Construction of one of the world's longest man-made marine walls, at Dubai Marina, has been completed.
The waterfront channel, which stretches 10 kilometres, forms a boundary for the waterfront development, which is from the Emaar Properties portfolio.
The marine wall project started in December 1998 with what became a 3.5 kilometre, 5.7 million cubic metre excavation site. Halcrow International Partnership did the design and supervision of the development.
The Marina wall comprises about 15,000 concrete blocks weighing up to 42 tonnes each. All blocks were prepared on site and at the height of manufacture, 50 blocks a day were cast in a round-the-clock operation.
Each block was produced by Al Futtaim Tarmac.
In ensuring dry construction conditions, more than two million gallons of water a day, 3.5 billion gallons in total, was pumped back into the sea to build the quay wall.
The excavation's average depth is 3.5 metres below sea level, with the deepest sections at each end of the Marina where it meets the Arabian Gulf.
The first phase of the Dubai Marina project - Marina 1 -comprises six towers and houses more than 1,090 residential units. Demand for the units were high when bookings opened last year.
Demand for property at the five-building Marina 4 development saw apartments in the first two towers taken up in a few weeks.
"To enable completion of complex curved sections of the Marina wall, different convex and concave blocks had to be individually designed. Every block has its own serial number and a record has been kept showing all of the details of its construction and its final position in the wall," said Issam Galadari, executive director for projects.
Gulf News 2003
