Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises continues to play a leading role in the modern development of the UAE. Ben Smalley reports on the construction of a new campus for the Higher Colleges of Technology for Men at the upcoming Dubai University City.

    It may look like an empty patch of desert from the Al Ain Road, but the rolling sand dunes at Al Ruwayya will soon become the centre of higher and further education for thousands of students in Dubai as the foundations are laid for Dubai University City.

    Dubai Men’s College, part of the Higher Colleges of Technology, will be the first of 20 institutions to be based at the flagship development 25 km from the city centre, and work is progressing at a rapid pace on the college’s new, purpose-built campus.

    Dubai Municipality awarded the Dh 110 million contract for the construction of the college facility to Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises, part of the Al Habtoor Group, which has an enviable track record in building some of the finest and best-known structures in the UAE.

    Work began on-site last August under the guidance of British project manager Richard Squire, and the campus will be ready in time for the college’s students to begin the new academic year in September.

    “We are now at the stage where the structures are all just about finished,” Richard explained. “The final building structures will be finished by the middle of May, and we have to hand over the completed project to the client by the beginning of August so the buildings can be equipped and fitted out in time for the new semester.”

    The project involves 44,000 square metres of floor space divided across different one and two storey teaching and administration buildings - an engineering block, a business studies block, a student services building, a library, workstations for the teachers, a multi-purpose hall complete with auditorium, a communication block for the information technology department, an airplane hanger for the aeronautical engineering department, and an administration block.

    The campus will also house impressive sports facilities for the students, including an Olympic-size swimming pool, a football pitch, multi-use tennis and basketball courts, as well as changing and locker rooms.

    Richard, who worked in construction with Murray & Roberts in Africa for 19 years before joining Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises in September 2001, said: “The new campus will be a great asset for the college as it will give them a lot more space than they currently have at their existing facilities on the Dubai-Sharjah Road, including dedicated buildings for each of their specific teaching departments.

    “This is also a special project for Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises as we are always proud to be involved with jobs that help shape the development of the UAE - especially as this is an education project which will provide excellent facilities for future generations of UAE nationals and give them a purpose-built environment for their studies as they prepare for their adult lives and future careers.”

    Students from the Higher Colleges of Technology have already had a hands-on role in the development of their new campus through work placement initiatives that enabled them to join Richard and the rest of the Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises team to gain a valuable insight into the construction industry.

    “We have had several students here on work placements, and have also given presentations to students about project management and what it involves,” Richard said.

    The actual construction of the campus represents a diversion from conventional building practices with the structures and panels having been pre-cast in concrete and then transported to the site where they were assembled. 

    Richard explained: “The campus was originally designed to be built ‘in-situ’, but as part of the tender bid you had to put an option in for it to be pre-cast. I think the idea at the initial tender stage was just to clad it with pre-cast panels, but to make it cost viable we did a complete change to the design so the whole frame became pre-cast as well.”

   Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises won the contract and was due to start construction in May 2002, but the changes to the design meant three valuable months were lost while the final specifications were decided and agreed upon by all the parties involved.

    “All the work we have done here only really started in August due to the initial delays,” Richard said from his site office. “The contract is for 15 months, but in reality we only have 12 months to complete the construction because of the lost time - so there has been a lot of pressure involved.”

    Despite the time constraints, Richard and his team are confident the project will be completed on time, while also maintaining the high quality standards for which Al Habtoor Engineering Enterprises is renowned.

    “We have had feedback from the client (Dubai Municipality) and the ‘end-user’ (Higher Colleges of Technology) and they have been impressed with the quality of the pre-cast and the finish,” he said.

    The project is believed to involve the first pre-cast buildings to be commissioned by Dubai Municipality, with the process offering a number of benefits over traditional building techniques.

    “If we were building the project conventionally, we would have ready-mix lorries coming in with wet cement, which would be set in forms with steel reinforcements,” Richard said. “Instead, the actual panels and frames have been made in a factory by a specialist contractor and then brought to the site by lorry for assembly.

   “Under the conventional method, we would have needed over 2,000 people working on-site, whereas we actually have about 700-800 on average, so our labour input has been more than halved because so much work was done off-site - that is probably one of the biggest advantages of doing it this way.”

    Other benefits include the quality of finish – with an exposed aggregate concrete finish offering greater durability than conventional plaster, block work or tiling – while the process also enables the project to be constructed in a shorter period of time.

    As part of the preparations for Dubai University City, the municipality is upgrading the road network around Al Ruwayya to enable students to reach their classes easily from all over the emirate, while 65 km of internal roads are also being constructed within the site.

    Khalid Khalifa Al Marri, Head of the Roads Construction Section at the municipality, said: “Twenty universities will be built on the new 1,100 hectare Dubai University City premises, which will accommodate 38,000 students. Shifting all the universities to this new area will help reduce traffic congestion in Dubai, and the buildings of the University City campus will accommodate the growing number of students until the year 2020.”