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.