ALKHOBAR, 29 November — The American Concrete Institute, Saudi Arabian Chapter, Eastern Province, held a technical seminar at the Gulf Meridien Hotel under the sponsorship of the Saudi Readymix Concrete Company. ACI invited three experts to address an audience of 350 managers and engineers from the construction industry and concerned authorities such as Saudi Aramco, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu about prevailing problems in the use of concrete in the Kingdom.
There are serious issues in ensuring a supply of durable, high quality concrete suitable to withstand the extreme climactic conditions found locally. Saudi Arabia still lacks both adequate national specifications in regards to ready-mix concrete and Kingdomwide regulation of the ready-mix concrete industry.
The evening began with a welcome address and introduction by Dr. Maher A. Bader, local ACI president, and manager, Engineering Analysis, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) Research Institute.
Then the attendees were presented with current facts about the impact of location-specific environmental conditions on the performance and durability of concrete structures by Dr. Ahmed Saad Al-Qahtani, associate professor of Civil Engineering at KFUPM.
Once the audience clearly understood the issues concerning concrete and construction facing the Kingdom, Willfried Krieg, technical director, Saudi Readymix Concrete, explained the urgent need for the government to regulate the ready-mix industry and introduce national specifications for concrete works.
“All presently available standards for this engineering sector were developed and imported from abroad and are not suited to local conditions and raw materials,” explained Krieg.
“There is a growing awareness that we have a serious problem in the Kingdom. Originally the focus was on obtaining sufficient quantities of concrete. But now big projects completed in the 1970s and 80s are showing signs of premature deterioration. This demonstrates the urgent need to implement national standards for ready-mix concrete to ensure the stability, quality and safety of local structures.”
The main speaker of the evening, Dr. Habib Zain Al-Abideen, deputy minister, Public Works and Housing, presented the findings of his research on “Industry Regulation, Governmental Control Systems and Standard Specifications for the Production and Supply of Ready Mixed Concrete.”
He demonstrated quantifiable improvements in product quality after the implementation of a comprehensive Governmental Control System in Riyadh. Al-Abideen has worked to draft national concrete specifications but they have yet to be approved.
