Four Jeddah flood dams near completion

The Rainwater and Flood Drainage Project of the Makkah Governor’s Office says the project is nearly 90 percent complete.
“Execution is progressing continuously and smoothly round the clock. It is being followed up by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and Crown Prince Salman and is directly overseen by Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal,” said Ahmad Abdulaziz Al-Saleem, the projects’ director general.
The urgent solutions projects that were completed early last year and the large percentage of the permanent ones currently being executed will prevent rainwater flooding in Jeddah, he said.
The project includes a number of sub-projects: construction of five dams — Wadi Ghea, Um Hablain, Wadi Dagbhage, Wadi Briman and Wadi Gulail — expansion of northern, southern and eastern drainage channels, and the construction of a new channel adjacent to King Abdul Aziz International Airport.
Expansion of the three drainage channels (flood courses) is now 89 percent complete. Construction works have been completed at the northern and southern channels — they will be opened during the next three weeks — and at Wadi Ghulail Dam, while main concrete works are being executed in the eastern flood channel.
Work is 80 percent complete and progressing at the other four dam projects that are now in the phase of building the dams’ concrete faces. The airport channel is now 27 percent complete and will be finished by the end of 2013.
“Workers in the project number 13,300. They are using 2,800 heavy-duty vehicles and have completed more than 16 million hours of work,” Al-Saleem said, adding the project deals with 21 concrete factories in Jeddah to provide 21,000 cubic meters daily. It also deals with three asphalt factories to provide the project with 4,000 to 7,500 tons daily.
Al-Saleem said excavation quantity in the massive project amounted to 9.7 million cubic meters. Rocks and reinforced concrete used in it amounted to two million and 750,000 cubic meters, respectively. The quantity of reinforced steel used in the project amounted to 46,000 tons. “Three hundred engineers and supervisors are overseeing the project to guarantee work progress, quality and safety. About 120,000 field quality-control tests were carried out,” he added.