Dubai’s ports giant to build Ecuador’s first deep-water harbour

Dubai based port operator has awarded $1.2bn contract to build a deep-water port on the site of the fishing village of Posorja near the mouth of the Guayas River by government of Ecuador.

DP World has agreed to construct the port on a build, operate, transfer (BOT) basis. The company will make an initial investment of $500m to buy land, dredge an access channel and build a 20km highway between Posorja and Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador.

When complete, the port will have a depth of 15m and an initial capacity of 750,000 containers a year. When fully built, this will increase to 2.5 million.

In return for its investment, DP World will run it on a 50-year concession. Construction is expected to begin in six to nine months and take 24 months to complete.

The decision has been controversial in Ecuador, as the government awarded the contract by direct hire, rather than going through a competitive bidding process.

Contencon, the company that has run the neighbouring container terminal at Guayaquil since 2007, has threatened to take legal action against DP World for unfair competition. Contencon is a subsidiary of Philippine port operator International Container Terminal Services.

Ahmed Bin Sulayem, the chief executive of DP World Group, said: “We’re delighted to extend our South American footprint with a major investment in Ecuador. The additional value it will bring to the economy is compelling, increasing competitiveness through the provision of modern container terminal services in central Ecuador.”

One of the principal exports of the new port is likely to be bananas: Ecuador is the largest exporter of that fruit in the world.

The presence of the port is likely to benefit the population of Posorja, where the fishing industry has declined as a result of pollution and the use of factory trawlers. Unemployment in the area is running at 60%.

Photograph: The site of the future deepwater port (Ecuador Defence Ministry)

Source: http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/dubais-ports-gi9ant-buil5d-ecuad5ors-deepwater/

Construction work of world’s largest floating wind farm in the coast of Scotland is begin

It is now set to begin off the construction work of world’s largest floating wind farm in the coast of Scotland. Which can supply renewable energy for around 20,000 homes in 2017.

The named called Hywind is about to generate 30MW and solution to the North Sea’s huge wind energy potential without fixing of high cost turbines to the deep water seabed.

It is expected spend $245 m as first investment on this project by Hywind’s developer, Norway’s oil company Statoil. The right holder, Crown Estate granted a lease to the area known as Buchan Deep to the developer.

Five 6MW turbines will bow near Aberdeen 25km away from the offshore of Peterhead, in up to 120m deep water.

The preliminary area will cover up around 4sq km of the North Sea where wind have an average speed of 10 meter per second according to Statoil.

Hywind is scheduled to begin generating electricity by the end of next year.

Project director for Hywind of Statoil, Leif Delp said “We are very pleased to develop this project in Scotland, in a region with a huge wind resource and an experienced supply chain from oil and gas.”

“Through the hard work of industry and supportive government policies, the UK and Scotland is taking a position at the forefront of developing offshore wind as a competitive new energy source.”

Before taking the final decision for invest in Hywind Scotland in November last year, Statoil has been testing the conception of a floating turbine in a demonstration project off the Norwegian coast.

The conception includes mounting the turbines on fluctuating ballasted cylinders, each tied by three lines to the seabed.

Statoil says its proprietary pitch-motion control system is integrated with the turbine’s control system to mitigate the loss of generating capacity caused by excessive wave motion.

In March this year Statoil awarded UK-based Balfour Beatty an $8m (£5.5m) contract for the electrical system interface on Hywind. The contract includes engineering, procurement, construction and installation for the onshore cable and substation in Peterhead.

Photograph: Statoil’s illustration of floating Hywind turbines off Scotland (Statoil)

Hill International has been awarded a US$ 42m contract by Qatar Railways

A Hill International has been awarded a US$ 42m contract by Qatar Railways to manage the project of Lusail Light Rail Transit (LLRT) system near Doha. A Hill International is made a joint venture with Italian state railway engineer Italferr and Qatar based project management firm Astad to win this job.

Hill International is a 50% partner in the joint venture.

Lusail city is a waterfront development project which is currently under construction just north of Doha and west of well-known Pearl Qatar. The city is designed to be an environmental and self-sustainable community.

This 40km long LLRT rail network will link the residents in Lusail city to Doha via the Doha Metro.

The rail system will consisting of four lines with 25 over ground stations and seven underground stations.

The project is due to be completed over the next four years.

Turner & Townsend (T&T) won a Dubai airport extension Contract

UK consultant Turner & Townsend has won a contract to facilitate cost management services for the expansion of Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport.

The firm was selected by Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP), the engineering arm of the state-owned Dubai Aviation City Corporation.

The expansion is in passenger terminals including larger immigration hall, providing 55 control counters, extended departure area with 91 check-in desks and additional 12 boarding gates and lounges, a new outbound baggage handling building and additional parking and approach roads.

The expansion is part of a wider $ 32bn development program that can be accommodate more than 200 million passengers a year when finished in 2027, making it the biggest in the world.

Mike Collings, T&T’s Middle East managing director, said: “We’re honored to be working so closely with DAEP once again, and this assignment further fortifies our aviation profile in the Middle East.  

“Our experience of providing complex programs in live airports will help us run the ongoing extension while minimizing the impact on day-to-day operations, and allow DAEP to plan for future growth.  

“We have built a strong reputation working on some of the world's largest aviation projects, and I’m delighted that we are now building momentum in the rapid growth of Dubai as an international hub for air travel.”

World’s biggest subsea restaurant: made in New Zealand, shipped to Maldives

The world’s biggest underwater restaurant has been fabricated in New Zealand and is now on its way to the Maldives, where it will be the centrepiece of a tourist resort that is presently under construction at the Lhaviyani atoll.

The prefabricated acrylic structure is being shipped in one piece, including its 13-m-high stairwell. After a journey of 11,100km it will be installed in the resort of Hurawalhi, where it will offer guests the chance to dine surrounded by marine life, including replanted corals.

It will take its place among other underwater restaurants in the Maldives, including the Ithaa, pictured above, run by Conrad Hotels.

The restaurant can seat 24 diners, who will get to their tables by walking to a hut above the water, then descending a spiral staircase to the main chamber, which is almost entirely formed of clear acrylic attached to a steel base.

The interior of the restaurant during construction (Fitzroy Engineering)

Food will be prepared on land then conveyed to them by dumb waiter. Later, the restaurant will also be available for weddings and as a honeymoon suite.

The 410-tonne structure was fabricated by Fitzroy Engineering at its Waiwhakaiho plant. The company usually supplies the oil and gas industry, and so has experience in creating pressurised subsea structures.

The job of transporting the 18m-by-5m structure was handled by the GAC Group, a Dubai-based shipping and logistics specialist. According to GAC, the process took 12 months to plan, and relied on CAD-assisted lifting and lashing calculations to prepare the structure for its voyage.

The first stage involved using a 200-wheel trailer pulled by four trucks to transport the 410 tonne load 8km to Port Taranaki – a journey that took 12 hours.

Then it was lifted onto a cargo ship and is now en route to the Indian Ocean. Once there, the unit will be craned onto 8m and 14m piles, ready for the resort’s opening in August.

Source:http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/trends/worlds-biggest-subsea-restaur7ant-m7ade-ne7w/

Emaar plans Dubai tower “a notch taller” than Burj Khalifa

Dubai's Emaar Properties, the Gulf's largest developer, has announced plans to build a $1bn structure that will be higher than the Burj Khalifa, currently the world’s tallest building.

“The Tower” will be located in heart of Emaar Properties’ Dubai Creek Harbour development, about 10 minutes from Dubai Airport.

The skyscraper will not contain any residential space but will have an observation deck, a boutique hotel and a recreation of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Its relatively low price – $500m less than the Burj Khalifa – reflects the fact that it will have less usable floor area than its predecessor. 

Mohamed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar said: “The height will probably be announced when we open the tower but it will be a notch taller than the [828m] Burj Khalifa.”

The Tower was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. 

He said: “The Tower, with 18 usable floors, draws design inspiration from the lily and evokes the image of a minaret, which is a distinctive aspect of Islamic culture.”

Alabbar Lahej, Emaar Properties’ chief executive, said: “The Tower is our tribute to the positivity, energy and optimism that Dubai and the UAE celebrate, led by a leadership committed to all-round progress.” 

The project is due to be finished in time for the Dubai 2020 Expo.

Abdulla recently left his role and is to be replaced by Amit Jain, Emaar’s chief operating officer.

It is likely that The Tower will never hold the highest building record, as Saudi Arabia is due to complete its $1.2bn, 1km-high Jeddah Tower in 2019.  

Images via Emaar Properties

Source:http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/emaar-plans-dubai-notch-tal7ler-tal7ler-bu7rj/

Dutch firm to build power-generating bridge in Indonesia

The government of Indonesia has sealed a $400m deal with a new Dutch construction firm to build a power-generating bridge in the Solor Archipelago.

With built-in turbines the bridge will be able to generate up to 30 megawatts of electricity per hour from the ocean tides, as well as providing a crossing between the islands of Flores and Adonara.

Dutch firm Tidal Bridge will build the 1.3-km-long suspension bridge across the Larantuka Strait, reports the Jakarta Globe.

The bridge deal, announced 22 April, is one of four worth more than $600m agreed with Dutch companies during a bilateral business forum in The Hague on the sidelines of a visit by Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Tidal Bridge BV was founded in 2015 with three shareholders: Strukton International, Antea Group and Dutch Expansion Capital.

Source:http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/dutch-firm-build-pow7er-generati7ng-brid7ge/

Santiago Calatrava designs UAE Pavilion for Dubai World Expo 2020

Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava’s design has been chosen for the UAE Pavilion for the Dubai World Expo 2020.

The design, inspired by a falcon in flight, will sit at the center of the 200-hectare exhibition zone.

The pavilion will represent the UAE to the 25 million visitors expected during the event, which runs from October 2020 to April 2021.

The 15,000-sq-m structure will have numerous exhibition areas, an auditorium and VIP lounges.

It is designed to meet LEED Platinum sustainable building standards.

Calatrava’s design represented the Expo 2020 theme of “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future” and captured a “distinct Emirati feel and a balance between the UAE’s past and future.”

The design was chosen by program manager Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company.

Calatrava said: “I am deeply honoured that our practice has been chosen to design the national pavilion for Dubai Expo 2020, a project of national and global significance. 

“I am confident that the final design will be a symbol of the bold and daring spirit of the UAE, reflected in what is poised to be the most inclusive and global Expo in history.”

It was announced that Dubai were to host the 2020 World Expo in 2013.

Images via Santiago Calatrava

Source: http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/santiago-calatrava-designs-u7ae-pavilio7n-dub7ai/

Egypt revives plans for Underwater Alexandria Museum

 The 2008 design for the museum, by French architect Jacques Rougerie (Nangua/Wikimedia Commons)

Egypt is reviving plans to build the world’s first underwater museum in Alexandria to give visitors a close-up view of the submerged remains of fabulous antiquities, including the Pharos lighthouse and the palace of Alexander where Cleopatra VII was delivered to Julius Caesar in a carpet. 

The decision was announced last month by Mamdouh al-Damaty, the minister of antiquities, who said the $150m scheme would go ahead more than 30 years after the remains were discovered, and seven years after work began on designing a museum.

A series of UNESCO surveys in the 1990s established that there were more than 2,500 pieces of stonework from the classical city scattered over 2.5 hectares on the shallow seabed of Alexandria Bay.

The relics include the lighthouse on the island of Pharos, built in the third century BC, and thought to have been as much as 137m tall. It and other structures were broken and submerged by a series of earthquakes starting in the early Middle Ages.

A feasibility study was launched in 2008 into building a structure to protect the antiquities from the polluted waters and from thieves, who were pilfering them to sell to private collectors.

A design for a museum was even drawn up by the French architect Jacques Rougerie that year. He proposed fibreglass tunnels to connect above-ground galleries near the New Library of Alexandria to the underwater facility, where antiquities would be visible in their final resting places.

But plans to build the museum were delayed and then eclipsed by Egypt’s revolution that began in January 2011.

Now, however, in the atmosphere of feverish construction activity that has gripped Egypt since last year’s economic forum, the project is back on the agenda.

Youssef Khalifa, the chairman of the Central Administration of Lower Egypt Antiquities, told the Al-Monitor website: “The museum will reshape the Arab region, as it will be the first of its kind in the world. Undoubtedly it will revive tourism and boost the Egyptian economy after a long recession.”

He said the museum would consist of an above-water component for relics that have been recovered, and an underwater part taking visitors down to the shallow, 7m-deep bay floor.

“Visitors will be able to see the relics either by diving or walking inside underwater tunnels,” said Khalifa. “There will also be glass submarines taking tourists on a tour inside the museum.”

A depiction of the lighthouse by Austrian baroque architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (Wikimedia Commons)

Mohammed Mustafa, head of the Ministry of Antiquities’ General Directorate of Sunken Antiquities, told Al-Monitor that this plan did not go ahead because the Egyptian government has not, until now, pushed the project forward.

He said: “The state has to have a real will to take necessary measures. All concerned parties ought to cooperate to complete the required studies, at the economic and social level. This work is not limited to the Ministry of Antiquities alone.

“Despite the huge cost of the project estimated at more than $150m, this will not be an obstacle for the completion of the project with the cooperation of UNESCO and other foreign funding countries as the museum will be open to visitors from around the world and not only to Egyptians.”

Source: http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/egypt-reviv3es-plans-underw8ater-alexa7ndria/

German floating home powers and heats itself

German floating home powers and heats itself

Scientists in Germany are developing a floating house that can produce its own water, electricity and heat in a bid to populate a large lake district that is now poorly served by utilities.

They say floating homes are becoming more popular in Germany as holiday homes and as permanent residences, and believe the Lusatian Lake District (Lausitzer Seenland), the largest artificial lake district in Europe, is well suited for the home they are working on.

Located between the states of Saxony and Brandenburg, the former open-coal-mining area has 23 lakes over 32,000 acres. The scientists, from two Fraunhofer institutes and two German universities, say being able to live on the water will enhance the region’s attractiveness and boost its economy.

Their floating, self-sufficient home is intended for Lake Geierswalde, northwest of the city of Hoyerswerda. They say it will be ready by 2017.

“These kinds of energy self-sufficient floating homes do not exist yet,” said project coordinator Professor Matthias Klingner of the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (IVI). Many lakes in the Lusatian Lake District are cut off from infrastructure such as water and energy supply. “We want to find a solution for this kind of environment,” Klingner said.

State-of-the-art self sufficiency

Standing on a 13-sq-m steel pontoon, the two-level house offers 75 sq m of living space on the ground floor, another 34 sq m on the first floor, with a 15-sq-m terrace overlooking the lake. The house combines modern architecture and structural engineering with state-of-the-art facilities for self-sufficiency.

Solar cells are integrated into the building envelope and lithium polymer batteries store the collected energy. To save space, the battery systems developed at IVI are integrated into the textile concrete walls or into stairs.

Researchers at IVI are also working on the efficient provision of heating and cooling systems. A salt hydrate fireplace provides heat on cold winter days: above the fireplace there is a tub filled with water and salt hydrates.

“When the fireplace is on, the salt hydrates liquefy and begin to absorb heat,“ said Dr. Burkhard Fassauer of the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS). When the salt hydrates are completely liquefied, the thermal energy can be stored almost indefinitely. 

Like a pocket warmer

In order to release the heat when required, radio-based technology is used to induce crystallization. The principle is known from commercial pocket warmers where, to induce crystallization, a metal disc inside is clicked so that the pocket warmer solidifies and gives off heat. When heated in water, the crystals liquefy and the heat is stored until the next click.

However, a fireplace is not enough to heat the house during the winter. This is where a zeolith thermal storage unit in the pontoon will help: the zeolith minerals are dried during the summer – a purely physical process in which heat is stored.

“In winter, the moist air is enough for the storage unit to give off heat,” Fassauer said. An adiabatic cooling system provides for cool air in the summer. Unlike conventional air conditioning systems, it does not require electricity but uses the principle of evaporative humidification to cool.

A surface on the side of the house is landscaped and moistened and the process of evaporation then cools the building envelope.

The experts at IKTS are responsible for the water supply in the houseboat. They rely on a combination of ceramic membranes and different electrochemical and photocatalytic processes. Ashore, wastewater is usually treated using biological processes. This is not possible in a floating house.

“We must rely on physical and chemical methods. Thus, ceramics provide very efficient ways to bring together processes like photocatalysis, electrochemistry and filtration in a confined space,” said Fassauer.

As well as the two Fraunhofer institutes based in Dresden, the Technical University of Dresden (TUD) and the Technical University of Brandenburg (BTU) are involved, along with companies from the region.

Photograph: Artist’s render of the floating house that provides its own heat and water (Credit: Fraunhofer IVI)

Source:http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/german-floating-home-powers-and-8h8e8ats/#read

“Ice Age” heads for the desert as 20th Century Fox plans blockbuster theme park in Dubai

Twentieth Century Fox is to make its second foray into the theme park market with “an immersive entertainment destination” set to open in Dubai in three years’ time.

“Twentieth Century Fox World Dubai” will have a wide range of movie and television franchises to draw on for its rides and attractions, from Ice Age and Planet of the Apes, to Aliens, Night at the Museum, and The Simpsons.

The announcement was made earlier this week by the Al Ahli Holding Group, an international licensing partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products.

It comes as foundations are being laid for “20th Century Fox World” in Malaysia.

The Dubai Park will include “a broad attraction mix, ranging from media-based dark rides to thrill rides that will tell new stories based on Fox film and television brands”, Al Ahli Holding said this week.

Mohammed Khammas, the chief executive of Al Ahli, said he hoped to begin a global roll-out of Fox Worlds: “As part of our international deal with Fox, we look forward to building these attractions and resorts globally, starting with Dubai as the first location and additional Fox branded resorts that we hope to open across other territories in the future.”

Photograph: The first sketch of Fox World Dubai (20th Century Fox)

Source: (http://www.globalconstructionreview.com/news/ic8e-ag8e-heads-de8sert-20th-century-fox-plans/)