Here we go again

Hello and welcome back!

The last couple of weeks I've enjoyed my holiday here in Belgium. It was cold, but good. We even had a little bit of snow. That's at least something they do not have in Dubai.

Tomorrow I'm flying back to Dubai for two months of sand and sea. This means I'll be in Dubai for New Year. Some people pay for that :-)

Thermoshock

While I'm waiting here at the airport of Dubai to fly back to Belgium, I think I can better prepare myself for a nice thermoshock. While it is almost winter as well here in Dubai, temperatures are still around 22 degrees Celcius.

Burj Al Arab

With the (still) excellent weather here in Dubai, a day off is an excellent opportunity to bring a visit to the beach. Close to my appartment, there is a beach with view on the sea and the well known Burj Al Arab.

Back to Belgium

My first weeks of leave are coming closer. At the end of november, after almost 11 weeks in Dubai, I'm flying back to belgium for three weeks holiday. Although the time goes really fast here, those three weeks will be welcome very usefull to gather some sleep and visit family and friends.

Stockpile

On the first island of Dubai Waterfront, there is big stockpile of stones. The stones are delivered by trucks, get stockpiled, and then moved onto the pontoons are into the splithopper barges.



The stones come from quarries all over the UAE (except Dubai, where all the stones has been used already on previous projects). The smaller stones (0-500 kg and 0.5-1 ton) are transported in bulk and offloaded by dumping. The bigger stones are offloaded one by one by an excavator with a grab. In Belgium, trucks might be limited to about 20 tons, here in Dubai, they load up to 80 ton of stones into a truck. Multiply this by a few hundred tucks every day and you can get an idea how much stones get delivered.

Life continuing in Dubai

There is not much to report about the last couple of days. Life and work simply continues here in Dubai. The stones are being dumped (massivelty though) and the tempearture is still around 27 degrees (too hot for the time of the year they tell me).

Ski Dubai

When you have the largest indoor ski piste 10 km away from your appartment, it would be a shame not to visit it. So a few days ago, we went to Ski Dubai to try out the snowboards in Dubai.

I never skied or snowboarded before. So I had to start from zero, with a lot of falling. Luckily, there is a smaller slope to train before going on the actual piste. I have quite some bruises right now, but afterall, it was worth it. Something to try again the next time I'm in Dubai.

Snoopy Island

Yesterday (friday, normally our free day), we went to Fujairah. Fujairah is one of the seven emirates of the UAE. It is a two hour drive from Dubai and is situated on the eastern side of the point of the UAE.

Somewhere alongside the coast of Fujairah, there is small island with some coral. Around the small island, named 'Snoopy Island', you can find a lot of colourfull fish and even tortoises. And ideal place to snorkel and an excellent activity for on a free day.

The island is named 'Snoopy Island' because, with some imagination, you can recognize Snoopy laying in front of his kennel.

CVN-65

About a week ago, when Le Sphinx and the Geelvinck were alongside Birth 53, a quay wall in the Jebel Ali port, I had a nice view on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) laying alongside the opposite quay. I have to say, it is quite an impressive ship.

Ben X

A week ago some people of Jan De Nul went to the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi to watch the movie 'Ben X'.





There weren't that much people who attended the movie, and I think almost 50% of them (about 25) were from Jan De Nul. The movie itself was quite good. The filming and effects are maybe not of the same level as 'De Zaak Alzheimer', but the story is much stronger. Together with the high percentage of Belgians in the theatre, I wouldn't be surprised if the public vote for the move will be close to 5/5.


One moment was really funny, especially if you are with 25 people of Jan De Nul watching this movie. Close to the end of the film, the actors are in the port of Zeebrugge to take a ferry to England. The camera shows a view of the port, with two ships sailing. And offcourse, one of those two was a hopper dredger of Jan De Nul, the Alexander von Humbolt if I'm not mistaken.

Splithopper barges

Once again my job has changed. In a few days, one of my collegues is going on holiday. Right now he is taking care of the stone dumping splithopper barges Geelvinck and Verrazzano and I'll have to take over his job. Next to these two vessels, I'll also have four other splithopper barges (La Boudeuse, Le Gerrier, Le Sphinx and L'étoile) under my supervision, but they are just anchoring here inside the Palm Jebel Ali.

The Geelvinck and Verrazzano are dumping rocks (Quarry Run, 0-500 kg) on the islands of Dubai Waterfront and on New Island. The Geelvinck can load about 1800 ton of stones. The Verrazzano can load slightly more, up to 2250 ton.

To load the barges, we use a shoot like shown in the picture below. Dumptrucks are loaded with about 30 tons of stones. The ride onto the shoot and dump the stones, which get 'shooted' into the barge.

Once the barge is at the correct position to unload, it simply splits itself open and the stones fall down.

Managing those barges does not only imply I have to take care of the dumping of the stones (position, time, what material, how much material, ...), but I also have to make sure there is enough food on board, that the flights for the crew get booked in time, check how much salary they can have for the month, ... And for the first weeks I will not only have to do it for the two stone dumping barges, but for all six of the splithopper barges here in Dubai.

Upcoming mega projects

The construction of the three palm islands in Dubai (Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira), the construction of The World, Dubai Waterfront and Palm Cove Canal might be gigantic. But the recently announced Arabian Canal is even bigger. The Arabian Canal is a 75km man-made canal near the coast. The width is up to 150 m and the depth of the water is about 6 m.


The Arabian Canal is a project of Limitless, a sister company of Nakheel, the developer of the Palm Islands and Dubai Waterfront. Both are a part of Dubai World (not to be confused with The World), one of the main real estate companies in Dubai. The contractor for the construction works is not known yet, but rumors say that Jan De Nul has a fair chance to get awarded this project.


The Arabian Canal is not the only mega project coming being planned. While the current airport of Dubai is already amongst the biggest in the world, a new one has been planned. The new Dubai World Central International Airport will be able to handle up to 120 million passengers by 2015 on its six parallel runways. It will be located on a 140 square kilometer site near Jebel Ali.

Shopping Malls

Dubai may be known for having one of the largest shopping malls in the world, Mall of the Emirates, but there is more than just that one. I've already seen the Mall of the Emirates, Ibn Battuta Mall, Deira City Center, Dubai Marina Mall and Bur Juman Centre, and I'm sure there are still some others that I haven't visited yet.

Visiting a shopping mall is really a way of living here in Dubai. There are not only shops in such a mall but also a lot of restaurants and a so called 'food court' where you find all kind of fast-food. So these malls are really a place to meet eachother and to have a (fast) evening meal and to buy whatever you might (not) need.

Back to Dubai Waterfront

Since a few days I am working again on the Dubai Waterfront project. Another positioning pontoon, the DN39, arrived at the site and will be used on the 2nd island to place the toe of the breakwater.

Untill a few days ago, the DN39 was working on another project here in Dubai: Mcc3. When the pontoon arrived at Dubai Waterfront, the four anchors (to position the barge) still had to be installed.
Today, the anchors were installed and now the pontoon is more or less in the correct position to start with placing the rocks.

Fog

Since about one or two weeks, the weather is slowly changing here in Dubai. In august, it is very hot (more than 40°C) and humid. In the winter it is about 20-25°C and less humid.
This change goes together with, from time to time, a lot of fog in the morning. The visibility is sometimes reduced to 20 m. And since the cars here don't have fog lamps, you simply turn on the four direction indicators.

Accomodation and food

Currently I stay at a hotel just over the border with Abu Dhabi. It is about 25 minutes driving to my office. The hotel itself is ok. It's nothing fancy, but there's nothing wrong neither. And afterall, I only spend very little time at the hotel.

Usually I take the breakfast at the hotel (at about 06.30 in the morning). For lunch I can take a hot meal at the site where a 'cook' prepares something for the people. At the evening we normally go out for dinner. An easy way is to go to one of the shopping malls where you always find a) a food corner with fast food and b) several restaurants with a taste for everyone.

New Island Development

Another project here in Dubai is New Island Development (NID). It is a banana shaped island being constructed about 50 km into the Persian Gulf which should have to protect the yacht of the sheik from the incoming waves.

Right now they are constructing the breakwater for NID which is about 3 km in length. The breakwater consists of several layers of cutter material and stones (up to 7 ton/stone). On the site, everything is still below the water level so the only the barges are visible.



This picture is showing one of the breakwaters of Dubai Waterfront. The excavator is a so called 'longboom' which is used to trim the slopes of the breakwater. On the left, there is the DN121, a barge which is used on NID. On the barge, there is a ramp to exchange excavators and wheelloaders between the barges. On the barge, there is also a stationary crane to place the heavy rocks.

First days

My first torn is in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I arrived around midnight at the airport of Dubai and got transferred to a hotel near the coast. The next morning I made my way to the Palm Islands site office, about 25 minutes with the car.

The first few days I’m following Jan, a superintendent who is responsible for the rockworks of Dubai Waterfront. Dubai Waterfront consists of seven islands, looking like the tail of a scorpion, constructed around the Palm Jebel Ali. To protect the islands from the incoming waves, there is a breakwater around them. And these breakwaters mainly consist of rocks.
We visited several sites where they are dumping and placing (stone by stone) stones with pontoons, excavators (Hitachi) and cranes (Liebherr).

Let's get started

This blog is about my experiences while working for Jan De Nul Group. Jan De Nul Group is a dredging company active all over the world. I recently joined their forces as Dredging Superintendent. After a short introduction I will be working worldwide on projects related to dreding works.