Page 7 - Inside K&A - March 2019
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In total, there were over 49 included special ‘air curtains’, Dubai in December. We picked
million safe man-hours worked, which forcibly but seamlessly up the Infrastructure Project
and during the construction separate the wet performers’ of the Year for our role as lead
phase nearly 34,000 people zone (which exceeds 30˚C) consultant of the Al-Wajeed
attended safety inductions. from the audience zone Water Master Plan in Saudi
(which requires a temperature Arabia, one of the Kingdom’s
At the MEP Middle East Awards of 24˚C) without affecting the major social and economic
in Dubai in November we were show’s performance and the initiatives aligned with Saudi
awarded the Plumbing Project audience experience. Vision 2030.
of the Year for our role as lead
consultant of La Perle in Al A highly successful awards Our work on the life-sustaining
Habtoor City, Dubai, while our season was rounded off with a project, located in the
engineer, Mansour Kharoub, was further award at the prestigious Kingdom’s Empty Quarter (the
named Mechanical Engineer Construction Week Awards in world’s largest uninterrupted
of the Year, for his exemplary sand mass), has helped
performance throughout safeguard the well-being
the year. of more than half-a-million
people in Tathleeth and Bisha
La Perle was a truly stunning governorates who were at
project which allowed us to risk from water shortages and
demonstrate our engineering opened up what was previously
expertise and separate thought of as an inaccessible
ourselves from the competition. area – the Empty Quarter –
We drew upon our global to new development and
design resources to deliver investment opportunities.
the plumbing elements of the
project using international best A highly complex undertaking
practice techniques, with a focus lasting eight years and involving
on sustainability, efficiency, more than 2,000 people at its
safety and reliability. peak, we oversaw the design
Complex design challenges and build of a world-class
included a stage that transforms water desalination plant and
in seconds from a dry platform conveyance system
3
to 300 mm water-filled pool (68,000 m /day) to safely
(and back again) using extract and purify water from
2.7 million liters of water to the Al-Wajeed wells and
simulate effects such as rainfall transport it some 600 km to
and floods. MEP innovations strategic reservoirs in Tathleeth.
From there, potable water is
now being distributed to the
local population who were
suffering from a drought,
exacerbated by pollution in
Wadi Bisha and the drying up of
local wells.
The construction phase was
a major challenge which
saw the project divided
into multiple construction
packages and awarded to
different contractors, with
work started in parallel to save
time. Construction of all major
components was completed
within agreed timeframes and
budgets, with K&A working
side-by-side with the client
and contractors.
Last year was a truly successful
year, however we look forward
to raising the bar in 2019
and beyond.
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