MOMENTUM STARTS TO BUILD AT EXPO 2020 SITE
Contract awards handed out so far are favouring the larger local contractors
The award of almost Dh1 billion worth of contracts that have been made at Dubai’s Expo site over the past three weeks are a useful gauge for the robust investment taking place for the 2020 event.
Ahmed Al Khatib, the vice-president of real estate for Expo 2020, said the prominence of contractors from the domestic market for what is soon to be one of the city’s most active construction sites is no coincidence. “This is the Expo. It is the UAE. So it is a shame if the UAE’s biggest project [does] not have local contractors.”
He said there are “so many names” from the UAE’s contracting sector already involved in the contracts, The Dh353 million award to build the UAE’s pavilion was awarded to Arabtec, while a Dh619m project to build five towers at the Expo Village was awarded to HLG Contracting – a Dubai-based company that may now ultimately be controlled by Spanish construction major ACS, but whose roots lie within the Al Habtoor empire.
Moreover, the biggest contract to date – Dh2.2bn to build the three thematic districts announced in March – was awarded to Al Futtaim Carillion.
Earth moving and site grading works got under way last year through Al Naboodah Construction.
“We’ve moved about 5 million cubic metres,” Mr Al Khatib said, arguing that the levels of the site have meant that more earth has already had to be shifted than at the Dubai Canal, where approximately 3.5 million cubic metres was moved.
“Hopefully by November the basements will be completed and we will be going above ground. For the thematic districts – the three petals – our target completion date is around July 2019. Our target is to complete the entire buildings built by Expo by October 2019, which is one year before the event starts.”
By this, he means most of the main buildings, such as the Al Wasl Plaza, the thematic districts and the three structures being built to showcase Expo’s three major themes – sustainability, mobility and opportunity. Many of the participating nations – and associated sponsors – will look to build their own pavilions on the 90-plus plots that are being made available for them. Mr Al Khatib said countries building their own pavilions will be allowed access to the site as early as next January to complete soil investigation works, and they can start work by next April.
“Some of the countries already started the design and submitted some concept designs,” he said.
“We want to make sure that there is no rush in construction. There is enough time for the countries to build, be creative in their designs and not to be under pressure to finish quickly.”
Companies building their own pavilions have a deadline of the second quarter of 2020 to complete their work, giving the organisers a three-month period of ‘full-fledged testing’, Mr Al Khatib said.
Countries that sign up too late in the process to secure and build on one of the 90-plus plots available on the site can take space within the thematic districts, where there are a number of flexible plots for this, for foodcourts and other services, and for poorer nations who will be given assistance to participate.
The focus for much of the rest of this year will be to continue with contract awards for facilities such as the three pavilions and the site car parking. Although the total site spans 4.38 square kilometres, the secure site area where most of the activity takes place is just 2 square kilometres – a deliberate tactic to ensure the entire area is walkable. “Because of the number of different designers on site, the integration of each plot next to each other is very, very challenging,” Mr Al Katib said.
The other,major challenge is in setting up a site to host the sixmonth Expo but building it in such a way that 80 per cent of the buildings can be retained afterwards. Although countries and sponsors have the right to take self-built pavilions back with them, the rest of the buildings need to have a permanent, useful life afterwards. Mr Al Khatib declined to discuss what buildings will be used for after the event (although it has already been revealed that a new conference centre, a science exploratorium and a new global logistics head quarters for Siemens will be based on site), but he said the only items that are likely to be removed are “overlay items” such as security fences and the extra seating.
He envisages that it will take “about a year” post-event for the site to move from its event function to the eventual district that it will become, with any potential new buildings to be erected taking about 18 months to complete.
He is also very confident about the site’s long term prospects due mainly to its connectivity. Alongside the new metro and road interchanges being built to accommodate visitors for the event, it sits on the edge of the Dubai South master plan, with Al Maktoum International Airport next door and a bonded road leading directly into the district from Jebel Ali port.
Monica Malik, the chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, said the increase in project awards linked to Expo 2020 was already having a positive effect on the UAE’s economy.
“We expect to see a strengthening in investment activity in 2017 linked with these awards. Higher investment activity is a central factor for our stronger real non-oil GDP growth forecast for 2017,” she said.
“We continue to see investment activity accelerating in 2018 and 2019 as we approach Expo 2020. We expect to see investment growth likely peaking in 2019.”