Crisis?

While a lot of projects in the Middle East have been cancelled or at least delayed because of the financial/economic crisis, the sand here in Manifa is still flowing.

I'm now back for a second period in Saudi Arabia. It's winter now, and I feel it. Many peoplle might associat the Middle East with unbearable hot temperatures. But here in Manifa, temperatures are running pretty low. A few weeks ago we almost reached zere degrees during the night. Luckily the airco's here can also produce hot air.

Autumn

Till last week, we still had temperatures up to 40°C, but since a few days, temperatures dropped to about 15-20 degrees. And it's raining. A lot. Three days ago we had some hailstorms during the night, but today it was raining all the time. I never expected this here in Saudi, especially not in the month of November.

The Kingdom

A few days ago I arrived in Saudi Arabia where I will be working on the Manifa Field Causeway. This project involves the construction of 27 islands and causeway which will be used for exploiting of the Manifa Oilfield.

Cristobal Colon

Yesterday, Jan De Nul launched the largest hopper dredger in the world, Cristobal Colon, which is being built in Spain and is expected to be commisioned in 2009. With a hopper capacity of 46 000m³, the ship can transport about 50% more than Vasco Da Gama, untill now the largest hopper dredger.

Once this ship is fully operational, we will be able to put a 6m layer of sand on a football field in about three hours.

Palm Jumeirah

Yes, we are still alive here in Dubai.

Last couple of weeks I was working on a project on Palm Jumeirah, the first (and smallest) of the three Palm Islands. On this palm island, most of the buildings and houses area already finished. On the trunk of the tree, people are already living in their appartment.

From my working area, i had a nice view on the Atlantis Hotel. Probably an expensive place to sleep for the night but not really a building I like.

Nothing lasts forever.

Even the massive breakwaters of Palm Jebel Ali, with stones of up to 6 ton, can disappear. Designed to withstand even the roughest weather, some parts of the breakwater surrounding the palmtree do no longer exist.

But that's nothing to worry about. The breakwater did not get demolished by a hurricane, but is being dismantled piece by piece by excavators and a crane. Because the Palm Jebel Ali is still growing (several projects which are situated outside of the outer breakwater of the original project), some parts of thie breakwaters have to be removed, and will be replaced by a beach.

So now, some of my collegues who made those breakwaters are now removing them again.

Puzzle

It is something that everybody has done in his life before, solving puzzles. However, I doubt that anyone did ever a puzzle with stone which can be as heavy as 6 ton.

The top layer of a breakwater consists of so called 'Armor Rock'. The part above water, which is visible, needs to have a nice, aesthetical slope. To achieve this, the rocks have to be placed one by one, just like a puzzle. The excavator operator searches for every spot the best possible stone. After placing the stone, he pushes and knockes the stones with the bucket to achieve a flat suface.

I have to say that some of these operators are real artists. If you see the stones on the stockpile, you cannot imagine that you can create a flat surface with it.