The contract includes the design and construction of lines 4 (orange), 5 (yellow) and 6 (purple), which will have 25 stations. Construction will include 64.6km of rail track: 29.8km of viaducts, 26.6km of underground track, and 8.2km of overground track.
The FCC contract is worth €6.070bn ($8.05bn), and is the largest international contract in the history of construction in which a Spanish company has been awarded a contract. FCC’s main consortium partners are Korean company Samsung and French company Alstom. The other members are Strukton (The Netherlands), Freyssinet Saudi Arabia, Typsa (Spain) and Setec (France). The project is to be executed in five years, and will employ 15,000 people.

Juan Béjar, Vice-President and CEO of FCC, said: “The Riyadh metro contract consolidates Spanish companies’ international reputation in global civil engineering projects. FCC’s references were instrumental in our successful bid for this project. The Riyadh metro contract dovetails perfectly with FCC’s new international strategy in construction, which is focused on infrastructure and on countries where we can best leverage our capabilities.”
The Riyadh metro is one of the largest public works projects in the world at present. The process commenced in July 2012, when 37 consortia comprising world leaders in construction, rolling stock and railway systems presented expressions of interest. Only four of these candidates were pre-qualified: those headed by Siemens with Vinci, Bombardier with OHL, and Ansaldo with Strabag.

The consortium headed by FCC will use three tunnel boring machines (TBM) to build tunnels almost 10 metres in diameter for the three lines. These lines will use two-car conductorless trainsets supplied by Alstom. There will be four types of stations: elevated, ground level, underground and intermodal to connect with different lines.

The largest subway project in the world
The six lines comprising the Riyadh metro project will span more than 176km, making it the largest metro under development in the world at present.
Construction will require 600,000 tonnes of steel (80 times the amount used to build the Eiffel Tower) and 4.3 million cubic metres of concrete (11 times the amount used for Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper), and will employ over 30,000 workers, of which more than half correspond to the consortium led by FCC.

This new metro will transform Riyadh, reducing traffic congestion, strengthening and driving the Saudi economy and improving living standards for citizens.

Riyadh currently has a population of 5.7 million, which is expected to increase to 8.3 million by 2030. The subway is a solution to daily traffic problems: of 7.4 million daily commutes; only 2 per cent use public transport.

He said the first phase of the project, costing around SR 25.5 billion, would begin by the middle of next year.
It will be completed in three years.
There will be underground lines in areas surrounding the Grand Mosque until the third ring road, while the lines beyond that region will be built on suspended bridges, he said.
The first phase includes construction of a 30-km line from Um Al-Qura University in Abidiya to Sayeda Aisha Mosque.
Al-Balad Al-Ameen, a company owned by the Makkah Mayoralty, conducted a technical study on the metro, which will be implemented by Makkah Railway Company.
Systra, a French consultancy, and BW Engineers from Germany are also involved in the project.
The bus service will be integrated with the metro system, Al-Bar said, adding that the speedy bus service would link various parts of the city, covering 60 km with 60 stations.
There will be a local bus service to areas not covered by the metro and speed bus network.
The local buses will cover 65 km between the Grand Mosque and surrounding residential districts.
In addition, there will be feeder bus services for the metro system. He said the public transport scheme is to be completed in 10 years in three phases.
Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal will launch a two-day workshop on the project at Jeddah Hilton today.
A consultancy service contract will be signed with a British company for project management.
The governor has set up a 11-member committee, chaired by Deputy Gov. Abdul Aziz Al-Khodairy, to monitor the project. Al-Bar also disclosed plans to implement a project to link the Mashair Railway with Makkah in Shesha and the Haramain Railway station in Rusaifa.

A number of cities in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia are pushing forward with plans to develop metro networks.

The number of pilgrims visiting Saudi Arabia for hajj or umrah pilgrimages is set to boom in the coming years and will place unique pressures on the country’s transport infrastructure.

More than 3 million pilgrims visited the kingdom last year during hajj. With so many religious tourists visiting the country, there is inevitably congestion on the roads linking up Islam’s holy sites in Medina and Mecca, as well as within the cities themselves.

Against this backdrop, efforts to build metro systems are ramping up. The Turkish/Lebanese joint venture between Khatib & Alami and Istanbul Ulasim has just won the consultancy services contract for a new metro system within Medina. The metro will connect into the Haramain high-speed railway line, which is currently under construction and links the city to Mecca.

Jeddah, one of the main entry points for pilgrims, is also pushing forward its metro plans. In March, Jeddah Metro Company, a joint-venture between Jeddah Municipality and Jeddah Urban Development Company, was formed and is reviewing how to develop the project.

Mecca itself has had a metro system in place for the past two years. However, Mecca Municipality is now looking for consultants to project manage a transport scheme, which includes a mass rail transit project.

Riyadh’s planned metro is at the most advanced stage, with bids for construction contracts being evaluated.

With contracts due to be awarded or tendered on several of these metro projects in the coming months, momentum is clearly gathering behind Saudi’s ambitious transport plans.

Large-scale tunnelling schemes will provide base for Qatar infrastructure ahead of the Fifa World Cup

Doha is about to become the tunnelling capital of the Middle East as it moves forward on a series of multibillion-dollar infrastructure schemes ahead of the Fifa 2022 World Cup.

The projects that involve large-scale tunnelling works are the Doha Bay Crossing, the Inner Doha Resewerage Implementation Strategy (Idris), and the Doha metro scheme.

The most advanced scheme is the Doha metro. Contractors submitted bids for the tunnelling packages at the end of last year and awards are expected imminently for the Red Line South and Red Line North packages.

The two other schemes are at earlier stages. After the appointment of US-based CH2M Hill as programme manager in 2011, contractors have now been invited to prequalify for the first construction packages on the Idris scheme, with tendering and contract awards expected to start later this year.

The Doha Bay Crossing, which involves building a series of bridges and tunnels, is at an even earlier stage, but after some doubts on the future of the project, US-based Fluor and the local office of KEO International Consultants have now been appointed to manage the project – the clearest signal yet that the estimated QR10bn ($2.7bn) scheme will move ahead.

As Doha gears up for the World Cup, most eyes will be on the stadiums and other facilities that will be built above the surface, but most of the real work will be going on underground.

“The system, which consists of networks of trains and buses, will ease traffic flow and put an end to congestion,” he said.

The Emir was speaking to reporters Sunday after opening two road projects in the city.

Prince Khaled, who is also chairman of Riyadh Development Authority (RDA), opened the extension of two roads (Abubakar Al-Siddiq and Al-Arouba) that passes through the Riyadh Airbase, and the tunnel at the intersection of King Abdul Aziz Road with Al-Arouba Road.

The Emir also laid foundation stone for the tunnel project at the intersection between Salahuddin Ayyubi Road and Makkah Road.

Prince Khaled named the square at the intersection of Abubakar Al-Siddiq and Al-Arouba after Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz, the late Emir of Riyadh. Accompanied by Prince Turki Bin Abdullah, Deputy Emir of Riyadh, and RDA officials, the Emir made an inspection tour of the control room of Riyadh traffic department.

Ibrahim Al-Sultan, a member of the RDA and head of its center for projects and planning, said that the new projects would be instrumental in easing traffic jams on the two roads through which more than half a million vehicles pass by in a day.

The official recently disclosed that RDA had approved a comprehensive plan to overhaul the capital city, keeping wide, open areas in the city center and building a ring road around them.

“The project will bring about a facelift of downtown Riyadh and make it an outstanding historic, administrative, economic and cultural center in the Kingdom,” Al-Sultan said adding that 3,088 development projects worth SR278 billion are being implemented in different parts of Riyadh region.

Prince Khaled also opened the activities of the GCC Traffic Week. The week with the slogan “Our goal is your safety” is organized by the Traffic Department in Riyadh region in cooperation with the Saudi Aramco.

Zain KSA declared it will launch a traffic awareness campaign simultaneously with the Gulf Traffic Week, adding that it will broadcast a number of awareness messages to its employees, subscribers, and social networking accounts followers.

The Cabinet, chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, set up a high-level committee under the chairmanship of Riyadh governor to supervise the project’s implementation.
“The committee can make use of the expertise of specialized international companies and its chairman has to present progress reports of work every three months,” Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

Saudi Arabia has already embarked on one of the most ambitious rail projects of any nation. The Kingdom currently has billions tied up in major rail projects – including the Haramain High Speed Rail network, the Saudi Landbridge, and the enormous North-South rail network linking the capital Riyadh with the Jordanian border and, via branch lines, to the country’s mining and industrial centres.

http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-16610-saudi-arabia-sets-down-major-transport-plan/