WEEK
FOREWORD
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 3
LAUNCH
ALL SYSTEMS GO
THE LAUNCH OF THE DUBAI METRO COULD
HERALD A NEW ERA FOR THE CITY AS PEOPLE
FIND A NEW WAY TO MOVE AROUND
LAUNCH
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 5
WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM
1
he Dubai Metro was offi cially opened by HH Sheikh Moham-med bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice presi-dent and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Du-bai, on 09/09/09.
“There were great hands that worked and built; minds that created and planned and a will of deter-mination and support that made this possible...the Metro shows Dubai’s abil-ity of progress and renewal itself and we are pleased to be pioneers in our region,” said RTA chairman Mattar Al Tayer.
Sheikh Mohammed pushed the button at nine minutes past 9pm to offi -cially open the metro sys-tem at a ceremony at the Mall of the Emirates Sta-tion before joining other VIPs on the fi rst journey to Rashidiya Station.
“We love challenges, and we like to rise to chal-lenges, and we like to beat challenges,” said Sheikh Mohammed.
His Highness also made use of new media in order to spread praise about the success of the Metro,
send-ing a message via micro-blogging service Twitter: “Well done to the RTA team for a smooth and success-ful launch”. He also added “It was great to see all the excitement and jubilation at the launch of the Dubai Metro yesterday (launch day) evening.”
Mattar Al Tayer also con-fi rmed at the opening of the launch that the UAE was investigating the possibility of an inter-emirate metro
When asked if the Dubai Metro would link up the cities of Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, Al Tayer said that it was a federal issue that was being planned.
“Transport between the emirates is a federal issue. A separate authority has been set up to look into ways of connecting all the
emirates. We already have an inter-city bus network along with a taxi service. The metro between the emirates could be of anoth-er type in tanoth-erms of technol-ogy, and could be of a high-er speed,” he revealed.
He also stressed that the Dubai Metro has been built to serve Dubai as a commu-nity and has focused on the city of Dubai.
One of the main reasons the RTA decided to build the Dubai Metro, was to tackle traffi c problems within the city, which was mainly between the emir-ates of Sharjah and Dubai.
“We have enough parking spaces on both borders of Dubai,” Al Tayer said. “We have a 3000-space parking lot at the Nakheel Harbour station so that people com-ing in from Abu Dhabi can park their cars and use Du-bai Metro to visit the city. Similarly, we have 8700 parking spaces on the Shar-jah side so this should re-duce traffi c within the city tremendously.”
According to him the metro is expected to take 17% of traffi c off the roads in Dubai, while the bus sys-tem will take 13%.
1. On board the fi rst trip with Dubai Metro
80%
OF THE METRO
LINE IS ELEVATED,
MOSTLY RUNNING
ALONG SHEIKH
ZAYED ROAD
LAUNCH
5. Dubai Metro opened on 09/09/09. 6. Some of the fi rst
riders enjoy their trip. 7. Preparing to depart. 8. VIPs explore the stations. 9. Taking a closer look at the hi-tech ticket machines. 2 2. HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at the Metro opening. 3. VIPs arriving at Mall of the Emirates station. 4.RTA holds a press conference at the Al Rashidiya station. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
LAUNCH
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 7
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10. Celebrations at Mall of the Emirates station at the launch. 11. Even when busy, there is ample room to stand in a Metro carriage. 12. HH Sheikh Mohammed was the fi rst to ride on the Metro. 13. The launch was a hugely popular media event. 14. Dramatic views of the Kempinski Hotel by Mall of the Emirates station.
15. The Metro provides a whole new way of getting across Dubai. 16. Ten stations opened at the offi cial launch, with a further 19 to come in 2010. 10 11 13 12 14 16 15
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INTERVIEW
9 WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM
What is the background of the company?
LH:The company is now over 72 years old. It was formed in 1937 by Rodolfo Squinzi, the father of our current chairman, Dr. Georgio Squinzi. They started as a small specialist manufacturer of paints and finishes on the outskirts of Milan, and now Mapei is the largest construction adhesive manufacturer in the world.
How has the company been affected by the economic changes we’ve seen over the last
year?
LH: Obviously the market’s changed tremendously. However, we plan for
the long term. There’s a lot of sus-tainability in our business plans
and in the structure we operate. We’re growing at a
sustain-able rate and because of that we’ve been able to weather the situation, maybe better
than others.
NY:We are keeping a close eye on how the market is
METRO
MAESTROS
CONSTRUCTION ADHESIVES AND CHEMICALS SPECIALIST IBS MAPEI
PLAYED A CRUCIAL ROLE IN ENSURING THE DUBAI METRO WAS DELIVERED
ON TIME. IBS MAPEI BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER LAITH HABOUBI
AND COMMERCIAL MANAGER NAHEED YOUNIS TALK ABOUT THE COMPANY
AND WHAT THE METRO MEANS TO THEM
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 9
1
“THE AMOUNT
OF TECHNICAL
EXPERTISE THAT
WENT INTO [THE
METRO] WAS QUITE
INTERVIEW
1. Naheed Younis said the team worked round the clock to ensure on-time delivery of the project. 2. Laith Haboubi said the metro is among the fi rst projects in the region to use its rapid setting screed.
2 growing and we are ready to react appropriately once we see improvement.
How signifi cant is the UAE offi ce to the company as a whole?
LH: We get an enormous amount of support. Mapei sees this region as a place for long term growth; it doesn’t have over ambitious targets or expectations unlike a lot of other companies, who’ve coat-tailed on what’s been happening. We’ve always been relatively slow and steady, and very long term because Mapei will ulti-mately be one of the mar-ket leaders here and to do that you need all your solid building blocks in place. How did IBS Mapei’s prod-ucts help with the construc-tion of the Dubai Metro?
NY: The amount of technical expertise that went into that was quite tremendous. This was one of the first projects of its type that used rapid-setting screed. They’re quite usual in Europe but here it
was a relatively new type of product. The amount of site assistance and techni-cal support required from us was significant. The team was often required to work pretty much around the clock; inspecting the sub-strate and its preparation, the correct installation of the screed itself, trouble-shooting where there were any issues, testing and ad-vising on the installation of the tiles themselves by pro-viding technical advice on selecting and using the most appropriate adhesives (we actually had the selected tiles tested and classified by our R&D laboratories in Italy to ensure the correct adhesive was used).
We even assisted with the apparatus to make sure that moisture contents were checked on site technically. It wasn’t just about using quot-ed data sheets per-formance, we also did physical checks as well to make sure that it was a perfect
installation. This was a job where there could be no failures.
What does it mean for you to have worked on Dubai Metro?
LH: It was unique, in that, it heavily utilised materials and techniques that haven’t been used here before, and there-fore Mapei was one of the few companies with the ex-perience and product range that could provide solutions that would fit in exactly with those types of construction, without compromising on quality or time. It’s a perfect project for us. We’re very proud to have been associ-ated with it.
“WE GET AN ENORMOUS
AMOUNT OF SUPPORT.
THIS REGION IS
A PLACE FOR
LONG TERM
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR CONSTRUCTION WEEK 11 WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT
OUR CITY,
OUR METRO
THE DUBAI METRO IS THE FIRST PROJECT OF
ITS KIND IN THE REGION. SO WHAT EXACTLY
IS IT THAT MAKES UP THE METRO?
27,000
PASSENGERS PER
HOUR, ESTIMATED
TO USE THE DUBAI
METRO ONCE FULLY
OVERVIEW
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 13
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t seems a very long time ago that the fi rst tenders for the Dubai Metro were issued . How-ever, even as far back as July 2004, when six contenders were shortlisted for the con-tract, the RTA insisted that the project would be ready in 2009. And of course, on September 9, the Dubai Rail Link (Durl) consortium of Mitsubishi Heavy Indus-tries, Mitsubishi Corpora-tion, Obayashi CorporaCorpora-tion, Kajima Corporation and Yapi Merkezi delivered on that promise.
Dubai Metro is the Gulf’s fi rst metro project. The Red Line, stretching 52.1km from Jebel Ali Free Zone in the south of the emirate, to Rashidiya in the north, will be joined next year by the Green Line. This will bring the total amount of track up to 74.6km, making the Dubai Metro the longest automated metro network service in the world.
Ten stations on the Red Line opened on the Metro’s fi rst day of operation, and by February 2010 the remain-ing 19 stations are expected to be open as well. Support-ing the Metro is a network of feeder buses and the next few years may also see an additional two lines added to the present two.
The fi rst stations to open to the public were Rashidi-ya, Airport Terminal 3, Dei-ra City Center, Al Rigga,
Un-ion, Khalid bin Al Waleed, Al Jafi liya, DIFC, Mall of the Emirates and Nakheel Harbour and Tower.
Dubai Metro has a variety of station types: at-grade, elevated Type 1, Type 2 and Type 3, underground stations and underground transfer stations. Type 1 are regular at-grade concourse stations, Type 2 are regular elevated concourse stations, and Type 3 are elevated spe-cial track stations with an
extra track to hold a non op-erational train.
The cost of the fi rst urban rail system on the Arabian Peninsula has soared 80% to US $7.6 billion (AED28 billion) from its original budget of $4.2 billion.
Among the reasons for the jump in costs were two ex-tensions of the Green Line, which included fi ve stations and a depot, two stations on the Red Line and a re-worked design of all stations and their footbridges.
74.6KM
TOTAL AMOUNT
OF TRACK, MAKING
THE DUBAI METRO
THE LONGEST
AUTOMATED METRO
NETWORK IN THE
WORLD
ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURE
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 15
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CREATING A DISTINCT LOOK FOR THE STATIONS MEANS THAT
DUBAI METRO CERTAINLY STANDS OUT AGAINST THE REST, IN
A UNIQUE BLEND OF STYLE AND SUBSTANCE
DUBAI
STATION
ARCHITECTURE
rior to the economic downturn, Dubai was one of the fastest growing cit-ies in the world and even post-credit crunch, the level of intrigue and mystery surround-ing the success and future direction of this hub of Middle Eastern archi-tecture remains prevalent.
One of the projects leading that intrigue is the recently launched
Dubai Metro. The project repre-sents the world’s longest fully-auto-mated driverless train and displays the engineering prowess and archi-tectural brilliance of a consortium of companies including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Cor-poration, Obayashi Corporation and Kajima Corporation, Yapi Merkezi, Atkins and sub-consultant Aedas.
rapidly-ARCHITECTURE
set of requirements from the JT Metro joint venture (JTMJV). The JTMJV re-quired the station archi-tecture to incorporate “an aesthetic, form and exter-nal appearance which is unique, innovative, iconic and reflective of Dubai’s identity and character.”
The strength of the de-sign hinges on the cultur-ally-inspired forms of the stations and their collec-tive response to the ex-treme climatic conditions of the city. The unique growing
population—ex-pected to reach three mil-lion by 2017—and severe traffic congestion necessi-tated the building of an ur-ban rail system to provide additional public transpor-tation capacity, relieve mo-tor traffic, and provide in-frastructure for additional development.
Architectural design of the stations
The architectural designs of the stations represent a response to a very simple
1.The visually distinctive exterior station design. 2. Dubai’s history with pearl diving inspired the design of the stations. 3 and 4. The interior space mimics the smooth lustre of the station exterior.
2
3 4
shell-shaped roof—while both modern and iconic— invokes Dubai’s early his-tory with pearl diving. Re-quiring skill and bravery, pearl diving brought early prosperity to the emirate and is thus an integral part of the history of the city and an appropriate form to mimic in the architecture of the stations.
Much like the pearls that inspired their forms, the metro stations aim to be a collection of modern day gems, enhancing the
cul-ARCHITECTURE
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 17
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ture and business of Dubai by providing an efficient transport system. While this cultural reference is aesthetically appealing and appropriate for its con-text, the shell-like roofs are purposefully conceived for
5 to 7. From its conception, Dubai Metro was designed to acheive both aesthetic and functional superiority.
both aesthetic and func-tional superiority.
The roofs, which rest lightly on support struc-tures, boast elegance and technical prowess and offer attractive covering to the public areas of the station. Perhaps most importantly, the external beauty of the shell is similarly activated inside the public space, where the inner surface cre-ates a wonderfully smooth and lustrous enclosure that is reminiscent of the origi-nal pearl inspiration.
OVERALL COST OF
THE DUBAI METRO
The smooth inner shell avoids the visual complexity and industrial appearance commonly used in elevated metro stations. Neverthe-less, the shell structure re-mains an efficient means of creating one long span large volume space void of inter-nal columns or supporting structure. Moreover, the curved double skin clad-ding provides and environ-mentally friendly means of cooling the roof, using solar assisted natural ventilation techniques.
“WE ALSO LOOKED AT A SUN
PATH ANALYSIS FOR EACH
OF THE BRIDGES TO ASSESS
THE FUNCTIONALITY OF THE
PROPOSED ALUMINIUM SUN
SHADE LOUVERS.”
Adrian Lindon, Atkins
5
6
7
US $ 7.6
BILLION
ARCHITECTURE
s a v e d — a p p r o x i m a t e l y 12,900t(CO2-e)—allowed the team to save as much CO2 as that produced by 29,000MW/h of electric-ity in Dubai, which is the equivalent of running seven hundred 50m long travela-tors at 10 hours a day for a year or 500 microwaves on full for five and a half years.
“This is a great achieve-ment and stands as another excellent example of how Atkins is working hard to ad-dress Carbon Critical Design Issues,” concludes Lindon. Footbridges
Designed by global archi-tecture and engineering consultancy Atkins, the 4km of footbridges that allow us-ers to reach the stations and platforms are equipped with ‘travelators’ or automatically moving walkways.
Working closely with At-kins Dubai’s Carbon Critical Design team, lead architect Adrian Lindon oversaw the design of the footbridges, which stand 5.5m high, 7.8m wide and 4km long. In an ef-fort to make the footbridges as eco-friendly as possible, Lindon sought to reduce the amount of glass and increase the amount of insulation.
By implementing these changes, the Atkins team saved just over 500m³ of alu-minium and it’s estimated that peak cooling load was reduced by around 35% when com-pared to the original design.
The reduction in the amount of aluminium
47
NUMBER OF
STATIONS GLOBAL
ARCHITECTS
ATKINS AND AEDAS
DESIGNED FOR THE
RED & GREEN LINES
• The Dubai Metro has over 4km offootbridges linking the above-ground stations with entrance pods up to 400m away.
• Footbridges over 40m in length con-tain two travelators and are 7.8m wide, whilst the narrow bridges are 4.2m wide. The maximum bridge span is 45m in length.
• The footbridges have been designed to minimise solar gain within the bridge, and therefore reduce the running costs and the impact on the environment. • The double glazing within the façade is argon fi lled to provide optimum per-formance in the extreme heat of Dubai’s summer. The fi rst bridge was success-fully launched in August 2008. • Atkins was responsible for the entire design of the footbridges including site support to the JV contractor during fi nal installation.
FACTS ABOUT
THE FOOTBRIDGES
9. Double-skin cladding means eco-friendly stations, inside and out. 8. The Carbon Critical
team worked to make the walkways energy effi cient.
8
Inspired design
>
With our experts in rail transport solutions, there’s a
lot more to Atkins than just our iconic buildings.
Plan Design Enable
Atkins is the lead consultant providing
detailed design services to Japan-Turkey
Metro Joint Venture (JTMJV) for the Red
and Green Lines of the Dubai Metro.
Our work for the stations, tunnels,
viaducts, depots, footbridges, entrance
pods, car parks includes:
Architecture
Civil Engineering
Structural Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
For more information please visit us at:
www.atkins-me.com
PLANNING
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 21
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TRANSIT
ORIENTED
DEVELOPMENT
THE LAUNCH OF DUBAI METRO COULD HERALD A NEW ERA FOR THE
CITY AS IT DEVELOPS AROUND A NEW MODE OF TRANSPORT
1
ubai is at a critical moment in its history as far as urban planning is concerned. Over the long term the city’s pop-ulation is expected to grow larger, as well as be boosted by a seasonal tourist influx.
As Dubai strives to become a city greater than the sum of its parts one of the key is-sues for urban planners, is the movement of people in the city. Overlooking for a mo-ment the many exciting developmo-ments in the works, one simple question remains: how will all these people get around in the greater Dubai?
PLANNING
The road map
At a traffic conference a few years ago, Mattar Al Tayer, chairman of the board and executive director of the Roads & Transport Authori-ty (RTA), outlined the meas-ures that are being taken to create a ‘21st century state of the art transportation sys-tem’ for Dubai to cope with the increased demand.
“We are presently work-ing on road projects with a total budget of US $2.5
bil-extended to a total length of 3000km, and tram lines are also under study. Du-bai’s marine network of wa-ter buses is also growing in strength.
These measures will be necessary. As soon as a city grows over a certain size and activity, it cannot be sus-tained by purely car based private transport. Experts put the crossover point at over a million. A natural progress in the cycle of a city’s growth is evolution.
Introducing extra trans-portation methods is clearly a good start, but the real challenge may prove to be convincing people to use them, especially during the hotter months in the year when people may be more reluctant to leave the
air-1. Dubai Metro is the longest fully automated metro system in the world. 2. Dubai Metro’s Red Line runs along Sheikh Zayed Road.
40%
METRO TRIPS
WILL BE NEW
2
“EXPERIENCE HAS TAUGHT
US THAT BUILDING ROADS
ALONE DOESN’T SOLVE
CONGESTION PROBLEMS”
lion,” he said. “To give you an example of the volume of work, we have increased the number of lanes across Du-bai Creek from 19 in 2006 to 40 in 2007, and this will reach 100 in 2020.”
But, of course, as he went on to admit, creating extra roads will only go so far to solving Dubai’s traffic woes.
“Experience has taught us that building roads alone doesn’t solve congestion problems. Transport must be planned and operated as a complete system with in-tegrated modes of transpor-tation such as bus, rail and water transport,” he said.
In a further bid to encour-age people to swap their cars for alternative meth-ods of transport, the exist-ing bus network is set to be
PLANNING
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 23
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conditioned comfort of their own cars.
This is in fact one of the major challenges in creat-ing an effective transport system, points out Profes-sor Erik Ferguson, of the Institute of Urban Planning and Design at the Ameri-can University of Sharjah. Short-term measures such as additional parking, for example, will help to alle-viate the problem of heavy traffic, but over the longer term, these don’t really help in promoting other methods of transportation, he says.
“If you increase the park-ing supply in order to deal with this traffic problem, then you also make it more convenient for people to use their automobiles and less likely to switch to these
new transit systems. So you are sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do you maintain a tight supply of parking in order to make these new rail systems more attractive?” he asks.
Steps being taken by the authorities to encourage people to switch from pri-vate to public transport in-clude installing air-condi-tioned bus shelters. Shared responsibility With the large-scale com-munities being created in Dubai, the responsibility to move people is no longer just that of the transport au-thorities, but also of the de-velopers, and consequently, of the masterplanners.
Planning of urban spaces is now a shared responsibility.
3
One development approach that is starting to take off in the region is Tran-sit-Oriented Development (TOD).
TOD is ‘the creation of compact, walkable communities centred around high quality transit systems, enabling a high quality lifestyle without complete dependence on a car for mobility. TOD is fairly well established in cities in Europe and North America, but it is a relatively new concept in the Gulf.
Dubai has the opportunity to take it to a larger scale because of the ability to execute projects more quickly, with capital investment.
A lot of new areas are being devel-oped so the opportunities here for TOD are fairly large, but the authorities and developers need to understand and make conscious decisions to plan com-munities in that way.
Benefi ts of TOD are not merely limit-ed to making a city less car-reliant and more walkable, but also help reduce pollution and energy usage, according to experts.
Whether TOD is adopted or not, as the pace of development in Dubai ac-celerates, the next few years look set to be critical in terms of the placement of different activities and connections between them.
The great planning challenge over the next decade or so will be uniting the individual elements of Dubai.
This is what will help it become a city greater than the sum of its parts.
TOD
3. Dubai Metro stations are being built all over the city.
CONSTRUCTION
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 25
WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM ith Du-bai’s traf-fic reaching nightmarish proportions coupled with a grow-ing population, the city’s metro or Light Rail Transit (LRT) project could not be built fast enough. As such, the pace of construction was rapid.
A joint venture between VSL Middle East and Rizzani de Eccher was awarded the construction contract for su-perstructure for the Red and Green lines – the largest LRT project undertaken in a single contract.
The total project consti-tuted almost 70km of viaduct with 47km on the Red line and 17.6km on the Green line.
1. The project is the longest rail link in the world to built from scratch.
Erection works for the Red line commenced in March 2007 and were completed in August 2008 – a total of 18 months.
“It’s gone remarkably well to be honest,” says VSL’s deputy general manager Stephen Burke.
“It was delivered ahead of time and it was a sweet job from A-Z. It was well
1
CLEVER ENGINEERING TECHNIQUES THROUGH USING
PRECAST CONCRETE AND POST-TENSIONING HELPED
ENSURE THAT DUBAI METRO WAS DELIVERED ON TIME.
CONTRACTORS ON THE PROJECT EXPLAIN HOW
ENGINEERING
EXCELLENCE
CONSTRUCTION
thought out and went like a Swiss clock.”
Using precast
The design of the metro line is a U-shaped girder with the trains running on the slab and the webs act-ing as the parapet.
Since more than 80% of the line is elevated, Burke
says precast segmental viaduct construction was selected as the fastest and most cost efficient way of constructing the viaduct. This method was also con-sidered the most aestheti-cally pleasing because of the smooth quality finish that can be achieved using precast, he says.
“The segments were pre-cast using match pre-cast tech-nology in a temporary pre-cast facility constructed in Jebel Ali,” he says.
“It was one of the largest precast yards in the world covering about 3km2.
“60 moulds were used, producing 45 segments per day – that’s 900m3 of
con-crete poured over a period of 10 hours.”
A total of 12,306 precast segments were erected for the Red line and a further 4163 for the Green line. Burke says the segments were erected using 10 spe-cially designed launching gantries and it took two days to erect one 32m span – including lifting, gluing, stressing and lowering onto temporary bearings.
“The project went like a factory production because all of the segments were precast in a purpose built yard – everything was made for the job and it was well executed,” he says.
Burke says they hope to use the project as a bench-mark to gain similar work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Abu
2. The track has been built through already exisiting infrastructure, which has been one of the biggest challenges.
12,306
PRECAST
SEGMENTS
NEEDED FOR THE
RED LINE
CONSTRUCTION
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 27
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Dhabi and Bahrain. All have plans for various types of light rail networks at the preliminary stages. Speedy and effective completion in Dubai will be noted else-where.
Post-tensioning
Post-tensioning has revolu-tionised the construction of
infrastructure, and is quick-ly providing subcontractors and their clients with new ways of working together.
Imagine a series of small blocks of wood, like those a child plays with. Now drill a hole through them. Slip a string through the centre, and hold the blocks of wood using the string. Relax your grip, and the string holding the blocks droops.
Tighten the string, and the blocks rise, moving closer together. Next, put a small clip on either end of the string, fixing the blocks in their place.
Now, substitute the string for steel strands, the blocks for segments of a concrete bridge or building, and the clips for anchorage devices and the idea behind
post-3. Freyssinet did the post-tensioning on Dubai Metro. 4. Post-tensioning balances gravity loads by creating upward forces using steel wires.
tensioning should become clear. More cost-effective than traditional reinforced concrete, post-tensioning has transformed the con-struction of long span bridg-es and high risbridg-es.
“The idea behind post-tensioning is to balance gravity loads by creating upward forces using steel wires,” says Khalid Rabadi, buildings division manager at Freyssinet, the subcon-tractor responsible for post-tensioning on Dubai Metro. Its implementation, he adds, results in saving building materials, enhancing the performance of concrete structures and simplifying construction. As the tech-nology strengthens concrete with steel, less concrete is used for the slabs.
3
4
“THE BASIC IDEA BEHIND
POST-TENSIONING IS TO
BALANCE THE GRAVITY
LOADS BY CREATING UPWARD
MATERIALS
SPONSORED BY
MASTERING
THE MATERIALS
CONSTRUCTING SOMETHING AS AMBITIOUS AS THE DUBAI
METRO REQUIRES SMART USE OF MATERIALS – AND THE RIGHT
MATERIALS CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN ENSURING A
PROJECT IS DELIVERED ON TIME
veryone can now have small sigh of relief now that the Dubai Metro has been
deliv-ered on time. With 10 station opening on 09/09/09 and the remainder to open over the coming months, the achievement of meeting the deadline was, in part, helped by choosing the right materials.
As one of the fi nal stages of construc-tion, fi nishes can sometimes become an afterthought in the construction schedule. However, it was the selection of the right material for the fi nishes that made a cru-cial difference in ensuring the Metro ar-rived on time.
Construction adhesive and chemicals supplier IBS Mapei supplied a variety of materials to the Metro’s construction, and it was these high-tech materials that helped speed up delivery. “Finishes are
always squeezed on schedules,” says Ma-pei business development manager Laith Haboubi. “The fi nishes are under pressure and there’s a great danger of compromis-ing the quality if you rush it. But if you have the right products then you can accelerate programme times.”
Self-hydrating screeds played a crucial role. Usually a screed takes three to four weeks for the moisture content to get down to a workable 2%. However, Mapei were able to supply screeds that could achieve this in two to three days, representing a massive acceleration of the construction process.
“The screed comes towards the end of the project. If they had used the tradi-tional method of fi xing or screeding, they would have needed 4 to 6 weeks before they could have installed the stone, so the whole project could have been delayed,”
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 31 WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM
MATERIALS
SPONSORED BY
MATERIALS
SPONSORED BY
explains Mapei commercial manager Naheed Younis. “We really added value to that project by speeding up the work by a minimum of four weeks.”
Because nothing like the Metro has even been built before in the Middle East, the project required mate-rials that hadn’t been used in the region before.
Of course, the use of new materials meant that everything had to be double-checked to ensure the most effective methods were used.
“We have a huge data-base of most materials in use worldwide, so any time someone comes to us, we can go to our bank of infor-mation to look at that par-ticular stone, that parpar-ticular
give any recommendation,” says Haboubi. “We also save the potential liability caused by doing something the wrong way. There are several places in the UAE where there are large legal claims because due to the fast tracking of the project, those points were not taken into consideration.” Keeping up appearances The right materials can also help a project succeed aesthetically, as well as structurally. Architectur-ally, the Dubai Metro is a very distinctive looking de-velopment, and the use of the right materials enabled construction contractors to remain faithful to the ar-chitects’ original vision for the project. The job is very
1. Choosing the right materials helped speed up construction and give the Metro a unique aesthetic appeal. 2. Parking areas particularly benefi ted from self-hydrating screeds.
2
“WE REALLY ADDED VALUE TO THE
METRO PROJECT BY SPEEDING UP THE
WORK BY A MINIMUM OF FOUR WEEKS”
material, where there will be a wealth of test data,” says Younis. “One of our strengths in our research and development is that in less than a week, we can fl y any piece of material that is new to the market , do the proper testing and provide the right solution for the new material.”
Although safety is always paramount on any project, the high profi le nature of the Dubai Metro meant that there was absolutely no margin for ever, so using hi-tech materials that were thoroughly evaluated not only added value by speed-ing up the construction, but also by providing a far high-er confi dence level.
“We go through a whole list of questions before we
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 33 WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM
MATERIALS
SPONSORED BY
highly architectural with lots of colourful schemes,” says Younis. “We are one of the very few companies worldwide who can offer 26 colours of sealant. That proves to be an asset in helping the architect into getting the scheme right.”
Although sealants are often regards as generic ancillary materials, in this
case they helped make a vi-tal difference.
“The ancillary materials complimented their archi-tectural schemes which can be very diffi cult to do,” says Haboubi. “You sometimes have to compromise looks with performance. In this case, they didn’t have to.” Setting the standard Use of high-tech materials was also crucial in ensur-ing car parks feedensur-ing to the Metro were also delivered on time.
Mapei supplied the stone installation, screeds, grout-ing and sealants for the cru-cial infrastructure and the materials helped speed up construction.
“We really contributed on delivery because one of
4-6
WEEKS OF
CONSTRUCTION
TIME WAS SAVED
THANKS TO HI-TECH
MATERIALS
3 3. Coloured sealants allowed contractors to remain faithful to the visions of the architects and designers. 4 and 5. Mapei manufacturers a variety of specialised adhesives and sealants.the car parks was behind schedule. We took off three weeks time over there,” ex-plains Younis.
The Metro may now be fulfi lling its purpose of moving people across Du-bai, but it has also acted as a showcase for what can be achevied by the use of new construction materials.
Haboubi also said that even though fi nishing is not an area that is particu-larly counted on to save the contractor time, when it is done with the use of new materials, the benefi ts be-come extremely obvious.
“In future projects they can see how one can mini-mise the delays.
“It could be part of their methodology in the future,” reckons Haboubi.
4
BUILDING
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 35
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ere is a straight for-ward message
pinned to the wall at Union Station, the largest of Dubai’s metro sta-tions - “Failure is not an op-tion. 371 days remaining to revenue service.”
The same message is pinned to the wall at the Jebel Ali station. It’s a fair bet that wherever you go
on the under-construction Dubai Metro project, you’re never far from the message.
The previous day, it was approaching 2pm in the cen-tre of Dubai. At mid-after-noon, traffic was relatively light. But this would quickly change. The masses were about to finish work.
“It is good now,” said one of Dubai’s taxi drivers. “But wait five or 10 minutes, and
1. Part of the Dubai Metro tunnel under construction, slightly over a year before it was opened to the public.
you will have serious traffic jams everywhere.”
The taxi drivers of Dubai are a long-suffering breed. On the same day, a different driver told of a 2½ hour trip to Sharjah at rush hour. A journey that, in light traffic, should have taken around 30 minutes.
It was against this back-drop that the project every taxi driver has been
wait-1
THE MEAN STREETS OF DUBAI ARE NO PLACE FOR THE
FAINT HEARTED, ESPECIALLY NOT IF YOU’RE IN A HURRY.
CONSTRUCTION WEEK VISITED THE DUBAI METRO WHEN IT
WAS JUST OVER A YEAR FROM ITS FIRST REVENUE SERVICE
PAVING A WAY
BUILDING
ing for arose. And the cli-ent? None other than the taxi driver’s employer - the Roads and Transport Au-thority (RTA).
When the Dubai Metro project was announced by the Government of
Du-bai in 2004, it was becom-ing abundantly clear to the highest office in the land that in order for the city to compete on the global stage in tourism and commerce, it was high time to bring some much needed relief to the
2. An early image of the metro trains on arrival in Dubai. 3. A worker at a station being built for the Red Line. 4. Ongoing construction work at Jebel Ali station.
choked roads. Construction of the metro began in Janu-ary 2005. In typical Dubai style, things were not done in half measures. The RTA laid out its plans for the big-gest driverless metro system in the world, and the longest
2 3
BUILDING
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 37
WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM 5. The track winds through already existing infrastructure. 6. The station interiors are very modern and contemporary. 7. Mechanics test out the new trains.
metro track ever to be con-structed from scratch.
The main contractor was-Dubai Rapid Link (Durl), a consortium of mainly Japanese firms. By its very nature, construction of the project presented a daunt-ing task from inception.
“The biggest challenge was the diversion of traffic with-out causing a hindrance to the traffic flow,” says Adnan Al Hammadi, director of rail projects construction.
It became possible to walk the length of the Red Line from beginning to end, three days ahead of schedule. This was quite a feat in a city where materials shortages were never far from the head-lines. Then again, if you need to ensure the job gets done, it no doubt helps to name drop the Government of Dubai: a sign that if something needs to get done, it will happen.
The track itself will be familiar to anyone who
17%
THE AMOUNT OF
TRAFFIC THAT
THE METRO IS
EXPECTED TO
REDUCE ON DUBAI’S
OVERCROWDED
ROADS
5 6 7BUILDING
has driven along Sheikh Zayed Road.
It climbs above and dives below existing bridges, snaking along much of Du-bai’s main thoroughfare, and threading through the city’s existing infrastructure.
The designers went over bridges where possible to avoid the hazard of de-bris falling from above. In a driverless system, track obstructions can cause problems.
At the Burjuman shop-ping centre, the track dives below ground, tunneling under Dubai Creek. The system will also include a “leaky feed”, allowing pas-sengers to make and receive mobile phone calls from
underground. Footbridges have been installed over-night with the help of a self propelled mobile transport-er, an immense Japanese-built machine. The bridges are air-conditioned, and fit-ted with conveyors. This is Dubai. Why walk when you can travelate?
Al Hammadi believes the Metro will be enough to prise residents of Dubai from the seats of their cars when combined with broad improvements in the public transport network.
“The RTA’s main objec-tive is to upgrade the trans-port infrastructure as a whole,” he said.
“The Metro will serve as a key connector linking to
Dubai International Air-port. Provision for park and ride facilities near the terminals and at strategic locations along the railway route, will also promote the use of the Dubai Metro.”
The five-carriage metro trains can carry a maxi-mum of 643 passengers per train, and can run with 90 second intervals at peak travel times.
All stops have been pulled out to ensure the Metro is running on time. Despite the urgency, the project maintained a good safety record. A safety consult-ant engaged on the project said: “We have a record of 1.14 lost time accidents per million man hours.”
8. Ongoing construction at Rashidiya station. 9. Adnan Al Hammadi, director of rail projects construction, RTA. 10. All stations have air-conditioned foot bridges.
8
10
MEP
COOL
CHALLENGES
APART FROM ALL THE GLAM
ASSOCIATED WITH DUBAI
METRO, IT ALSO POSED A
CHALLENGE, ESPECIALLY ON
THE COOLING AND MEP SIDES
he Dubai Metro, being the first of its kind in the region, posed a
sig-nificant challenge in that “there was no model to follow, as with a shopping mall. Additional complicat-ing factors such as under-ground stations and live tracks posed specific MEP and cooling-system chal-lenges,” says Al Futtaim En-gineering managing director Dawood bin Ozair.
The team behind the Dubai Metro reflects the emirate’s truly international charac-ter and ability to benchmark itself against the best glo-bal standards. Al Futtaim Engineering MEP division general manager M Murali
1 and 2. Co-ordination of services and access for the district cooling piping network posed a major challenge.
1
looks at some of the chal-lenges on the MEP front.
Murali is a mechanical engineer, having graduated from the National Institute of Technology in India in 1991. He also holds an MBA in finance and marketing. “I started my career with Batli-boli as a graduate trainee engineer. After a few years I moved on to Carrier. I joined Al Futtaim Engineering in 1998, and have worked for the group ever since.”
He joined as a project manager in the then M&E (mechanical and electrical) division. “In 2001 I assumed overall responsibility for the projects business, which has grown significantly on the back of the
construc-tion boom, and now I am the general manager of the MEP division.” Murali ex-plains that the MEP divi-sion itself is divided into three distinct units, namely projects, maintenance and security. It has 150 profes-sional employees, and about 1500 to 1800 site operators.
“In the context of the Al Futtaim group, we work closely with the real estate division, so we know exactly what a developer or client actually wants. In meet-ing these requirements we always strive for optimal value-engineered solutions with a built-in low cost of ownership. Thus we are a turnkey building services contractor,” says Murali.
MEP
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 41
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1
Solid reputation
“Over the last few years we have established a solid rep-utation as a good quality, me-dium-sized MEP contractor that is highly competitive in its particular sphere. In terms of the impact of the current downturn, we have not had to retrench any staff, and have a healthy or-der book going forward.
“This is because we have not been involved very heav-ily with any mega projects, focusing mainly on major infrastructure jobs such as the Dubai Metro for RTA. At present we are also involved with Alstom in a 2000MW power plant in Fujeirah.” Murali says that infrastruc-ture has emerged as a key focus area. “We have earned a name for ourselves here, and are striving to strength-en our position and focus.”
A large part of this reputa-tion has been gained through its involvement with the
Dubai Metro, which inaugu-rated ten stations of the Red Line on September, 9. When the Green Line opens in June 2010, the Dubai Metro will become the longest au-tomated metro network in the world, taking this title away from the Vancouver Skytrain in Canada.
Al Futtaim Engineering won the tender for the MEP works on a competitive ba-sis. “What made the differ-ence was that our proposal was very detailed, so much
so that it even highlighted various engineering and technical inconsistencies we were able to pick up from the various drawings and specifications.
Attention to detail
“These were highlighted at the proposal stage itself, so they could be discussed and resolved, rather than leav-ing this to the post-contract period. So this attention to detail really helped our bid, combined with the high reputation of Al Futtaim En-gineering. This is a flagship project that adds signifi-cantly to the company’s CV.
“We have been involved with complicated projects before, but nothing as com-plex as this. The knowledge
2
“UNDERGROUND STATIONS
AND LIVE TRACKS POSED
SPE-CIFIC MEP AND COOLING
SYS-TEM CHALLENGES ”
3
2. Diagram of the Al Barsha part of the Metro network. 3. Al Futtaim Engineering managing director Dawood bin Ozair.
MEP
and experience garnered from this project will serve us well in handling other complicated projects in the future. The general ap-proach we take with any project is not to assume a fully contractual role. We are practicing engineers, and hence have the scope to be able to work with the main contractor and client
comprise light trade areas as a diesel engine workshop, vehicle maintenance and cleaning and other storage buildings.
Operating Control Centre Importantly, the depots also contain the Operating Con-trol Centre (OCC), with the main one at Rashidiya and an auxiliary one at Jebel Ali. “The rail network is driver-less, and is controlled au-tomatically from the OCC. Thales Rail Signalling Solu-tions supplied its SelTrac IS train control and NetTrac central control technology in this regard.
“Al Futtaim Engineering’s scope of work covered a full range of MEP services. This included a cooling load of about 7000TR, incorporat-ing HVAC, smoke
ventila-4. Murali is the general manager of the MEP division at Al Futtaim Engineering.
to arrive at an optimal solu-tion.
“Such a culture of innova-tion and flexibility in my team in particular, has really helped us in terms of this project. For example, where some of the designs did not meet the local authority reg-ulations, we could offer our own expertise in making this work.” At the end of the day, Al Futtaim Engineering produced a total of 2500 de-sign and engineering draw-ings.
Murali explains that Al Futtaim Engineering was the MEP contractor for the main depot at Rashidiya, just before the Rashidiya Station, with an auxiliary depot lo-cated at Jebel Ali Port. “The Red Line depots are basi-cally places where you have sidings and buildings. These
The Dubai Metro is the world’s fi rst district-cooled mass transit system, says Stanley Consultants project manager Hisham Hajaj. A distribution network provides centralised cooling via pre-insulated buried steel distribution piping to all Dubai Metro stations to inter-national standards.
Seven district cooling plants have been built specifi cally for the Dubai Metro, with the fol-lowing installed capacities: • Al Rigga 10,000TR
• Al Barsha 7500TR • Al Kifaf 10,000TR • Jumeirah Island 7000TR • Jebel Ali Industrial 4400TR • Al Rashidiya 7500TR • SZR2 7500TR Hajaj cites the design challeng-es as having to reroute existing utilities, the lack of ‘as built’ documentation, unmarked utilities, and the lack of space in some areas for chilled-water piping. This posed specifi c challenges for the construction as well.
For example, the main con-tractor would produce draw-ings rendering the trial pits in ‘soft’ landscaping. These draw-ings were then submitted to all the relevant authorities for approval. Once approval was obtained, the trial pits were ex-cavated – only to reveal other services crossing the district cooling corridor.
The construction NOC draw-ings, based on information obtained from the trial pits, were then submitted to all the relevant authorities. Work
WORLD’S FIRST DISTRICT-COOLED MASS TRANSIT SYSTEM
MEP
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 43
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tion, general air extraction, fire protection and alarm systems, standalone emer-gency exit systems and a well-engineered electrical distribution system with complete back-up.
“In the event of any pow-er intpow-erruption, thpow-ere are standby transformers and generators. A BMS system is linked to the Scada system at the main OCC, so there is quite a high level of inter-face in terms of reporting systems,” says Murali. “This required a high level of en-gineering. We had highly competent engineers work-ing together with the vari-ous stakeholders. It has been good to see all this come to-gether and work well.”
Murali says that electrical and plumbing and drain-age services fell under the
ambit of Al Futtaim En-gineering directly, while specialist contractors were enlisted for the fire-fight-ing and alarm systems. “Our own engineers and opera-tors worked with these con-tractors in order to execute these systems. In terms of the overall BMS, we used products from Trend in the UK, for which we are the lo-cal principals.
Project consortium
“The design was done by
Atkins in terms of the over-all project consortium. We had to interface with all the various companies in terms of specifications, draw-ings, documentation and obtaining approvals. The MEP industry in the UAE in general, and in Dubai in particular, works largely on British, European and US standards, so we have no problem in co-operating in an international venture of this nature.
“This was truly an interna-tional team as it comprised experts from Japan, Turkey and the UK, among others. Some of the designs were done by an American team sitting in Thailand, for ex-ample. So it was a fully in-ternationally fledged design and engineering team in that sense,” he Murali.
could only commence once the construction NOC was in hand. If the work was located on any major road, or would affect traffi c fl ow in any way, then ap-proval for road diversion had to be obtained from the RTA.
The NOC applications them-selves were complicated by the length of time these took to process, which had had a great impact on the construction programme itself. “The other main construction issue was co-ordination with the Dubai Metro main contractor, the Durl consortium,” said Hajaj. A sub-stantial portion of the district
cooling works fell within Durl’s own site boundaries, and it had its own deadlines to meet.
In terms of procurement, a total of 52km of piping was needed for the cooling network. This required close co-ordina-tion with the piping manufac-turers during the design stage, as well as submitting bills of quantities before issuing the tender so that the planning could be fi nalised.
Hajaj explains that district cooling was particularly suited to the Dubai Metro. Not only did it reduce the electromechanical areas inside the stations, but
it also reduced the total power connected and consumed by between 30% to 50%. This, in turn, reduced the total carbon footprint of the project. It also reduced the noise and vibration from a solution comprising air-cooled chillers and pumps on a station roof.
“The initial cost of the district cooling plants with associated piping network is higher than an individual standalone solu-tion, but the payback period is much less,” says Hajaj. Also, the lifespan of district cooling plants is 25 years compared to 15, for air-cooled solutions.
50%
REDUCTION IN
TOTAL POWER
CONSUMED AT
PMV
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 45
WWW.CONSTRUCTIONWEEKONLINE.COM
TICKETS PLEASE
DUBAI METRO IS THE WORLD’S LONGEST AUTOMATED RAIL TRANSPORT
SYSTEM. AS SUCH IT WILL POSE BOTH UNIQUE CHALLENGES AND
OPPORTUNITIES TO FACILITIES MANAGEMENT PROVIDER SERCO. PAUL
METRO
MACHINES
MORNING, NOON AND NIGHT, MACHINES OPERATED ON THE GIGANTIC
DUBAI METRO BUILD. DURING THE WORK, CONSTRUCTION WEEK TOOK A
TOUR OF THE RTA’S PLANT DEPARTMENT
PMV
etting the first two lines of Du-bai’s new metro sys-tem raised from sand to full operation in just five years is the sort of task that Brunel himself might have baulked at. If you add to it, the fact that the project had to run through built up areas and through existing road net-works, you might be able to understand the difficulty of the operation.At first, Dubai’s Road and Transport Authority (RTA) searched for an engineering firm with the experience and size to deliver some-thing of the type. Eventually they awarded a US $3.38 billion (AED12.45 billion) contract to a consortium of Japanese companies includ-ing, Mitsubishi Corporation, Obayashi Corporation, Mit-subishi Heavy Industries,
Kajima Corporation and Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi.
Work began in 2005, with scores of subcontractors brought in. Amazingly there was no in-house plant de-partment at first, but very soon it was obvious that one was needed so the ‘depart-ment that never was’ got es-tablished and underway.
Headed by Graham Lar-kin, the new division com-prised of lots of machines, and even more hardware to keep them running as well as scores of people to make it all work.
Any place with a lot of kit and people, needs to be well organised, so the plant man-ager employed a modern approach to efficiency. “We use the Tag Plant Manage-ment System. It was origi-nally developed for the oil industry,” explained Larkin. “I should have been a sales-man for it, I’ve used it in my
last three or four projects,” he smiled.
The computer helped log all the pieces of kit that were being bought in, along with their serial number, current location and serv-ice record.
In theory, the operation was paperless, but in prac-tice there were reams fly-ing everywhere, as safety certificates, manuals, trans-fer documents and the like came in. With the system up and running, a keen team of staff started logging all the machines, from their demountable office at the Deira City Centre site.
“We have a responsibility to make sure all the paper-work from our equipment and the subcontractors equipment is all in order.” Larkin said.
Keeping track of all the machines on a jobsite that snakes around 166km is no walk in the park though. “It’s a difficult job, because it all comes in one day and then is out somewhere else again on another.
1. Agiant custom gantry crane places the pre-cast sections. 2. A line of all-terrain telescopic cranes. 3,4 & 5. Self propelled modular transporter (SPMT) moving pedestrian bridge sections. 6. Graham Larkin. 2
US $ 3.38
BILLION
VALUE OF THE
CONTRACT
AWARDED TO THE
DUBAI METRO
CONSORTIUM
PMV
DUBAI METRO SOUVENIR GUIDE CONSTRUCTION WEEK 47
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“We make an arrangement to go to the site to inspect whatever the machine is. All the mandatory documents are in place and if they aren’t, no one is to use it. So we have quite a mountain of files,” he laughed.
The number of machines that were being entered into the system became mind boggling. “I wouldn’t even hesitate to guess the amount of subcontractors machines there are on the job at the moment - literally thou-sands,” explained Larkin. “Our own equipment list
comprises of 423 items from lighting towers upwards.”
A particularly arduous job is keeping on top of the pa-per work for the piling rigs, of which various contrac-tors have a couple of dozen around the site.
By their nature, they are constantly being moved, but every time one leaves and gets moved out onto the road so that it can be used elsewhere on site, the law states it has to be inspected again, meaning the paper-work starts ‘piling’ up for the plant department.
Interestingly, the giant two-metre diameter double-start drilling buckets used in the pilers had to be custom made by a local firm in Dubai, as such a thing is not an off-the-shelf item, even in M i t s u b i s h i Heavy In-dustry’s long inventory. Speaking of the inventory, one of the largest areas in the plant d e p a r t
-“WE MAKE AN ARRANGEMENT TO
GO TO THE SITE TO INSPECT THE
MA-CHINES. IF ALL MANDATORY
DOCU-MENTS ARE NOT IN PLACE, NO ONE IS
TO USE IT”
3
4
5
PMV
ment is a fleet of 61 trucks. Several of these are Mit-subishi Canters, which have had various custom backs installed, notably that of a crane inspection platform and mobile tire rig. All have had flashing strobe lights fitted to the rear as well as high-visibility chevrons, as the narrow job sites that work through the night mean all precautions need to be taken in order to pre-vent site vehicles bashing bumpers.
Other trucks owned by the depot include one 50-tonne tractor unit, which has the sole purpose of shifting
re-bar, while another moved aggregates. These, alongside an assortment of cement mixers and dumpers are only seen during the hours of darkness due to the rules affecting the movement of heavy vehicles on the Emir-ate’s busy roads throughout the day.
“This is another, opera-tional reason why the site has to run 24 hours,” ex-plained Larkin.
Also running right through the night is a forest of mo-bile cranes.
Complementing the count-less scores of contractor’s units throughout the jobsite,
are 24 rough terrain cranes belonging to the plant de-partment.
Smaller site managers might take comfort in the fact that the region’s chron-ic equipment shortages in recent years even affected well-resourced projects like the metro.
There were simply no new cranes to be had, so the plant manager had to look further a field.
“We got them from all over Europe,” said Larkin.
“We basically concentrated on three types and that was really dictated by what was on the market at the time.”
7. Telescopic boom crane. 8. A very large piling rig. 7 8
