{"id":526473,"date":"2018-05-03T18:56:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T18:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/?p=526473"},"modified":"2019-12-16T19:02:25","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T19:02:25","slug":"dubai-the-race-for-expo-spurred-on-by-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/reportage\/dubai-the-race-for-expo-spurred-on-by-infrastructure.html","title":{"rendered":"Dubai: the race for Expo, spurred on by infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Dubai:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Through\n the hot afternoon mist of the Saudi desert — a blend of heat, sand and\n humidity — the panorama opens out over a vast yellow basin, crossed by\n giant electricity poles. Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in Dubai \nand in the entire world, is just a few minutes away by car, with its \nsleek design; but this piece of land looks like it is in middle of \nnowhere in the desert.
\nIt is difficult, today, to imagine that this is the site of the world \nbiggest retail project: Meydan One will be the biggest shopping mall on \nEarth in terms of size. To give an idea, it will hold a 1.5 km indoor \nski slope, the longest artificial ski run in the world; 3 towers, one of\n which will be higher than the Burj Khalifa itself, and even an \nartificial marina to reach the place by boat from the sea.
\nIt\u2019s even harder to imagine that the deadline for the opening is December 2019<\/strong>, just before the Dubai Expo 2020 grand opening<\/strong>.\n But that is what\u2019s happening here. Salini Impregilo is building the \nfoundations in an endless back and forth of cement trucks: 50 vehicles \nbringing the concrete to the excavation site. So much is needed that \nbuilders have chosen to set up a proprietary cement factory inside the \nworksite instead of bringing concrete from outside. An astonishing 1 \nmillion cubic meters of concrete will be required to build the \ngargantuan 250,000 square meters shopping mall<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mall of wonders<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At this stage, Salini Impregilo\u2019s project is at the foundations level. Worth $435 million<\/strong>,\n never before has a civil engineering project reached these dimensions. \nThe numbers are truly impressive: 150,000 tons of steel will be used to \nhold 6,000 pillars and 3,000 columns, as explained by engineers at the \nworksite. The entire building surrounding the shopping center will cost \nover $1.5 billion. This does not include roadworks<\/strong> (adding another $200 million) and all the related infrastructure, such as the marina<\/strong>.\n Some 7,000 workers are being currently employed: \u00abThat is the same \namount of people involved in building a dam\u00bb, explains Ivano Miscoli, \nCFO of the Salini Impregilo Dubai office, just to give an idea of the \ngiant project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full speed ahead towards Expo 2020<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Meydan One<\/strong> is only the first of an unprecedented list of Expo 2020 mega projects in Dubai<\/strong>, a city where mega projects are business as usual. Dubai<\/strong> has experienced an unprecedented infrastructure boom<\/strong> in the past 20 years<\/strong>.\n But this is nothing compared to what is in store for the Expo 2020 \nevent. The downtown Dubai skyline will be redesigned by the Museum of Future<\/strong>.\n This bean-shaped building, very reminiscent of the Anish Kapoor Bean in\n Chicago, only much more bigger, will be home to the most advanced \nmuseum in the world displaying all of mankind\u2019s progress in science and \ntechnology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dubai:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dubai construction site<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This $200 million project is already considered to be one of the most complex buildings ever built in the world<\/strong>:\n The museum\u2019s remarkable rounded facade is a perfectly smooth, \njoint-free assembly of 890 unique stainless steel-and-fiberglass-fused \npanels fabricated using methods borrowed from the aviation industry. The\n museum\u2019s interior features a freestanding, double-helix staircase which\n will resemble DNA chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expo Dubai: men at work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Of course the biggest ongoing project is the Expo Dubai site itself<\/strong>:\n located miles away from the city, it is at the moment unreachable and \noff limits to everybody. Figures from government officials and event \nwebsite report a $3 billion investment to build the place<\/strong>.\n The main square, inspired by Expo Milano 2015\u2019s Cardo and Decumano, \nwill be covered by a hanging ceiling especially designed by the Italian \nfacade developer Cimolai. In addition to Expo Dubai site, a galaxy of \nside projects are under way, revolving around public transportation. The\n Red Metro Line<\/strong> will be extended to the Expo site<\/strong>.
\nThe 15 km extension will start at Nakheel Harbour & Tower on the \nexisting Red Line, then run on 11.8 km of mono-rail viaduct with \nstations serving The Gardens, Discovery Gardens and Al Furjan. A 3.2 km \nunderground section will continue to the stations at Jumeirah Golf \nEstates and Dubai Investment Park would, before the terminus at Expo \n2020 site, according to Dubai Roads and Transport Authority, or RTA.
\nOnce completed, the new Red Line will have a capacity of 46,000 \npassengers per hour. At full capacity, by 2030, 275,000 people each day \nwill ride the Red Line, which will connect to the new Al Maktoum airport<\/strong>\n by then. RTA expects 35,000 passengers to ride to the Expo station each\n weekday and 47,000 at weekends: 20% of the total estimated Expo 2020 \nvisitors will arrive by train. RTA\u2019s strategy aims to increase public transportation usage<\/strong> from 15.3% to 20% by 2020. Dubai is expecting to have a 421 kilometre metro network<\/strong>\n and 197 stations by the end of 2030, according to RTA figures. A urban \ntransport network that will be the envy of the world\u2019s capital cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through the hot afternoon mist of the Saudi desert — a blend of heat, sand and humidity — the panorama opens out over a vast yellow basin, crossed by giant electricity poles. Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in Dubai and in the entire world, is just a few minutes away by car, with its sleek […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":137724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-526473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reportage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526473"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":526489,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526473\/revisions\/526489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526473"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=526473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}