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The Joint Venture between Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises and Murray & Roberts has produced some of the UAE’s most stunning buildings and the relationship continues to grow from strength to strength through the impressive Shangri-La Al Jaber Complex, which has risen from the ground at an incredible speed. Ben Smalley reports.

     Anyone who has traveled down Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road over the past 18 months cannot have failed to notice the emergence of the spectacular Al Jaber Complex that will soon become home to the Shangri-La hotel.

    The 50-storey building towers 200 metres into the air and is set to become another of the city’s landmark skyscrapers when construction is complete in June of this year - adding another luxury five-star hotel to cater to the emirate’s expanding tourism and business travel industries.

Archive image of Shangri-la site taken in November 2001

    Essentially two joined towers, the building comprises two basements for the kitchens and laundry, the main entrance with a triple volume feature, two floors of restaurants, a business centre on level three, a health club on level four, four floors of offices, banqueting halls on level nine, eight floors of unfurnished apartments, eight floors of furnished apartments and topped by a 300-room hotel with a presidential suite, executive health club, restaurants and owner’s penthouse.

    The Dh 305million construction contract was won in May 2001 by the Joint Venture between Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises and Murray & Roberts, with work beginning on site in July 2001 and progressing at a rapid pace under the highly experienced management team of Project Director Nasr A. Nasr and Project Manager Grahame Waite.

    “We are in the process right now of handing over elements of the building,” Waite explains. “We have handed over the laundry floor, the kitchen floor, certain elements of the office floors, the unfurnished apartments and a couple of floors of the hotel. They are all now being made available to the operator (Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts) for fitting-out, and we will be going through a phase of progressive handover between now and June.”

    The South African project manager says the main challenge has been the battle against the clock to complete the project within two years – a remarkable achievement considering the sheer size and scale of the building.

    “Right now we have some 3,000 men and about 65 subcontractors on site and there is huge pressure as it is effectively being constructed on a fast-track basis,” he says. “We have had visitors to the site from Europe, the US and Japan and the general comment we have been getting is that the sort of building we are putting up here in two years would actually take three years to complete in the US or Europe. So the main challenge is time, and people being able to keep pace with the demand of the programme.”

    Despite the pressures, there has been no compromise on safety with the on-site team having just clocked-up a staggering five million accident-free man-hours.

    “That is something not too easily achieved on a construction project like this and something that we are pretty proud of here, “ Waite says. “We have to push the programme, but it is always safety first. We have actually stopped certain activities to get the safety right. Projects like this can put enormous pressure on people to say: ‘Forget about safety, lets get on and do the job.’ That temptation is always there, but it is our policy to change people’s mindsets to think safety first and then proceed with the work.

    “When you get the safety right it does wonders for your productivity because you don’t have people fearing how they might get hurt. When people are comfortable in their work environment they are able to get on and do the job to the best of their abilities - so the investment in safety is vitally important.”

    Waite, who worked as the Joint Venture’s project director on the fit-out of the Burj Al Arab and then as project manager on the Sharjah City Centre development, joined the Shangri-La Al Jaber Complex team in March 2002 once the project in Sharjah was complete.

    “We were on about Level 16 at that time, so I have seen the project grow and been part of it from that point on,” he says.

    “If you are out in Al Aweer and look at the Sheikh Zayed Road skyline you see a lot of the standard 30-floor high rises, but it is only when you see the silhouette and the bulk of the Shangri-La set against that that you begin to fully appreciate that this a building which stands out.

    “The construction business is a pretty tough industry and there are certainly times when you wonder: ‘What we have got ourselves into.’ But when you step back at the end of the day, every individual involved in a team effort like this has a great sense of fulfillment and can say: ‘Look at what we have achieved’.”

The experienced team of HM&R JV at Al jabber Complex-Shangri –la is headed by the Project Director Naser A. Naser and also include:

Grahame Waite, Project Manager

Andrew Durrant, Finishes and Fitout Manager

Munjid Obaidi, Construction Manager

Hassan Bleibleh, Construction Manager

Walid Hatem, Engineering Manager

Tony Penington, Project Commercial Manager

Neil Lategan, Site Planning Manager

Paul Dunn, MEP Manager

M. Dinesh Kumar, Site QA/QC Manager

 

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