Piling work has started on the Waterfront Centre, Dubai Festival City's 2.5 million square foot retail, hospitality and entertainment hub, following the excavation of over 800,000 cubic meters of material to create space to house underground parking and services.
The 52 million Emirati dirham ($14 million) contracts, awarded to Swissboring Overseas Piling, will see over 2,900 piles driven into the waterfront Crescent site that will provide the foundations for a 160,000 square meter platform to support the super-center.
The deep excavations made were necessary to allow for two levels of basement parking and the support foundations for the three levels of leasing area above ground. Piling work should be complete by August this year but work will commence on the substructure in June, stated a press release.
The Waterfront Centre structure at Dubai Festival City is due to be complete late 2005 and will open September 2006. Dubai Festival City is being developed on 1,600 acres on the banks of Dubai's historic Creek. Comprising 15 distinct development zones, Dubai Festival City is a property development by the Al-Futtaim Group and is the Middle East's largest, privately-funded, mixed-use, real estate project. — (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
