Arab-German Yearbook 2010 - Ghorfa

Arab-German Yearbook 2010 

Construction and Consulting 

www.ghorfa.de

Table of Content 

Preface 

Dr. Peter Ramsauer 

Dr. Thomas Bach /Abdulaziz Al-Mikhlafi 

Olaf Hoffmann 

Projects 

Algeria 

The Mosque in Algiers 

Bahrain 

An Oasis in the Desert – Bahrain International Circuit 

Egypt 

Improving the Living Conditions of the Poor in Manshiet Nasser 

Iraq 

Railway Network Project 

Jordan 

Aqaba Residence Energy Efficiency (AREE) 

Kuwait 

Al-Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Stadium (Kuwait International Stadium) 

Lebanon 

Design and Construction of a Municipal Solid Waste Treatment Plant in Saida 

Libya 

Design and Construction 

Morocco 

Ain Béni Mathar – an Integrated Solar-Combined Cycle Plant 

Oman 

Construction of a Methanol Plant: A Strategy to Diversify the Omani Economy 

Masterplan and Main Building of the German University of Technology in Oman 

Palestine 

Waste Water Treatment and Reuse in the Gaza Strip 

6 

10 

10 

14 

18 

22 

26 

30 

34 

38 

42 

46 

54

Qatar 

Qatar’s Fastest Elevators – The Qipco ‘Tornado’ Tower – Doha 

Saudi Arabia 

Strategic Consulting in the Rapidly Expanding Middle East Aviation Market 

Banking on Fertiliser in the Middle of the Desert 

Sudan 

The Merowe Dam and Hydropower Station 

Khartoum New International Airport 

Syria 

Thermal Insulation in a Desert Climate: Sustainable Construction in the Middle East 

Tunesia 

The Backbone of Urban Mass Transit 

United Arab Emirates 

Lotus Garden 

German Maurer Bridge Expansion Joint System for Sheikh Zayed Sculptural Bridge in Abu Dhabi 

Outotec Supplies Anode Paste Plant for EMAL’s Aluminium Smelter Project in Abu Dhabi 

Ultimate Flight Catering 

Yemen 

Pilot Projects for Schools in Yemen 

Special Topics 

Working Group Infrastructure and Construction 

Project Contracting of Foreign Companies in Syria – Legal Issues of Foreign Construction Consortia 

Saudi Arabia’s Industrial Parks Offering Opportunities to Solar Companies 

List of Contributors 

Imprint 

Projects 4 / 

5 

58 

62 

70 

78 

82 

86 

100 

104 

114 

120

Preface 

Despite the global economic and financial crisis, the Arab 

countries continue to be one of the most dynamic and attractive 

economic areas in the world. The building and property sector 

benefits significantly from this. The Gulf States, in particular, 

have pushed ahead with spectacular large-scale projects in 

recent years. The tallest building in the world in Dubai is an 

especially impressive example of this. 

But the construction sector is also booming in the other 

countries in the Arab world. In 2009, the German construction 

industry carried out building work worth around 850 million 

euros. At the same time, it received orders worth around 

1.5 billion euros. This shows just how important the Arab 

countries are for the German construction industry. 

In the future, too, there will be massive investment in the 

infrastructure in this region. The reasons for this are an 

expected economic growth rate of just under five percent 

per year over the period to 2020, an above average annual 

increase in population of 2 percent and the increasing 

expansion of the cities. 

To enable these countries to manage their ambitious 

investment plans in the years ahead, German know-how 

and German investment will continue to be in demand for 

strategic partnerships in the region. Both sides can build on 

the long-standing relations, based on a spirit of trust, between 

Germany and the Arab world. 

Projects 6 / 

7 

Dr. Peter Ramsauer 

Federal Minister of Transport, Building 

and Urban Development 

With their cutting-edge technologies, extensive expertise and 

experience in the service sector, plus their profound knowledge 

of the countries and markets involved, German companies are 

perfectly placed to assist the Arab course of modernization. 

This is especially true of sustainable and energy-efficient 

construction. In the windy and sun-kissed countries of the 

Arab world, there is huge potential for this. 

The building projects presented in the Ghorfa Yearbook 

illustrate just how successful the economic partnership 

between the Arab countries and Germany is. The Yearbook is 

thus also an encouragement to further expand Arab-German 

economic relations. The Federal Government is wholeheartedly 

in favour of such expansion and will continue to do everything 

it can to support it. 

Dr. Peter ramsauer 

Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban 

Development

Preface 

We are proud to present the first edition of our annual Arab- 

German Yearbook. It focuses on construction and consulting 

and is to be the first of a new serie. In the following years 

other thematic priorities will be chosen to give companies 

from all business branches the opportunity to contribute to 

this new serie. 

The main aim of our Chamber is to develop and deepen business 

relations between Germany and the Arab world. Ghorfa 

therefore understands itself as a bridge between partners 

from different backgrounds. This yearbook shall therefore be 

a useful tool to introduce various exemplary construction and 

consulting projects realised or planned by German enterprises 

in cooperation with partners in the Arab world. 

The Arab world has established itself as one of the most dynamic 

and potentially rewarding regions for high-scale construction 

and consulting projects. Impressive building activities starting 

from designed superhomes to the tallest skyscrapers in the 

world are above all known from Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Riyadh. 

Impressive traces of the ongoing construction boom can also 

be found in other Arab countries and experts predict a further 

acceleration of the building and construction industry. 

The Arab region is undergoing important changes making 

it a location of progress and growth. Growing economic 

activities in the Arab world as well as the strong demand for 

provision of housing and rising infrastructural requirements 

stimulate activities in building. In Saudi Arabia for example 

the expansion of infrastructure needs to keep pace with the 

tremendous growth of population of about half a million a year. 

Dr. Thomas Bach 

President 

Qatar, Libya, Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Egypt and other Arab 

countries invest on a large scale in infrastructure and numerous 

other construction projects to meet the requirements of fast 

growing megacities and rising demands of the populations. 

One of the objective targets of our new serie is to show that 

Arab countries welcome German enterprises as credible 

partners and invite them to participate in the continuing 

economic growth. German enterprises are appreciated for their 

reliability and quality of products and services as well as for 

the respected and trusted cooperation with Arab companies. 

This directory serves to further promote the relationship 

between the Arab world and Germany. Due to the common 

understanding of the principle of mutual benefits both 

sides can gain great advantage from increased collaboration. 

We are looking forward to sum up successful examples of 

collaboration in technology, science, education or health care 

in the following editions of our yearbook. 

Dr. thomas Bach 

President 

aBDulaziz al-mikhlafi 

Secretary General 

Abdulaziz Al-Mikhlafi 

Secretary General

Preface 

Dear readers, 

We are pleased to present the first edition of our Arab- 

German Yearbook ‘Construction and Consulting’. Why have 

we chosen the format ‘yearbook’? 

At the beginning of our century the Arab markets just 

added colourful detail to the media business coverage: Dubai 

for instance was described as a firework with no long-term 

impact. However, in the last two years, the Arab world has 

shown a remarkable resilience in coping with the debilities 

of globalisation: on the basis of oil and oil exports, the Arab 

world has built up a stable, productive and growing economy. 

Thus, it seems to be the right time to keep track of the further 

development of the Arab economy by an annual publication. 

Despite the challenging economic situation, the Middle East 

remains the world leader in the construction industry: with 

more than 2,100 projects in the United Arab Emirates and 

Saudi Arabia, over 500 projects in Qatar and Kuwait, nearly 

200 projects in Oman and almost 150 projects in Bahrain the 

construction industry lives up to the demands of a growing 

population, as population growth in the Arab world exceeds 

the average growth of the entire world population. Thus, more 

than 50% of the population in the Middle East is younger 

than 25 years. The growing population together with a strong 

migration and large financial resources for the realisation of 

development projects stimulates the demand for housing and 

infrastructure for public and cargo transportation as well as 

energy. Roads, electricity, communications and water networks 

have to be constructed or upgraded. At the same time, the desire 

Olaf Hoffmann 

CEO Dorsch Holding 

Projects 8 / 

9 

for (more) Western standards in water supply and sanitation 

as well as sustainability is booming. This is especially true 

for the newly industrialised economies which can be found 

among Arab countries, too. Strong growing countries like 

Saudi Arabia or especially Iraq with its emerging market and 

an economic growth rate of 5.3% offer a lot of opportunities 

and potential for the construction industry. 

However, just to put the focus on impressive architecture, big 

infrastructure or renewable energy projects would not show the 

whole picture. Thus this yearbook and its sequels are dedicated 

to describing the Arab world of today and tomorrow. 

This Arab-German Yearbook would not have been possible 

without the contributions of German companies considerably 

engaged in the Arab world like Siemens, Lufthansa, KfW, 

Ferrostaal, ThyssenKrupp and many others. I therefore want 

to very warmly thank all who contributed to our first Arab- 

German Yearbook ‘Consulting and Construction’, we really 

appreciate their readiness of sharing their insights. Enjoy 

reading! 

Sincerely yours, 

olaf hoffmann 

CEO and Shareholder of Dorsch Holding 

Member of the Board of Directors 

Chairman of the Working Group ‘Infrastructure and Construction’ 

Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Fact File 

Algeria 

Country Name People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria 

Population 34,180,000 (2009 estimate) 

Land Area 2,381,741 km 2 

Official Language Arabic 

Commercial Language French, English 

Currency 1 Algerian Dinar (AD) = 100 centimes 

Main Cities Algiers (Capital), Oran, Constantine, Annaba, Blida, Setif


The Mosque in the bay of Algiers. 

Introduction 

At present, the world’s third largest mosque is soon to be 

erected in the bay of Algiers. The complex – complete with 

prayer hall, courtyard, cultural centre, Imam School, forecourt 

and minaret – will have a GFA of about 440,000 m 2 and will 

be able to host up to 120,000 visitors a day. Located only 

6 km east of the historical town centre and not far from the 

airport, the mosque will encourage the future development of 

the adjacent district of the city. Construction is scheduled to 

begin before the end of 2010. 

Projects 10 / 

11 

KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten GmbH 

Anke Wünschmann, Sebastian Tokarz 

Friday mosque has always been at the centre of islamic 

everyday life, work, study, social and business life – and not 

least the centre of life for all community members. The unity 

of these buildings, devoted to religion, teaching and prayer, 

is also reflected by the architecture chosen, which has been 

designed and developed on behalf of the Algerian government 

by a group consisting of KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten, 

Frankfurt/Berlin, and the engineering company Krebs und 

Kiefer Inter national, Darmstadt. Other local partners are: 

Krebs und Kiefer & Partners International S.A.R.L.,Tunis, 

and Krebs und Kiefer Algérie EURL, Algiers. All buildings in

Layout plan of the complete complex. 

the mosque complex share a plinth that is in places up to 5 

m high; on this raised plateau, they are aligned from west to 

east in the direction of Mecca. The platform also ensures the 

complex’s clear spatial separation from the parallel motorway 

to the north and the profane buildings in the vicinity. 

The Mosque’s Prayer Hall 

The prayer hall or Salle de Prière is a massive cube towering 

up to 45 m and able to take up to 35,000 people. Its external 

appearance is defined by the following triadic composition: as 

basic volume a cube with a footprint of 145 x 145 m, slightly set 

back from the edge, a cube of about 22.50 m in height, which 

bears the central dome. At its apex, the latter reaches a height 

of some 70 m and has a diametre of about 50 m at its base. 

The interior with its choice materials, restrained ornamentation 

and indirect natural light creates an impressive spatial 

experience. All the traditional religious elements such as the 

Qibla wall, the Mihrab, Minbar and Dikkah are integrated 

into a hall of modern aesthetics. Daylight from above steeps 

the hall in continually changing patterns of light and shadow. 

Together with the traditional elements, the insignia of the 

islamic religion and the regular rows of pillars, which are up 

to 45 m in height, the interplay of light and shadow is the 

real adornment of the interior, creating a space with a sacred, 

if not mystical character. 

Following the architecture of traditional islamic prayer halls, 

the mosque’s outer skin is made of natural stone, structured 

by folds, friezes and decorative entrance portals. 

The ‘Floral Columns’ and Mosque Courtyard 

The leitmotif for the design throughout the edifice are floral 

pillars with protruding capitals in all areas of the ensemble. 

The floral columns not only blend harmoniously with the 

local palm vegetation, but combine load-bearing properties 

with other technical functions: they provide a surface acoustic 

equipment, while also integrating ventilation and drainage. 

The mosque’s courtyard serves as an extended area for prayer 

during the holy days. It is embraced and clearly structured 

on all sides by two/three rows of colonnades featuring the 

graceful slender blossom-topped columns typical of the entire 

complex. Moreover, the courtyard links in architectural and 

in functional terms the sacred prayer hall to the esplanade 

in the west, the free plaza with the main entrance and the 

adjacent forecourt. 

Minaret 

Its use, design and size make the minaret unique in the 

history of Islam. Here, it rises up to some 265 m, and is thus 

on the same scale as major skyscrapers; once finished, it will 

be the highest building in Africa. Moreover, it will be a visible 

vertical landmark for the City of Algiers per se. 

For a building of this height, the slender tower has unusual 

proportions (of width to height), namely of 1:10, quite 

stunning in a region strongly threatened by earthquakes. 

The vertical configuration corresponds to the classical 

subdivision of towers into a plinth, shaft and upper capital. 

The different façade architecture reflects the different sections 

and functions. 

The minaret’s plinth is completely glass-covered and opens 

out invitingly to the plaza. Visitors can reach the upper, public 

floors by means of panorama elevators. These floors house 

the Museum of Algerian History, which will highlight the 

religion’s different epochs and dynasties. Above this will be 

two research areas accessible only to accredited scholars – the 

Research Centre. Museum and Research Centre are housed 

in the tower’s shaft, which is divided into five equal sections 

each comprising five floors. These are clearly separated from 

one another by all-glass sky-lobby façades. The multilayered 

façade for the museum and Research Centre is made up of 

an outer, ornamental skin made of prefabricated, perforated 

Moucharabieh façade elements that protect the thermal glass 

skin behind from direct solar radiation. The Moucharabieh

The mosque’s courtyard with entry to the prayer hall. 

elements, designed in keeping with traditional Algerian 

patterns, give the tower a clear texture of light and shadow, 

adding an additional sense of depth and dynamism. 

The four access routes at the tower’s corners also provide the 

due rigidity for the minaret, and are clad in bright natural 

stone; the materials thus set this section off from the other 

parts of the minaret. 

The prayer hall. 

Projects 12 / 

13 

The top of the minaret will be transparent. The glass will cover 

two viewing platforms, one for visitors, the other for V.I.P. 

guests, and will wrap around the sommah as the minaret’s 

crowning tip. At night, the illuminated glass skin radiates, 

visible from afar as a point of orientation in Algiers and as its 

new landmark. 

The Park 

The mosque complex is linked to the buildings in the south, 

namely the cultural centre, the library and the Imam School, 

by a spacious park. This landscaped outdoor area can house a 

large number of people and also offers a haven of tranquillity. 

The palm is the predominant tree defining the identity of 

the whole area. Palm groves right round the mosque provide 

ample shade. The mosque’s plazas and forecourts, by contrast, 

are structured by palm trees planted in regular rows – they 

thus serve as a supplement to the architecture. Fountains 

foster the overall sense of calm and concentration. 

Summary 

The new mosque (Djamaâ el Djazaïr) in Algiers is firmly set in 

the lineage of the major Friday mosques in Algiers, Thlemcen, 

Cordoba and Medina. In terms of the tradition and the modern 

rejuvenation of the religion, the mosque represents the 

religious and social needs of the community’s members. They 

can practice their faith their in line with the customary ritual 

and can familiarise themselves in the adjacent institutions 

with contemporary islamic doctrine. 

The design by KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten, Frankfurt/ 

Berlin, and the engineering company Krebs und Kiefer 

International, Darmstadt, reinterprets traditional Algerian 

architecture without erasing the historical references. 

Instead, the building complex forms a successful combination 

of Algerian tradition and the present. The mosque brings 

together the cultural wealth of Islam and Algeria with 

German excellence in architecture and engineering. The high 

beacon of the minaret (manâra) is reminiscent not only of a 

lighthouse showing the way to those seeking the right path, 

but could well emerge as the new iconic landmark for the 

City of Algiers, not to mention for an entire culture, namely 

the islamic religious community as a whole.

Fact File 

Bahrain 

Country Name The Kingdom of Bahrain 

Population 718,306 includes 235,108 nonnationals (July 2008 estimate) 

Land Area 711.85 km 2 


Commercial Language French, English 

Currency 1 Bahraini Dinar (BD) = 1,000 fils 

Main Cities Manama (capital), Muharraq, Isa Town, Riffa, Hamad Town

An Oasis in the Desert – 

Bahrain International Circuit 

Bahrain International Circuit – aerial view. 

Introduction 

Tilke Engineers & Architects, originally established in 1983, is 

recognised as the world leading designer for racetrack and test 

facilities. Tilke designs individual and state-of-the-art racetracks 

including grandstands, pit buildings, team buildings and other 

infrastructure facilities by both fulfilling clients’ needs and 

the permanently changing requirements on track layout and 

safety. The design of a racetrack and its appropriate buildings 

depends on various principles, e.g. its location, approach, picture, 

function and detail. Each of these principles is interconnected 

with one other. Removing one of them would be comparable to 

dislodging a supporting column: the structure would collapse. 

Bahrain International Circuit 

Projects 14 / 

15 

Tilke GmbH & Co. KG 

The Bahrain International Circuit is a good example of Tilke’s 

design philosophy. Its Arabic architecture is reflected by its 

colours, materials, the tent-shaped roofs, the wind towers etc. 

Thus, Bahrain’s tradition and culture has been interpreted 

in a modern way, all of which promotes the circuit’s unique 

atmosphere. 

The beautiful landscape around Sakhir oasis is where the 

racetrack is located. The contrast between the oasis and the 

desert is taken as inspiration: the spectators view follows the 

drivers taking a ride into the outside desert coming back to

Bahrain International Circuit. 

the oasis styled as a centre. This striking feature makes for 

the unique character of the track, which also inspired German 

photographer and artist Andreas Gursky to produce one of 

his famous oversized photo collages. 

The landscape design of the racetrack leads the visitor 

into the centre (oasis) of the circuit, which is formed by 

a double-serving paddock area, allowing operating two 

circuits independently during the day-to-day business, thus 

optimising the commercial benefits. The connection of both 

circuits forms a maximum loop length of 5,400 m for the 

Formula 1 track. As the track’s width varies at the end of 

the different straights it enables different race lines, thereby 

offering various possibilities for breathtaking and challenging 

overtaking manoeuvres. The impressive building ensemble 

includes all facilities necessary to host the Formula 1; they 

are state-of-the-art as well as fully sufficient to support the 

daily business. 

The architectural idea took all aspects into consideration: 

on the one hand lots of high-tech equipment is needed, on 

the other hand there is the unique and beautiful landscape 

with its colours and moods and an impressive architectural 

tradition with its own and distinctive materials. The intensive 

work with these fundamentals led to the present appearance 

of the circuit. 

Besides the character of being a desert track, the circuit’s 

particular charm is presented by an attractive mixture of 

traditional Bahraini and modern architecture combined with 

the high-tech equipment of a Formula 1 race circuit, while 

the outstanding V.I.P. tower, as well as the fabric-roofed 

grandstands, are the outstanding landmarks of this track. 

The roofs of the grandstands and several other buildings are 

equipped with a combination of light fabric tent structures 

that are based on the traditional Bedouin tents, and the 

traditional Bahraini wind towers (badqeer) used as basis 

for the wide-stretched tents. The motif of the wind towers 

is again taken up for some of the solid building elements. 

Generally, all solid building elements integrate and interpret 

elements of Bahraini architecture: the small window sizes, 

the deep embrasures and the clear sand colour represent all 

the compactness of traditional architecture. The dynamism 

of the architecture is not only noticeable during the daytime, 

but also at night: the external illumination provides a 

striking effect. 

Project Significance and Impact 

The significance of the project is high, as a Formula 1 racetrack 

is immediately popular everywhere in the world. But not only 

the important and famous events give the arrangement a 

significance, also the special architecture and the characteristics 

of this unique racetrack, like the double-serving paddock 

area, make Bahrain International Circuit stand out among all 

Formula 1 circuits worldwide. 

Thus, the impacts are many-sided: the notoriety of the racetrack 

leads to an increase in tourism and accordingly promotes the 

diversification of Bahraini economy further, as the whole 

economy will profit from the events and all happenings 

around the racetrack. Due to the immense publicity, the yearly 

benefits are circular und support the growing infrastructure. 

Thus, the racetrack can be seen as a constant impulse for the 

economy in combination with a high identification worldwide. 

The track and its buildings can become a symbol of Bahrain. 

Main grandstand and the paddock area.

Race control. 

V.I.P. tower by night. Bahrain International Circuit by night. 

Projects 16 / 

17

Fact File 

Egypt 

Country Name Arab Republic of Egypt 

Population 76,054,112 (Jan. 2009) 



Currency 1 Egyptian Pound = 100 piaster 

Main Cities Cairo (Capital), Giza, Tanta, Alexandria, Shubra el-Khema, 

Port Said, Suez, Mahalla el-Kubra, Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh

Improving the Living Conditions 

of the Poor in Manshiet Nasser 

Cairo, the capital of Egypt. 

Commonly known as ‘Garbage City’, Manshiet Nasser represents 

one of Cairo’s largest informal settlements. The area 

among the foothills of the Mokattam mountains has been 

developed since the late 50s and early 60s by rural migrants 

from Upper Egypt. Since then, more and more impoverished 

people had been driven out of central Cairo – a megacity 

with an estimated current population of around 17 million 

people – into districts such as Manshiet Nasser in the wake 

of rapid urbanisation. 

Today, Manshiet Nasser is home to between 800,000 to 1 

million people. While still a very poor district of Cairo, the 

former slum has grown so much over the past years that it 

Projects 18 / 

19 

KfW Entwicklungsbank 

Mandana Bahrinipour 

and Andreas Holtkotte; 

Bernd Bauerfeld 

(Dorsch Gruppe) 

is now almost located in the city centre. Within the dynamic 

urban quarter even a little industrial area has evolved 

generating income from recycling and traditional handicrafts; 

in between the multistory buildings small enterprises, shops 

and teahouses shape the street scene. The community of 

Manshiet Nasser is beyond doubt working towards its own 

future, nonetheless, settlement of the government-owned 

land mostly took place without any authorisation, land titles 

and construction plans – simple dwellings being erected 

along the Autostrada, slowly extending uphill to the east as 

more migrants arrived. As a result the urban development 

is quite haphazard and entirely lacking any legal basis and 

proper administrative infrastructure. People have limited

Manshiet Nasser: From informal settlement to legalised district. 

access to basic services such as drinking water, sanitation 

and electricity or other social services such as education and 

health provision. 

After the Egyptian government had abandoned its initial plan 

to demolish the squatter settlement in 1997, and decided instead 

to turn Manshiet Nasser from an informal area into a legalised 

district, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation 

and Development (BMZ) has supported this decision by 

financing the Participatory Development Programme in Urban 

Areas (PDP), inter alia in Manshiet Nasser. On behalf of the 

German government and the Egyptian Ministry of Economic 

Development (MoED), KfW Entwicklungsbank (German 

Development Bank) and the German Technical Cooperation 

(GTZ) are carrying out a participatory development project 

to establish and secure basic needs, in close cooperation with 

the Cairo governorate, local administrations, civil society 

organisations and nongovernmental organisations. The prime 

Abdel Aal Canal in Manshiet Nasser. Cultural centre. 

objective of this project is to improve the living conditions of 

– and hence reduce potential health risks to – poor residents in 

Manshiet Nasser by rehabilitating and upgrading the urban 

infrastructure; this involves the provision and extension of a 

secure water supply distribution system, the implementation 

of an organised sewerage system and – to a lesser extent – the 

upgrading of the road network. 

A participatory approach is being applied, in order to combine 

the demands of the residents on the one hand and the constraints 

related to the provision of infrastructure by the several 

authorities on the other. The key element is that residents are 

involved in the planning processes and that local democracy is 

promoted; the residents are encouraged to put forward their 

own solutions in order that aid projects can be tailored to 

their needs. The sense of ownership of the improved facilities 

by the beneficiaries will thus guarantee the sustainability of 

the project. Disbursements to contractors are being managed

through a local disposition account, administered externally on 

behalf of the client, including annual audits by an independent 

financial adviser to international standards. 

The project is implemented in the form of an open fund, to 

fully use the available resources, focussing on the three main 

infrastructure sectors of water supply, sanitation and roads, 

which have been identified as priorities in the Manshiet Nasser 

Guide Plan and the subsequent Participatory Budget Planning. 

The project will also influence the wider urban development 

of Manshiet Nasser through small Community Development 

Investments in public facilities and communal initiatives in 

cooperation with a technical cooperation programme provided 

by GTZ. The technical cooperation component assists the 

district predominantly in formalising the urban planning and 

community development as well as the administration on 

process development for legalisation. 

Phase I commenced in Ezbeth Bekhit, a sheikha (subdistrict) 

of Manshiet Nasser with a 1998 population of 28,900 in 6,490 

households. The quarter covers an area of 47 feddans (20.1 

ha), mainly stretching along the King Khaled Autostrada. The 

topography, which is characterised by extreme differences 

in elevation, is dominated by limestone cliffs, the result of 

quarrying over the centuries. Phase II extends the project 

to further parts of Manshiet Nasser. The funding allocated 

will allow full water distribution and sewerage services to be 

extended to approximately half of the population and to pave 4.5 

km of the internal roads. Due to the low water supply standard 

(only 59% of households having access to the public potable 

supply system and some during night hours only) and lack 

of proper sanitation (only 56% have access to the informally 

constructed sewerage network, although all dwellings have 

privately installed septic tanks), the critical environmental and 

public health conditions prevail in the quarter. 

Projects 20 / 

21 

At present neither the quantity of potable water resources 

nor the pressure in the supply network is sufficient to cover 

overall demand; similarly, the existing gravity sewers are 

in a structurally unsound and poorly maintained condition, 

causing sewage to overflow into the largely unpaved streets 

and stagnant pools to develop in depressed areas. The main 

objective in the design of the water and sewerage systems is 

to minimise the excavation depths of the gravity lines in the 

very narrow lanes, in order to prevent the collapse of adjacent 

buildings; small lifting stations are envisaged to evacuate 

sewage from otherwise inaccessible areas. 

Shortly after the start of the project things have indeed 

improved for thousands of people in Manshiet Nasser. A 

central sewage collection plant has been built and many 

have already been connected to the drinking water network. 

It seems that the whole community of Manshiet Nasser 

does not simply accept the programme, its people virtually 

identify with it and the success story is catching on: similar 

projects have been launched in several other suburbs of Cairo 

and Alexandria.

Fact File 

Iraq 

Country Name Republic of Iraq 

Population 28,945,657 (2009) 

Land Area 437,072 km 2 

Official Language Arabic and others 

Currency 1 Iraqi Dinar (ID) = 1,000 fils 

Main Cities Baghdad (Capital), Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk, Najat


Training of Iraqi railway engineers at Dorsch Gruppe. 

Background 

International freight traffic to and from Southeast Asia mainly 

use the route through the Red Sea passing by Suez Canal. 

However, due to the presence of Somalian pirates security has 

deteriorated, and the sea route through the Persian Gulf as an 

alternative becomes more attractive for freight carriers today 

and definitely in the future. Thus, the importance of Iraq as one 

of the most important gates in the Middle East is heightened: 

thanks to its favourably located harbours in the southeast of 

Iraq, Umm Qasr and al-Fao, it connects both Asia and Europe. 

Dry Channel 

Development of strategy with regard to Iraq’s long-term 

visions had included the discussion of the so-called Dry 

Channel, a basic concept to improve the transportation network 

Projects 22 / 

23 

Dorsch Gruppe 

Ulrich Beer 

within Iraq – especially the railway network – in order to 

link Umm Qasr and al-Fao ports to the north, and vice versa. 

The implementation of Dry Channel will therefore play an 

important role in Iraq’s future, as it introduces an alternative 

and more cost-efficient route for the logistics industry with 

benefits regarding travel time, operational cost, security, etc. 

So far, similar routes were already in operation linking Umm 

Qasr–Baghdad–Mosul–Turkey, Umm Qasr–Baghdad–Deer 

El Azour (Syria), Umm Qasr–Baghdad–Halab-Lattakia 

(Syria). However, there are several reasons that hampered 

the operation of those routes. Apart from the technical issues 

(broken facilities due to lack of maintenance, low capacity, low 

speed, etc.), the political situation in Iraq does not allow for a 

competitive transport provision. It is expected that this will 

change to the better as soon as the newly improved railway 

network starts to operate.

Iraqi railway engineers on-site visit by train. 

Furthermore, the government of Iraq aims to improve the 

transport situation in general, as three wars and the imposing 

of sanctions in the 1990s led to the deterioration of economy 

in general and of infrastructure in particular: no routine 

transport facility maintenance or opening of new routes has 

come about which led to limited mobility for the Iraqi people. 

Challenge of the Project 

The railway network project in Iraq with a total length of 

660 km comprises a new West–East railway link – as part of 

the Dry Channel – connecting Jordan with the Iraqi railway 

network. The Basrah–Fao line to be established in southern 

Iraq is an important connection of the network to al-Fao. The 

existing Hajama–Sawa line from Baghdad to Basra has to be 

upgraded. Fourth part of the project is the Ramadi–Kerbala 

track through Mesopotamia. Furthermore, the rehabilitation 

of al-Fat Ha Bridge, damaged severely during the Iraq war in 

2003, was commissioned. 

Survey of railway line Hajama–Sawa. 

Parts of the project were conceived more than twenty years 

ago. During this time local conditions and constraints have 

changed. In addition, railway technology has been further 

developed, making it imperative to update all designs. 

Furthermore, the project sites pose particular difficulties: the 

project area consists partially of desert and some marsh areas, 

in addition to a mine field area from the Iraq-Iran war where 

explosive ordnance disposal services had to be executed. 

Iraq–Jordan Railway Link 

The Iraq–Jordan railway link as the major part of the planned 

transportation network of the Iraqi Transport Masterplan 

(ITMP) shall connect Iraq with its neighbouring country 

Jordan. From the Jordanian point of view Iraq is up to now the 

country that needs Jordanian transportation infrastructure 

to facilitate the transfer of transit goods between the Port of 

Aqaba and the central part of Iraq. The connection between Iraq 

and Jordan is currently realised by a two-lane road on which 

approximately 2,200,000 tons and 8,300,000 passengers are 

transported each year. It is expected that freight and passenger 

traffic will increase significantly in coming years. Therefore, 

both countries have agreed to expand their railway networks 

by realising a new railway line from the Jordanian city Zarqa 

to the Iraqi border at Trebil and from Trebil to Mafraq Al Rutba 

road junction in order to facilitate freight and passenger traffic 

between the two countries. 

The 400-km railway section comprises 14 passing stations, 

three small und three large stations (Al Rutbah, station 6 at 

km 341+800 and Trebil). It is expected that the new railway 

link will improve freight and passenger movement to a faster, 

more competitive and more secure access to the national 

and international markets. Iraq and Jordan have agreed to 

expand their railway network to achieve this goal. Design of 

structures include 25 wadi bridges, 19 rural road overpasses, 

ten rural road underpasses and approximately eighty culverts 

with various dimensions. 

Basrah–Fao 

The idea to improve the transport network in Iraq was already 

discussed in the early 1980s, when Henderson Hughes & Busby 

initially analysed alternative routes. The study recommended 

the so-called route No. 3: the Basrah–al-Fao railway project as 

part of the planned infrastructure network of the Master Plan 

shall connect the city of Basrah – an industrial and cultural 

centre in southern Iraq – with the new al-Fao port to facilitate

international trade. The project railway has a length of 

approximately 110 km. Design of structures includes pipeline 

overpasses, pipeline box culverts, pedestrian underpasses and 

standard rural road overpasses. 

Hajama–Sawa 

The Hajama–Sawa railway with a length of approximately 

17 km is part of the existing single-track railway line from 

Baghdad to Basra. Iraqi Republic Railways (IRR) intends to 

upgrade the line between both Hajama and Sawa stations 

with a second track running parallel and as close as possible 

to the existing track. The construction of the additional track 

Hajama–Sawa starts at Hajama station 0+583,500 m and ends 

at Sawa station. 

The railway project will cross the Euphrates and two of its 

branches – the rivers al-Suwer and al-Atshan – on three major 

bridges. In addition, the alignment will also pass three local 

roads on single superstructure bridges. Design of structures 

includes four railway bridges, one temporary bridge, three 

road underpasses and 37 standard culverts. 

Basrah–al-Fao railway project. 

Ramadi–Kerbala 

The Ramadi–Kerbala railway project is designed as a double 

track with a total length of approximately 133 km, its 

alignment will run through the Mesopotamian plain. The 

predominant soil types in the Mesopotamian plain are finegrained 

sediments, generally medium to stiff clayey silts and 

sandy silty clays. Design includes seven railway bridges, 17 

road bridges, five road underpasses, and standard culverts. 

Al-Fat Ha Railway bridge damaged in Iraq war 2003. 

Al-Fat Ha Bridge 

Projects 24 / 

25 

The existing railway bridge, which is an important part 

of the railway line between Haylaniyah to Kirkuk, has 

been damaged by allied bombing in the Iraq war 2003. As 

a consequence pipelines in the neighbourhood were set 

on fire. These fires affected the bridge, namely the piers, 

heavily. Due to this situation, the al-Fat Ha bridge has to be 

reconstructed. Certain members of the bridge will be reused 

or strengthened, others will be exchanged completely. 

This railway bridge is the longest bridge of the line Kirkuk– 

Baiji–Haditha (24 spans x 40 m = 960 m) and crosses the 

Tigris at al-Fat Ha. Due to the slope of 4.526% the eastern 

end of the bridge is higher than the western end by 4.345 m. 

This bridge is located at the midway between the al-Fat Ha 

Way station and the Sarai al-Fadhil Way station. 

Railway network’s improvement projects above will result in 

better mobility for the Iraqi people, assuring the movement 

of goods and therefore boost the economy in Iraq.

Fact File 

Jordan 

Country Name Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 

Population 6,198,677 (July 2009 est.) 

Land Area 92,300km 2 

Official Language Arabic official language, English widely spoken 

Currency 1 Jordanian Dinar (JD) = 1,000 fils 

Main Cities Amman (Capital), Al Ramtha, Al Mafraq, Irbid, Ajloun, Jarash, Salt, Zarqa, Aqaba

Aqaba Residence 

Energy Efficiency (AREE) 

Sustainable building is a recent phenomenon in Jordan. Due 

to rising energy prices there is a growing awareness among 

the public of the need to save energy. Water efficiency is also 

important for Jordan, as it is listed among the four poorest 

countries worldwide in terms of water. The biggest challenge for 

sustainable building in Jordan is, however, the use of materials 

and the reduction of construction waste: environmentally 

friendly materials are scarce and local suppliers are often not 

familiar with material specifications. On top of that, many 

local Jordanian contractors are not used to work with these 

materials and to build from drawings. 

Together with the Center for Study of the Built Environment 

in Amman, Tariq Emtairah, a Jordanian working in 

Sweden, commissioned the construction of a pilot project to 

demonstrate the advantages of sustainable building and the 

economic feasibility of energy-efficient buildings. The design 

brief for AREE did not only include residential functions, 

the building also had to serve as an information centre for 

sustainable building design and construction and should 

provide rooms for visiting researchers to work. Together 

with strict planning rules from the local municipality and a 

beautiful view towards the Gulf of Aqaba – there were enough 

ingredients for a challenging design process. The result is 

a multifunctional, environmentally friendly building of 

420 m 2 , three storeys high, including living room, kitchen, 

study, family room, six bedrooms, three bathrooms, garage, 

storage, and basement. All to be either used as one-family 

home or to be divided per floor, with the public area at the 

ground floor and private apartments on the upper floors. 

Environmental Architecture Embedded 

in Local Setting 

Aqaba is located in the south of Jordan, where summer 

temperatures rise above 40 ºC, and winters are mild. There 

is hardly any need for heating. Thus, the challenge for 

the passive-solar design of the building was to provide a 

comfortable indoor climate. An analysis of sunshine, wind 

Projects 26 / 

27 

gtz International Services 

Florentine Visser 

conditions and views on site, together with the most common 

construction methods in Jordan (plastered blockwork and 

stone cladding), were the starting point for the architectural 

concept. The passive use of solar energy is optimised by 

the orientation and layout of the house: spaces used for 

brief periods (bathrooms, garage, corridor) are located on 

the southwest side, the hottest area of the house, to create a 

buffer that prevents the main spaces such as bedrooms from 

heating up too much in summer. Moreover, each floor has an 

attractive and comfortable outdoor space that is shaded and 

enjoys a refreshing breeze. Here, occupants can spend the 

day during the hot season, in a manner similar to the local 

Bedouin tent tradition. Additionally, natural ventilation is 

improved by carefully positioned windows, doors, ventilation 

openings and the main staircase, which is designed to work as 

a ‘wind tower’. Movable shades prevent solar warming in the 

summer period, but allow for solar heat to enter during the 

winter to minimise the heat load. 

The north-facing main volume accommodates the bedrooms 

to reduce the cooling load. This main volume is finished in 

traditional plasterwork with added straw, which further 

minimises the cooling load by decreasing the heat transfer. 

Design concept.

aree 

FACTS 

ARCHITECT: 

Florentine Visser (Netherlands) 

CLIENT: 

Tariq Emtairah (Sweden) 

BUILDING PERMIT: 

Mohammed Abu Afeefeh (Jordan) 

GARDEN DESIGN: 

Matilda Nilsson (Sweden) 

CO-FUNDING: 

MED ENEC (European Union) 

SUPPORT: 

Philips Lighting NV (Netherlands) 

Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (Jordan) 

National Energy Research Center (NERC) (Jordan) 

PR: 

Center for Study of the Built Environment (Jordan) 

PROJECT ADRESS: 

Project address: 9th area, Aqaba, Jordan 

Design view. 

The use of cement is reduced – an environmentally important 

aspect, tool – and the result is a nice texture that will get more 

expressive in time. 

Kitchen and dining area are designed as open-plan featuring 

oriental ornaments and continuous floor finishing, to connect 

the interior and exterior spaces between the main volume and 

the living area. The subvolume of the living area is cladded 

with recycled stone from local stone companies. The roof 

garden above offers a fine view to the front and an outdoor 

terrace. Since the 40-cm-deep garden soil has a great capacity 

of accumulating heat and the plants provide further shade, the 

roof garden works as a ‘cooling element’ and contributes to 

reduction of the cooling load, too. Although shades prevent 

interior spaces from receiving solar heat, construction 

techniques improve the insulation and heat accumulation 

capacity of the building envelope significantly: the cavity 

walls are insulated by blocks with volcanic and perlite 

aggregate as well as insulation materials such as rockwool and 

polystyrene. In addition, the roof structure is insulated, which 

is uncommon in Jordan. Even more unusual for Jordanian 

construction practice is the insulation of ‘heat bridges’ at the 

floor-wall connections. 

The heat accumulation capacity is further increased by the 

north cavity wall being filled with sand, the natural stone in 

the interior wall finishing and the roof garden. All design and 

construction elements were easy to plan on the drawing board, 

however, it required a lot of discussion with the structural 

engineer and contractor on site. 

Energy Savings 

The design and construction save 30% on the cooling load 

compared to conventional practice. To ensure significant 

savings on electricity bills, the installations are the last step in 

the strategy for energy-efficient design. The energy-efficient 

lighting design provided by Philips is one aspect. Another is 

‘solar cooling’, a sustainable cooling concept based on hot water 

from solar panels as a source of energy for an adsorption chiller 

that produces chilled water to cool the space: the sun heats 

the water needed to run the cooling system. This is the first 

application of a solar-cooling installation in Jordan and very 

promising. With the solar cooling system the total savings on 

electricity costs are estimated at 72%. Taking in consideration 

the additional investment cost, the expected payback time is 

less then nine years. To make AREE almost self-sustainable 

in terms of energy supply, the design provides the possibility

Climate concept plan 1 st floor. 

Ground floor plan. 

to incorporate photo-voltaic panels to generate electricity and 

to add further shading for outdoor spaces. The total savings 

could then reach 93%. So far, no funding for these additional 

features was available. 

Energy saving is important, but water saving is essential for 

the future of Jordan: AREE is the first residential project in 

Aqaba equipped with a dual plumbing system for grey and 

black waste. Grey water from showers and sinks is filtered 

by a sand-gravel bed with bamboo and supplies the required 

water for irrigation. In her garden design, landscape architect 

Matilda Nilsson selected plants and trees that are suitable for 

the Aqaba climate and minimise the need for irrigation, too. 

Together with water-saving taps, toilets and shower heads, the 

total expected saving on water consumption is 51%. 

Climate concept plan section. 

Second floor plan. 

Projects 28 / 

29 

However, a good architectural design and improved building 

technology and installations are not enough to achieve 

sustainable building: cooperation and communication are 

essential in both the design and execution phases to achieve an 

integrated project. AREE offers a model and ‘lessons learned’ 

on the possibilities and challenges in the field of sustainable 

building in Jordan. Hopefully, AREE is also an inspiring work 

of architecture and pleasant homes. 

As everything is subject to change, so is the use of the house: 

in early 2010, AREE opened as The Aqaba House, the first 

environmentally friendly Bed & Breakfast in Aqaba.

Fact File 

Kuwait 

Country Name State of Kuwait 

Population 2.7 million, including 1.3 million nonnationals (2009) 



Commercial English 

Currency 1 Kuwait Dinar (KD) = 1.000 fils 

Main Cities Kuwait City (Capital), Salmiya, Ahmadi, Shuwaikh

Al-Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad 

Stadium 

(Kuwait International Stadium) 

From top to bottom, left to right: View from training field. View from parking area. Roof, top view. Upper tier seating. 

Project Site 

During the first years of this century the State of Kuwait and 

its authorities promoted the development of a new National 

Sports Complex. The site selected for this International 

Football and Athletics Stadium is situated within the suburb 

of Ardiyah, north to the Sixth Ring Road and bound between 

Mohamed Ibn al-Qasem Street and East Ardiyah Road, ca. 

12 km southwest of Kuwait City centre. After various realignments 

the total site comprises an area of approximately 

400,000 m². The re-aligned area complies with the appropriate 

site requirements of an international stadium for 60,000 

spectators and approximately 7,500 car parking spaces as well 

Projects 30 / 

31 

ASS Planungs GmbH 

Architects and Engineers 

Susanne Schmid 

schlaich bergermann und partner 

structural consulting engineers 

Dipl.-Ing. Knut Göppert 

as various stadium-related training and warming-up facilities 

comprising a 400 m running track of 8 lanes with all associated 

athletic (track & field) facilities, including an interior turf 

pitch and a special football pitch. In principle, the complete 

FIFA and IAAF (international sports federations for football 

and athletics) regulations, guidelines and recommendations 

were carefully taken into consideration for the planning of 

the facilities mentioned. 

Design Idea 

Out of various concept alternatives the design idea of the 

stadium was briefly named as ‘dhow shape’. Behind the overall

architectural configuration of the stadium’s huge, bulged 

building mass with its saddle-shaped roof this indigenous 

feature is recognisable. However, the form was essentially 

developed out of stadium-specific conditions and was not 

transferred from the historic vessel of the Arabian Gulf itself: 

first, the preferred seats are alongside the playing field or the 

running track; second, spectators’ viewing distances grow 

proportionally to football-related limits at 150 m (to max. 

190 m) between the extreme corner of the playing field and 

the spectator. Thus, to form a bowl on an almost circular 

footprint (although the playing field itself is rectangular) is 

the obvious solution, as thereby an optimum viewing circle 

for most spectators can be assured. 

The second prominent feature of the design idea is the 

entailing double-curved roof geometry in form of a hyperbolic 

paraboloid (saddle shape), a condition, which strongly 

influences the economy of an prestressed cable structure with 

translucent cladding. 

Level Layouts 

There is a clear structure in the functional and spatial 

allocation strictly following a very detailed space allocation 

programme, the aforementioned FIFA and IAAF handbooks 

and media guides as well as the overall local regulatory frame 

and, last but not least, stadium-specific experience and trends. 

Level 0 as the lowest of a total of four levels is arranged 

approximately 5 m below ground or access level. Access 

is provided by four ramps to the arena gates. An internal 

road corridor provides access to all functional spaces for the 

athletes and sports event participants and, furthermore, to all 

stores and the main central building services plant rooms. The 

arena itself with its four gates is fitted out with all football- 

and athletic-related facilities and has received full olympic 

characteristics in size, shape and visibility. 

Level 1 is arranged above ground at all sides and is therefore 

the actual ground level with respect to the access roads and 

the surrounding stadium perimeter apron. The V.I.P. entrance 

is provided on two levels, the lower assigned for V.I.P.s, the 

upper is dedicated to HH the Amir, state officials and honorary 

guests. Level 2 is placed in the approximately 3-m-high gap 

between the lower and the upper tier of the stadium bowl. 

A prominent, almost processional access system on the 

western side for HH the Amir and honorary guests is set up 

in a circular drive-up covered by an arts-craft glass canopy in 

front of the entrance and reception hall with a passage leading 

to the fully air-conditioned viewing lounge. On the western 

stadium side, this level includes conveniences for HH the 

Amir and his retinue, additionally – via segregated entrances 

– lobbies, working spaces, special boxes and studios for the 

media as well as offices for the administration can be found. 

Arranged around the central stadium axis and on the eastern 

side a total of 42 corporate boxes (hospitality suites) including 

associated lobbies are provided. On the northern, eastern and 

southern sides this concourse level also provides spectatorrelated 

facilities and access to the seating areas. 

The lower tier of the stadium bowls offers seating for 

approximately 22,000 spectators, including 250 primary V.I.P. 

seating in the viewing lounge and another 500 secondary 

V.I.P. seats; additionally, the corporate boxes provide seating 

for approximately 500 guests. Furthermore, a special space on 

the northern and southern sides of the gap at the upper edge of 

the lower tier provides best views for physically handicapped 

spectators visiting sports events with or without attendance. 

Bowl Access, Circulation and Viewing Distances 

Level 3 as the upper concourse is an intermediate level and is 

designed to continue the concourse of level 2. It extends to all 

sides and forms an additional perimeter circulation area for the 

spectators of the upper tier and ends, where the conveniences 

for the Sovereign and his guests in the gap zone between the 

tiers begin. 

On all bowl sides (except main stand) the access stairways 

coming from level 2 lead to the lower and also upper vomitoria 

of the upper tier, thus fulfilling the FIFA requirements for an 

access and egress system of stringent order and discipline for 

the sake of spectators’ safety. The total spectator bowl lies 

within a 130-m circle from the centre of the playing field and 

the optimum viewing circle of 90 m encloses the complete 

lower tier on both longitudinal stadium sides. 

Spectator Roofing 

Since a stadium roof is based on the spectators’ comfort 

requirements (or demands) for providing shelter against rain, 

sun, wind and dust. And since FIFA not only recommends, 

but requests to have stadia with world cup qualifications with 

at least 70% of the seats covered, the International Stadium 

is provided with a roof unique in structure and dimensions: 

the roof top view shows the almost circular roof area of

approximately 42,500 m²; its geometry is determined by the 

shape of the seating bowl which results in a double-curved 

structural system. Its saddle shape is interrupted by an 

elliptical-circular opening just above the centre of the playing 

field which has an diametre of approximately 88/113 m. 

The roof cladding excludes of course not only the structurally 

required circular area of the central opening, but also the 

elliptic area above the arena. Its structure of a single-layer 

cable-net system is based on a bicycle wheel: the radial and 

ring cables are arranged within the steel compression ring 

(the rim of the bicycle wheel) and the inner main tension 

ring (replacing the central node of a typical spoked wheel). 

The compression ring is clearly perceptible at the exterior 

perimeter, as is the tension ring which encloses the inner roof 

opening and the cladding edge, forming thus an ellipse of 

146/118 m axis lengths. The placing of the compression ring on 

the main concrete cantilevers, and the radial-concentric cablenet 

system spanned between compression and tension rings 

provides a visually simple but unique structural composition. 

The roof cladding is composed of conical membrane elements 

supported by flying masts. The translucent PTFE-coated glassfibre 

fabric is perfectly suited to provide sufficient natural 

light for the seating area; furthermore, its self-cleaning 

properties are superior. The combination of steel tubes for 

compression forces, high-strength prestressed cables for the 

tension elements and the light weight membrane material is 

most qualified for large roof coverings of the magnitude of the 

new Kuwait stadium. 

Section-related Findings and Expertise 

The sections reveal the figurative origin of the term ‘dhowshaped’: 

dived in the ground by one storey (arena level) and 

booming up to the bulged stand perimeter a similarity between 

the traditional vessel and the stadium cross section is evident. 

The arrangement of two tiers overlapping each other – thus 

providing less distance between the spectators of the upper 

tier to the arena – is one characteristic feature of the design; 

another one is the continuous slot between the two tiers 

promoting favourably the air circulation for spectator stands 

and arena by this jet principle. The sections also show the 

continuous ventilation gap between the upper bowl perimeter 

edge and the compression ring of the roof. 

The elevations on each side convey a stadium image of 

motion and emotion as well as functional compliance with the 

Projects 32 / 

33 

programme-related requirements and standards. The strict 

structuring of the bowl exteriors with their boom-like vertex 

tops make the support positions of the compression ring as 

one essential roof element clearly visible, the cantilever beams 

further underline the bearing and stiffening function of the 

whole superstructure and call to mind the indigenous feature 

of the Arabian Gulf dhow. 

Time Flow 

Preliminary design was finalised by mid 2001; final design and 

tender documents by early 2002. Tender procedure including 

evaluation was concluded by end of 2002. Construction started 

in 2004, after an interruption due to political reasons only, and 

was completed in 2008. 

Assignments 

For the study, design and planning of the Jaber al-Ahmad 

International Stadium Kuwait the State of Kuwait, represented 

by the Public Authority for Youth and Sports, appointed (the 

former) Weidleplan Consulting GmbH, Stuttgart/Germany, 

whose design and planning architects (and engineers) are 

now based at the architectural and engineering office of ASS 

Planungs GmbH, Stuttgart/Germany. ASS’ is an expert in 

the field of sports architecture and has, among others, been 

responsible for the planning and construction of the wrestling 

and the weightlifting hall for the Commonwealth Games 2010 

in New Delhi. 

The local collaboration partner was Sief Engineering 

Consultants of Kuwait. The design team included as special 

and expert subconsultants for the project’s roof structure 

the renowned office of schlaich bergermann und partner, 

with offices in Stuttgart, Berlin, New York and São Paulo. Its 

managing director Knut Göppert is one of the world’s leading 

experts in roof design, responsible for as many as twenty 

realised large stadium roofs, among others for Dubai Sports 

City, the latest new stadia in South Africa (in Port Elizabeth, 

Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg) for the FIFA World 

Cup 2010 and many new stadia on the drawing boards.

Fact File 

Lebanon 

Country Name Republic of Lebanon 

Population 3,971,941 (July 2008 estimate) 


Official Language Arabic with both English and French widely spoken 

Currency Lebanese Pound = 100 Piaster 

Main Cities Beirut (Capital)

Projects 34 / 

35 

Passavant-Roediger GmbH 

Design and Construction of a 

Michael Pfeifle 

Municipal Solid Waste Treatment 

Plant in Saida 

Municipal solid waste treatment plant in Saida, Lebanon. 

Background 

Saida is an ancient coastal city at the Mediterranean Sea, 40 

km in the south of Beirut. It has a population of over 230,000 

and is still growing. The landfill used for the disposal of waste 

is close to the seaside. The environmental impact is very high: 

in times of stormy weather, parts of the landfill are washed 

into the sea and thus pollute the beaches. However, there is 

no other area for the landfill available, but the municipality 

has been under high political pressure to find alternative 

solutions for the waste management of the city. 

In September 2003, the private Lebanese investor IBC signed 

a contract with several partners for the design, erection 

and commissioning of a complete mechanical-biological 

treatment plant for the municipal solid waste of Saida. The 

main contractors are the Lebanese construction company 

Sidoon Environmental and the German company Passavant- 

Roediger for the mechanical-electrical part of the digestion 

plant, sludge dewatering, biogas treatment and storage. 

The treatment plant is located at the southern periphery of 

Saida where soil had to be raised to built an artificial peninsula 

of approximately 20,000 m². Construction was completed by 

September 2008, and after performing the necessary cold 

tests the authorities granted the operation permit. In May 

2009, the plant was ready for commissioning. Negotiations 

are ongoing to establish a joint venture between IBC and a 

German partner to guarantee an adequate management of 

MSWTC Saida during the next 15 to 20 years.

The Treatment Process 

The company Passavant-Roediger has developed a treatment 

process by which household waste can be separated in various 

fractions, and valuable substances like metal, paper, textiles 

and plastics can be recycled. Another aspect of this process is 

the biological treatment of organic waste in order to produce 

biogas and fertiliser for agricultural use. The process water 

used for several treatment steps is to a high degree reused 

in the plant. 10 to 30% of process water is treated prior to 

its disposal into the sea or to its reuse. The residual waste 

is economically separated and prepared for recycling. The 

concept guarantees: 

– Minimising of the total solid waste to landfill 

– Reutilisation of recyclable matter 

– Protection of the resources by utilisation of the 

produced biogas 

– Reuse of the waste water after treatment and disinfecting 

– Reuse of the organic fraction from waste and waste 

water by conditioning and utilisation as fertiliser 

Daily, 300 tons of solid waste of the City of Saida are 

delivered to the plant with vehicles. The solid waste 

includes: house garbage, branches and tree leaves, 

vegetable market waste, paper, cardboard, plastics, tires, 

batteries, metals and whatever is reasonably described as 

municipal waste, consisting of the following: 

Average 

Organic material 63% 58% 60% 

Paper/cardboard 11% 19% 15% 

Plastics 11% 10% 11% 

Glass 5% 6% 5% 

Metals 3% 3% 3% 

Textiles 4% 2% 3% 

Inert/others 3% 2% 3% 

Total 100% 100% 100% 

The treatment concept consists of two steps: the mechanical 

pretreatment and the biological treatment using the principle 

of anaerobic digestion in which Passavant-Roediger here 

applied their extensive experience and integral development 

know-how and technology. Within the first step, the socalled 

mechanical pretreatment, the fractions, which are not 

biodegradable and/or can be reused as raw material, e.g. metal 

and plastics, are separated from the organic waste fraction by 

means of crushing, splitting and separation. 

Within the second step, the so-called biological treatment, 

the enriched organic fraction is treated anaerobically. The fine 

fraction produced through the mechanical treatment is fed to 

two feed preparation tanks (FPT) where it is transformed into 

a liquid suspension by adding process water coming from the 

process water tank. At this stage the mineral fraction containing 

sand, stones, glass, ceramics, etc. is separated from the organic 

suspension. This is particularly important as minerals, which 

are coming with the waste in considerable amount, may cause 

many incidents, i.e. sand blockages, wearing and tearing of 

pumps, pipes and gate valves. The separation itself is performed 

by a special backwashing and heavy reject-removal procedure, 

which is regularly applied and part of the continuous feed 

preparation process. 

The gained bio-suspension, which contains the organic 

matter of the waste, is finally fed to the two digesting tanks, 

which are build concrete and have a total height of 30 m each 

and an inner diametre of 19 m, comprising a total volume of 

7,300 m³. The temperature inside is maintained by continuous 

sludge heating. During the following digestion process the organic 

substance is decomposed by means of microorganisms. By this 

anaerobic process, which is run in completely closed digestion 

tanks without any air and light, biogas is produced, which is 

used for the generation of heat and electricity. The output of 

the digestion process is a compost-like material which contains 

organic carbon as well as nutrients like nitrogen and phosphate. 

The digestion process generates enough energy to run the entire 

plant without the need for any external source of energy. 

The bio-suspension coming from the feed preparation tanks 

is mixed with a certain amount of recycled sludge from the 

digesters. It is then pumped into the digesters. Consequently, 

light particles, which are entrapped in the thicker feed 

suspension, float to the surface of the digestion liquid. The 

light reject is regularly taken out of the reactor to keep the 

surface free of scum. The dewatered, light reject material is 

then collected in containers. 

The entire process is an intensified digestion process well 

mixed by the Passavant-Roediger gas injection system with 14 

hanging gas lances in each digester. The gas-injection system

Conveyor belts transport the mechanically pretreated waste to the feed preparation 

tanks where the waste is mixed with recycled process water. Sand and minerals are 

separated through the hoppers by means of pneumatic sluices. 

ensures an excellent mixture of the reactor content to maintain 

minimum temperature and concentration gradients. This is 

particularly important for a proper working digestion process 

with maximum organic conversion rates and a maximum gas 

yield to be achieved. In the digestion process 50 to 60% of 

the organic load is converted into reusable biogas. Measuring 

instruments are installed to monitor the digestion process and 

the gas utilisation. 

The biogas produced contains approximately 60% methane 

and 40% carbon dioxide as main components. Approximately 

19,000 m³/d of cleaned biogas is available for further 

use. During normal operation the gas will be used in a 

cogeneration plant to produce approximately 40,000 kWh/d 

of electrical energy and approximately 45,000 kWh/d of 

thermal energy. 

From a buffer storage tank the anaerobically treated sludge is 

pumped to the four mechanical dewatering machines where 

it is mixed with flocculent to support the dewatering process, 

in which the sludge is dewatered to a dry solid content of 

approximately 30%. It is then treated in a postmaturation 

step. For this purpose approximately 11,000 m² of open space is 

available to produce compost which can be used in agriculture 

as fertiliser or for landscaping. 

The filtrate which comes out of the dewatering machines is 

pumped into the process water tank for the internal recycling 

and reuse in the feed preparation tanks. All separated fractions 

with a high calorific value can be used as an auxiliary fuel, e.g. 

in the cement industry. 

Environmental Measures and Outlook 

Projects 36 / 

37 

A comprehensive waste water and waste air management is 

provided in order to reduce emissions from the plant as far 

as possible. Therefore, the water consumption is optimised 

in such a manner that the water needed for the process is 

reused in an internal cycle as far as possible. Air emissions are 

captured, and the waste air is purified by means of a biological 

system (biofilter) and a chemical scrubber system. Especially 

odorous substances are thus removed and the odour of waste 

is after purification not noticeable . 

Furthermore, all noise-intensive machinery is installed inside 

or equipped with sound-damping so that noise emissions from 

the operation of the plant are reduced as far as possible. The 

municipal solid waste treatment plant of Saida is a first step 

towards an overall concept for waste management in Lebanon 

and is to be considered a pioneer plant for further similar 

projects in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Fact File 

Libya 

Country name Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 


Land Area 1.8 million km 2 


Currency 1 Libyan Dinar = 1,000 Dirhams 

Main Cities Tripoli (Capital), Benghazi, Misurata, Sabha, Tobruk


Car, shopping and office centre. 

Opportunities and Challenges 

Arab-German business relations over the last few years 

have been mainly dominated by the field of construction and 

project design, which was and will always remain one of the 

main business activities for German companies abroad. 

At the beginning of 2005, North African countries and 

especially Libya started to modernise their infrastructure and 

installed nationwide projects to develop their activities under a 

coordinated umbrella. In the 70s and 80s German construction 

companies have already contributed to the development of 

Libyan infrastructure. However, this came to a complete halt 

during the severe economic sanctions. Since their removal, 

the liberal opening of the Libyan market around 2001 and 

the huge revenues from the oil export, investments into the 

Projects 38 / 

39 

Papadopoulos Associates GmbH 

Dipl.-Ing. Jürgen Papadopoulos 

infrastructure projects have been taken up again due to the 

high need to catch up. During this period, the Papadopoulos 

Group started to develop its business activities in project 

design, project management and project operation. 

New Infrastructure Projects in Libya 

Key to leading a country into the future is installing a modern 

infrastructure that is functioning countrywide. Libya has thus 

not only started infrastructure projects such as waste and 

real-estate projects like housing, offices, hospitals, industrial 

parks, tourist resorts, but is also investing in developing a 

nationwide railway system as well as the airport, ports and 

various street and traffic projects. All these are coordinated by 

the Ministry of Utilities, Housing and Infrastructure Board 

(HIB), the Organisation of Development of Administrative

Car, shopping and office centre. 

Centres (ODAC) and the Social Economic Fund (SEF) as well 

as many other national planning offices. The General Board 

for Projects was established a few months ago in order to 

centrally coordinate the numerous projects, which focus at 

the moment on: 

– Transportation: streets, railway, ports and airport 

– Housing and living projects 

– Commercial real estate projects: offices, hotel, 

shopping centres, etc. 

– Public buildings: hospitals, conference centre, 

university, etc. 

– Waste and infrastructure: waste, electricity, water, etc. 

In total, these infrastructure projects amount to 100 billion 

Libyan dinars. 

New Challenge in Libya 

Since 2005, PAPADOPOULOS GROUP together with its 

local partner is engaged on the Libyan market as it believes 

that Libya has and will have a high potential to realise its 

infrastructure projects. 

Vital to planning infrastructure projects is to understand 

that a modern infrastructure system should not simply copy 

western design, but should adapt modern technologies to local 

processes. Thus, the challenge is to avoid past mistakes other 

countries already made and to consider new technologies like 

energy-saving concepts as well as economical and reliable 

techniques. As it lies in the nature of those projects to be 

long-term, they can only be accelerated by single mandatory 

projects, like airports for example. 

Yet, an infrastructure master plan is still one of the major 

tasks. Albeit it is mandatory to target main infrastructure 

projects for rural areas too, Libyan authorities focus at the 

moment on the major cities, especially Tripoli: big housing 

projects have been realised and are still under construction. 

In the run-up to the 40th anniversary of the 1969 revolution, 

numerous projects were accelerated. However, this did not 

last, as after this important date projects seem to be driven 

by more economic principles rather than by a great logistic 

perspective of the infrastructure development. 

As mentioned already, all actual infrastructure projects are 

organised by state-owned coordination systems such as

ministries or funds. Though lately private joint ventures have 

taken up the initiative as well. This is possibly due to the fact 

that the legal environment has developed favourably. Also 

under way is the installation of a countrywide geographic 

system which will update important documents like maps. 

Business Concept 

Quality 

In our projects, we found that a clear understanding of the 

quality and demand these long-term projects make on the 

invested competence in designing and managing them is 

essential for their successful completion. German expertise 

and know-how in terms of construction standards like DIN 

and project management reporting tools, such as finance 

control systems, are highly welcome as all concerned are 

interested in finding the right modus operandi for these 

large-scale projects. 

cross-cultural 

The serious support of the projects, driven not only by 

business but also by a necessary identification with the 

project and the country’s demands are from our point of 

view key factors for successful business in Libya, naturally 

combined with a long-term engagement in the country 

itself. A cross-cultural communication style such as a flexible 

time management, planning and negotiation are necessarily 

important factors for success. In Libya this is known as: 

‘Without flexibility no success.’ 

training 

The instalment of a local office with local staff is the natural 

result of this. The local staff has to be trained with view to 

combine German expertise with local know-how to guarantee 

the mentioned quality. Due to absent practical experience of 

many Libyan engineers, employers sponsor the qualification 

and the expertise development. To integrate the training of staff 

right from the beginning is advised. Thus, foreign companies 

have an advantage over competitors. 

Projects 40 / 

41

Fact File 

Morocco 

Country Name Kingdom of Morocco 




Currency Moroccan dirham (MAD) = 100 centimes 

Main Cities Rabat (Capital), Casablanca, Fes, Marrakech, Meknes, Oujda, 

Agadir, Tangier, Tetouan, Laâyoune

Ain Béni Mathar – an Integrated 

Solar-Combined Cycle Plant 

Erection status February 2009: First mirror mounted on site. 

Introduction 

This article describes the technical features, financing and 

construction of the first integrated solar-combined cycle power 

plant at Ain Béni Mathar in Morocco, which is being built 

by Office Nationale de l’Électricité Morocco (ONE), Abengoa 

(EPC contractor) and Fichtner as consultant to ONE. Fichtner 

performed the initial studies, drew up the tender documents 

as well as assisted ONE in selection and contract negotiations 

with the successful bidder. At present we finalised the design 

review and assist ONE in assuring the quality standards 

Projects 42 / 

43 

Fichtner GmbH & Co. KG 

Klaus Richardt 

during construction are met; construction is scheduled for 

completion in summer 2010. 

Project Description 

Ain Béni Mathar is the first integrated solar-combined 

cycle power plant actually under construction in Morocco’s 

northern province of Jerada. Contracts for construction and 

five years of initial operation and maintenance were awarded 

to the Abengoa Group, Spain, in April 2007 under an EPC 

contract. Owner of the plant is Office National de l’Électricité

The concept of the Ain Béni Mathar ISCC. In a conventional 

combined cycle power plant, the hot exhaust gases of the 

gas turbine(s) are used in the heat recovery steam generator 

(HRSG) to produce steam which can power the steam turbine. 

In an ISCC – integrated solar-combined cycle power plant – 

additional steam is raised in a parabolic trough solar field. 

Thus, during daytime, the electricity yield is increased. 

(ONE), Morocco, the country’s national energy supplier, who 

awarded a contract to the Fichtner Group for consultancy 

services, covering the feasibility study, drawing up the tender 

documents, tender evaluation and, since April 2008, design 

review, site supervision during construction, commissioning 

and assistance to the client during the warranty period. 

The 472-MW-combined cycle power plant consists of two 

Alstom GT13 E2 gas turbines, two heat-recovery steam 

generators built by Cerrey (Mexico), one Alstom steam 

turbine, one evaporation pond, one 225 kV substation, one 

solar field with parabolic trough mirrors and heat transfer to 

the boilers via high temperature fluid (HTF) as well as BoP 

equipment, workshop and offices. 

The combined cycle plant receives its fuel via a 13 km 

connection pipeline to the Maghreb–Europe gas pipeline 

with additional thermal energy from the solar field. The 

electrical rating of the plant is 472 MWe. The total annual 

production is 3,538 GWh/y, of which 40 GWh/y come from 

the solar field. The generated electricity is evacuated via 

two 225 kV power lines to Oujda and Bourdim. The total 

construction time is scheduled at 22 months for the simple 

cycle gas turbines and 34 months for the entire combined 

cycle with the solar part. The simple cycle gas turbine was 

commissioned in December 2009, with commissioning of the 

entire plant foreseen in May 2010. 

The solar field consists of parabolic-cylindrical collectors 

concentrating the solar radiation onto a central collector 

tube, through which flows high temperature fluid (HTF) that 

transfers its heat to the steam generator of the combined 

cycle. Each collector consists of a row of six mirrors. The 

typical length of a collector is 99 m, its width is 5.76 m and 

its reflector surface is 545 m². Four collectors make up a row 

and two adjacent rows form a loop that discharges its HTF 

to the central piping system connected to the HTF/steam 

heat exchangers. There are fifty rows in the north and 62 

rows in the south of the central piping system. The power 

Erection status September 2008: Mirror workshop erected.

plant itself is set in the middle of the northern solar field, 

so the total number of rows here is only fifty. Cleaning and 

maintenance of the collectors is done from the aisles between 

the collectors. 

Financing of the Project 

Financing of the €452-million plant is assured by 

following sources: 

1. African Development Bank: €287.8 million 

2. World Environmental Fund: €36.6 million 

3. ONE and Abengoa: €127.6 million 

Construction 

The official inauguration of the project took place on 28 March 

2008, when His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco, 

unveiled the traditional stone monument into which he 

inserted the tube containing the inauguration act. 

In May 2008, Abener, the engineering arm of Abengoa, 

together with local subsuppliers started the works by levelling 

the plant area and excavating the pits for the gas turbine and 

transformer foundations. At the same time ONE started to 

built its switchyard, which is not part of the Abengoa project. 

In September 2008, the workshop for manufacture of the 

solar collectors was erected (see figure 3), the gas turbine 

foundations were under construction and a start had been 

made on erecting the pipe racks for the steam generators. 

In October 2008, the first one of two gas turbines arrived on 

site, and this was mounted on its foundation. Civil construction 

of all other buildings progressed, and in December 2008, the 

main transformers had been mounted on their foundations. 

In February 2009, the first of 2,688 mirrors was mounted on its 

foundation (see figure 1) and the 13 km long 14" pipe connection 

to the Maghreb–Europe gas pipeline was completed. Electrical 

installations and erection of the gas turbines continued. 

Between April and June 2009, the water supply and water 

treatment systems were finished as well as the gas turbines, the 

GT bypasses and the pipe racks. The two heat-recovery steam 

generators, aero condenser and steam turbine powerhouse 

main crane were under construction. First synchronisation of 

gas turbine no. 1 took place in May 2009. 

Projects 44 / 

45 

In summer 2009, gas turbine no. 1 passed its performance 

test and gas turbine no. 2 started its commissioning. Erection 

of the heat recovery steam generators, steam turbine, aero 

condenser and solar field continued. In December 2009, the 

two gas turbines were operative. 

Since March 2010 cold commissioning of the steam turbine 

is underway and the solar field is complete to approximately 

95% (see figure 4). We are optimistic that we will get the 

entire plant operational by summer 2010. 

Erection status March 2010: ISCC almost completed.

Fact File 

Oman 

Country Name Sultanate of Oman 

Population 2.8 million (June 2009) 


Official Language Arabic, with English widely spoken 

Currency 1 Rial = 1000 biaza (Fixed Peg with US Dollar) 

Main Cities Muscat (Capital), Salalah, Sohar, Sur, Nizwa, Duqm

Projects 46 / 

47 

Construction of a Methanol Plant: 

A Strategy to Diversify the Omani Economy 

Ferrostaal implemented a methanol plant in Sohar, which forms an important part of the strategy to diversify the Omani economy. 

Introduction 

The level of prosperity in Oman is mainly due to its 

large reserves of oil. In future, it is hoped to maintain 

this prosperity through explorating and refining natural 

gas. Ferrostaal implemented a methanol plant in Sohar 

for the Oman Methanol Company L.L.C., which forms 

an important part of the strategy to diversify the Omani 

economy. The Sultanate of Oman has changed greatly since 

it started exporting oil in the late sixties. The ‘black gold’ 

from the desert has transformed what was once an agrarian 

country into a sought-after exporter of raw materials. 

Ferrostaal AG 

Dr. Matthias Mitscherlich 

Up to now practically everything in the country has 

revolved around oil. The power supply is also largely 

based on it. However, the ‘black gold’ from the desert is a 

limited resource. The reserves of over five billion barrels 

are expected to last just another 20 years and are relatively 

small when compared with those of the neighbouring United 

Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The production capacities 

are already declining. A large number of sources have been 

in operation for 30 years and no longer yield as much oil 

as they once did, while new oil fields are more difficult to 

exploit. Whether in the short or long term, it is essential for 

Oman to diversify its economy.

In future, it is hoped to maintain the prosperity in Oman through explorating and refining natural gas. 

Natural Gas as an Alternative 

This state in the southeastern part of the Arabian Peninsula 

possesses not only oil but also natural gas. The gas reserves are 

still largely undeveloped and open up new opportunities for 

value creation in the country: the confirmed gas deposits would 

be enough for more than 50 years at the current production 

rate. The demand is at present higher than the supply and will 

continue to grow if greater added value is to be brought into 

the country through various gas-based projects. 

An important building block in the diversification of Oman’s 

economy is the methanol plant MO3000 in Sohar. 

Reduce Dependency on the Oil Price 

Ferrostaal signed a joint-venture agreement with Oman 

Methanol Holding Company, part of a leading private- 

industrial conglomerate in Oman, and Methanol Holdings 

Trinidad Limited, a leading global methanol producer. The 

three partners founded the project company ‘Oman Methanol

Company L.L.C.’ with the purpose to develop, implement, 

own and operate a methanol production plant to be built in 

Sohar, 250 km northwest of the capital of Muscat. 

The location of the methanol plant is the Sohar Industrial 

Port Area, a previously undeveloped site, which was 

developed into an industrial park by the Sultanate of Oman. 

The aim is, by promoting private-industrial development 

in the downstream sector to reduce the previously strong 

dependence of the Omani economy on the oil price and to 

achieve a higher added value. 

To develop and operate the industrial park as well as the 

associated port the government of the Sultanate of Oman and 

the Port of Rotterdam founded a joint venture named Sohar 

Industrial Port Company. Today, the port is fully operational 

with state-of-the-art facilities. With current investments 

exceeding $14 billion it is one of the world´s largest port 

development projects. 

What Started in Trinidad Will Be Continued 

in Oman 

The MO3000 methanol plant is the fifth of this type that 

was built by Ferrostaal over the last 20 years. The experience, 

knowledge and expertise gained in Trinidad played a key role 

in the design and construction of this plant – the design and 

construction of the project MO3000 has been based on the 

same model as those on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. 

Representing an investment of more than $500 million, 

the plant was designed for an operating capacity of 3,000 

tons of methanol per day – or one million tons per year – 

destined for the chemical industry in Europe and Asia. The 

responsibilities of Ferrostaal included the development and 

the creation of a structured finance concept as well as the 

engineering and the procurement for the project. Ferrostaal´s 

partner Proman was in charge of the construction of the 

MO3000 plant. 

The Process at MO3000 in Detail 

First of all, the natural gas passes through a supply pipeline 

into a desulphurizer. There, as natural gas contains sulphur, 

it is first cleaned – for sulphur is aggressive and attacks some 

plant components. The actual conversion into methanol 

does not begin until after the desulphurisation. The 

desulphurised natural gas passes through a heated pipe into 

Projects 48 / 

49 

the prereformer. Hot water vapour is added. The gas heats up 

and it becomes possible to break down the natural gas into 

its individual components. Natural gas consists mainly of a 

variety of hydrocarbons. Through the heating process, these 

hydrocarbons can be transformed into a balanced mixture of 

methane, hydrogen, CO and CO 2 . This split is a precondition 

for the further processing of the natural gas. 

After passing through the prereformer the actual conversion 

process begins as not all the hydrocarbons can be broken 

down in the prereformer. This is achieved by adding some 

more steam prior to introducing it into a tubular steam 

reformer. There, the natural gas, already partly split, heats 

up to about 880 °C and the remaining hydrocarbons are also 

split and synthesis gas is formed. After the steam reforming 

process, the hot synthesis gas is cooled down to 250 °C and 

mixed with the remaining split gases in the synthesis loop. 

The result of the catalytic synthesis is raw methanol. The 

process is initiated and accelerated by catalysts. 

Now, the real refining process starts, for the raw methanol 

still contains unwanted constituents which have to be 

removed. This takes place in two stages. By means of heat, 

light components of the raw methanol are first separated and 

fed back into the process in order to achieve more efficient 

methanol production. Then the raw methanol is distilled again 

and surplus water is removed – raw methanol contains a large 

amount of residual water. What is left is 99% pure methanol, 

which is then routed to atmospheric storage tanks. 

Methanol 

Methanol is an organic chemical compound with the formula 

CH 4 O. In 2008, global consumption of methanol was 45 

million tons. By 2012, an additional annual requirement of 

five million tons is expected. Currently, methanol is used 

mainly in the chemical sector, the highest increases are 

expected in the fuel sector. In the chemical industry, basic 

chemicals such as formaldehyde and acetic acid are produced 

out of methanol. In the energy sector, methanol is used as 

a raw material for the production of conventional fuels. In 

addition, pure methanol (M100) in engines allows sulphurfree, 

clean combustion and is used in fuel cells to supply 

hydrogen.

Masterplan and Main Building 

of the German University 

of Technology in Oman 

Halban Campus masterplan. 

German University of Technology in Oman 

Masterplan 

The German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) was 

founded in 2007 based on a Collaborative Agreement between 

RWTH Aachen University and the private company Oman 

Educational Services LLC. The basic idea was to establish an 

university of technology in Oman based on German expertise 

in the education and training of engineers and scientists. 

Moreover, the university should have strong ties to the 

industry in order to support the industrial and economic 

development of Oman. 

German University of 

Technology in Oman (GUtech) 

Prof. Dr. Burkhard Rauhut 

Since education is a high priority in Oman, the government 

of Oman supported the establishment of the university by 

allocating in the Halban region near Muscat 500,000 m 2 

for a campus enabling the university to enrol up to 10,000 

students in the future, thus being the most significant 

cooperation between Germany and Oman in the field of 

higher education. 

In autumn 2007, GUtech took up operation on a temporary 

campus, consisting of rented buildings, by enrolling its first 

students into a pre-university programme, to which four 

Bachelor of Science programmes were added in the following

year. At the same time the masterplan for the main campus 

was developed by Höhler + Partner LLC, architects and 

engineers in Oman, with both German and Omani partners. 

The main idea in commissioning this German-Omani 

company was to combine German scientific education with 

Omani architecture, taking into account not only the special 

climatic conditions in this part of the world but also the 

cultural and religious traditions of Oman. The masterplan 

thus comprises architectural as well as urban planning 

aspects. Furthermore, it also considers economic and ecologic 

sustainability due to the necessity to use resources such as 

water and energy sparingly. 

The use of water and energy has to follow three guidelines: 

reduce, reuse and recycle. Water for example can be saved by 

avoiding evaporation and leaks, used water can be reused for 

different purposes depending on the initial use, and recycled 

water might be good for irrigation. The application of low 

energy standards for new buildings saves energy and cuts 

operational as well as future maintenance costs. 

The climatic conditions in Oman make high demands on the 

design of the whole campus. Temperatures above 40 ºC and a 

relative humidity of up to 95% are not exceptional. Ventilation 

and cooling are thus critical not only within the buildings but 

also across the campus itself. 

The layout of the campus is based on a grid with perpendicular 

axes. The main axis is defined by the connection between the 

main entrance and the main building. The vertical axes are 

assigned to specific purposes: one axis is meant for industrial 

settlements like research departments of companies, spinoffs 

from GUtech or combined research activities between 

Halban Campus without buildings, showing sun-lines, wind direction, Mecca. 

Projects 50 / 

51 

GUtech and industry. The next axis contains the buildings 

for different faculties, whereas the third one is dedicated 

to facilities used for social activities such as students club, 

faculty club, gym or other social facilities. All other axes are 

reserved for accommodating students as well as staff. The 

campus is surrounded by service roads so that several side 

entrances are possible. 

Northwesterly winds from the sea, which are almost 

unidirectional, dominate the area. Accordingly, the campus 

grid has been rotated against the orientation of the layout by 

an angle of about 45º. Together with the increasing height of 

the buildings, which is also aligned to the wind direction, this 

orientation supports cooling throughout the whole year. 

Main Building of GUtech Campus 

The main building is the campus’ centre. It is a square 

building with a side length of around 84 m and an inner 

square courtyard with a side length of about 46 m which is 

shadowed by movable tarpaulins. The gross floor area (GFA) 

of the building is around 24,000 m 2 . 

The building accommodates the university administration, the 

main library, the cafeteria, lecture halls of different sizes, and 

many smaller seminar rooms. Moreover, the inner courtyard 

is shaped like an amphitheatre with more than 650 seats. The 

building dedicates also space to external institutions which 

are linked to the university, such as the Goethe Institute, the 

DAAD lectureship and the German Chamber of Commerce. 

The building is accessible from the main road via several 

parking zones and delivery ramps as well as from the plaza 

level. The elevated ground floor accommodates the cafeteria, 

the student club and the large lecture halls. The amphitheatre 

connects these different elements. It provides space for both 

formal and informal functions like graduation ceremonies, 

open days, music presentations and sport events. The offices 

of Oman Educational Services, the rectorate of GUtech, the 

Goethe Institute, the DAAD lectureship and the German 

Chamber of Commerce are all located on the second floor. All 

other floors accommodate small- and medium-sized lecture 

halls and seminar rooms as well as the central library, which is 

spread over three floors, covering more than 5,000 m 2 . 

The main building receives a finish of natural stone. Variations 

in the façade details create an impression of staggered stone 

blocks. Pilaster and gutter are used to create further nuances.

Amphitheatre. 

With its variations of open and closed space, rough and fine 

textures the façade alludes to the abundance of forms and 

shapes found in nature. The windows are equipped with a 

flexible shading and ventilation system. Photo-voltaic elements 

in Islamic patterns provide shade and simultaneously make 

use of sun light. 

The façade towards the inner courtyard is a semipermeable 

membrane. This permeability supports the interaction of 

corridor and ramp as a communication zone. The balustrades 

of the ramp are used to create a more playful atmosphere. The 

railing runs along the ramp like a broad dancing ribbon. It 

changes its appearance from small to wide, twisted to folded, 

enhancing the idea of ongoing communication. 

It is expected that GUtech moves into the main campus at 

the end of 2012. At that time the number of students will not 

exceed 1,200 or 1,500. Therefore, the campus will be built in 

a series of phases. 

In Phase I only the main building and two housing quarters 

for students and staff will be erected. Since the administration 

and the library will be relatively small at that time all the 

departments including offices, laboratories and research 

facilities will be available in the main building. Following a 

well-defined schedule, the faculty buildings as well as additional 

housing quarters and social activity buildings will be built step 

by step, depending on the growth of GUtech, thus allowing 

administration and library to expand in the main building. 

Housing Quarters and Green Axis of 

GUtech Campus 

In order to attract students from beyond Muscat, it is 

absolutely necessary to provide student accommodation. 

Housing opportunities for staff, fly-in teachers and guests 

are also useful to improve the attractiveness of the university. 

Therefore the housing area, which covers the bigger part of 

the whole layout, is divided into three resorts of different 

size: one for students, one for staff and one for guests. The 

accommodations for female and male students are separated. 

The whole housing area is further separated into public, 

semipublic and semiprivate spaces. The main public area is 

a wide green axis prolonging the line from the main gate 

to the main building. Two green stripes vertical to the main 

green axis give access to a wide range of social facilities like 

another cafeteria, the student club, health services, school 

and kindergarten as well as sport areas. The semipublic 

spaces are the central areas of each housing quarter, whereas

the garden-like courtyard of each house can be seen as a 

semiprivate place. 

The distinctive density of buildings takes into consideration 

traditional Omani architecture which was formed by the 

necessity to create a cooling microclimate. This century-old 

knowledge of sensible construction is not only reflected, 

but actually used for the campus design. The microclimate 

created by the dense design supports the cooling and 

humidification between the buildings thus reducing the 

costs for artificial air conditioning. In this way, the Omani 

building tradition strengthens the concept of sustainable 

building of the 21th century. 

In order to create a comfortable microclimate, not only the 

high density of buildings is copied, but also two additional 

tools, which were used in ancient times already: the traditional 

Omani falaj system and the concept of wind towers. 

The use of water as a design element serves two purposes: 

it is an aesthetic element of the landscape and it helps to 

humidify and cool the air. Pools in the housing quarters 

offer refreshment and recreation, they also cool down the air 

between the densely build houses. The wind towers are located 

at the roof of each building using the difference between high 

and low air pressure to channel wind into the rooms below 

and extract the used air from the inside. 

After finishing the construction of the main campus of the 

German University of Technology in Oman, these facilities 

will be an outstanding symbol of the successful cooperation 

between Germany and Oman. 

Cross-section of 

the main building. 

Floor plan. 

Projects 52 / 

53

Fact File 

Palestine 

Country Name Palestinian Territories 

Population 4,013,126 (2009 estimate) 



Main Cities Ramallah and Gaza (current location of government institutions) 

East Jerusalem (desired capital of a future independent Palestine) 

Largest City Gaza

Waste Water Treatment 

and Reuse in the Gaza Strip 

Bio-Tower PS, with pumps out of service. 

The Gaza Strip suffers severe constraints in water supply 

and sanitation due to its location, confinement and semiarid 

coastal climate. In addition to its already high population 

density steady population growth is putting the limited 

water resources, sanitation and agriculture under increasing 

stress resulting in ground water depletion, degradation of 

water quality and reduced crop productivity. Evidently, water 

resources, health, environmental protection, and urban quality 

of life in Gaza are interdependent to such a large degree that 

integrated water resources planning is a priority need. 

Projects 54 / 

55 

Dorsch Gruppe 

Keith Brooke 

Recognising this context the Palestine-German Development 

Cooperation has launched an ambitious waste water project 

comprising an overall investment budget of approximately 

€70 million. The specific objective of the Gaza central waste 

water project is to ensure an environmentally and hygienically 

safe treatment of sewage in the central Gaza Strip, comprising 

Gaza City and the middle area communities (i.e. Buriej, Deir El 

Balah, etc.) with a total of 1.3 million population equivalents. 

The implementation of the project has started in 2003 and 

follows a double-staged approach. In the first stage the project

Waste water treatment plant project site. Waste water discharges over the western Gaza City beaches. 

will provide a fully functional sewerage and waste water 

treatment system, including the construction of a new central 

waste water treatment plant in Buriej, adjacent to the Green 

Line in the security area otherwise restricted for development. 

Altogether, the following components are planned to be 

constructed under four contracts: 

– El Buriej waste water treatment plant: a mechanicalbiological 

plant for the year 2015, with an annual 

average flow of 115,000 m 3 /d and a summer peak daily 

flow of 135,000 m 3 /d. Provision is being made to upgrade 

the capacity to 200,000 m 3 /d, including nitrogen removal 

and tertiary treatment in future stages up to 2025. 

– Wadi Gaza central pumping station: peak capacity 

3.2 m 3 /s (2015), upgradeable to 4.4 m 3 /s (2025), including 

connection to the DN 1000 Central Communities gravity 

trunk main. 

– Pressure main DN 1400: 3.7 km long from 

Wadi Gaza central pumping station to Buriej waste water 

treatment plant. 

– Gravity trunk main DN 1500: 5.4 km long from Gaza 

City to the central pumping station. 

Furthermore, a specific study for the optimisation of systems 

for dealing with the effluent and sludge has also been carried 

out: it exemplifies a serious effort to develop a plan to realise 

the opportunities for beneficial effluent and sludge reuse that 

will be opened by the Gaza central waste water project. The 

feasibility study shows the specific requirements in planning 

and management for waste water treatment, irrigation 

conveyance and aquifer recharge to meet high technical 

standards and sustainable economical benefits. The overall 

goal of the project is to use the substantial quantities of 

treated effluent produced by the Buriej waste water treatment 

plant as an efficient substitute for irrigation by ground water. 

Effluent that is surplus to irrigation demand is recharged 

to the Coastal Aquifer to reduce and ultimately reverse the 

decline in ground water quantity and quality. 

The study illustrates practicable and enforceable concepts 

under various scenarios and discusses the impact that waste 

water reuse will have on the water resources as part of the 

overall water balance in the Gaza Strip. Particular attention 

is paid to economic and financial analysis as several indicators 

justify effluent reuse for irrigation purposes. The principal

economic output of the project will be an increased agricultural 

production that will strengthen farm profitability and 

ensure sustainable agricultural production while the regions 

dependence on fertiliser imports will gradually decline. As 

an integral part of the regional water strategy to provide full 

coverage of waste water treatment, this waste water reuse 

project serving Gaza City and the central communities will 

be the first of its kind in Palestine and therefore its successful 

implementation will provide a framework on which further 

waste water reuse projects can be developed. 

At this point, design for the Buriej waste water treatment 

plant has been completed and tender documents have been 

finalised. The intent is to proceed with implementation when 

the security situation in Gaza is sufficiently stable to allow the 

project to proceed without unacceptable risk. 

Initial planning Gaza waste water project. 

Projects 56 / 

57

Fact File 

Qatar 

Country Name State of Qatar 

Population 1.6 million (June 2009) 


Official Language Arabic with English widely used 

Currency 1 Qatari Riyal (QR) = 100 dirhams 

Main Cities Doha (Capital), Ras Laffan Industrial City, Al Khor, Dukhan, 

Al Wakrah, Mesaieed

Projects 58 / 

59 

ThyssenKrupp Elevator 

Qatar’s Fastest Elevators – 

Christian Kozma 

The Qipco ‘Tornado’ Tower – Doha 

Qibco Tower elevator cabin. 

Project Overview 

The West Bay district of Qatar’s capital will become home 

to a new high-rise quarter shortly. The highlight will be a 

distinctive 200-m tower to be known as The Tornado Tower, 

a tower with the dynamic form of a whirlwind in the desert. 

The shape is based on a construction optimised for economic 

and energy efficiency that can withstand heavy loads despite 

its own light weight, while featuring an extremely flexible 

interior completely free of interior supports. 

Steel-reinforced concrete slabs combine the characteristic 

steel support structure and the inner reinforced concrete core 

in the ‘eye of the tornado’. The 51-storey high-rise plus three 

basements will accommodate offices, parking slots, several 

restaurants, a café and a recreation lounge, creating a city 

landmark in the new quarter, also at night. 

Qipco Tower has been awarded the ‘2009 Best Tall Building 

in the Middle East and Africa’ by the Chicago-based Council 

on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, in recognition for its

Qibco Tower in Doha. 

architectural form, structure, building systems, sustainable 

design strategy, safety for its occupants and preservation of 

the urban quality of life. This is the first time a building in 

Qatar has won such a prestigious award. 

The Elevation Challenge 

The elevation systems in this emblematic building were 

logically required to be state-of-the-art, with the following 

key aspects: 

– High-speed transportation of people 

– Safety and reliability 

– Cutting-edge technology to compliment 

the building structure 

– Minimum waiting times 

– State-of-the-art aesthetics 

The ThyssenKrupp Elevator Solution 

high-sPeeD elevators: 

the fastest elevators in Qatar at 7 m/s 

ThyssenKrupp Elevator installed 23 elevators in the Tornado 

Tower. 16 high-rise elevators are divided into three groups 

(high-rise, mid-rise and low-rise), each group serving a certain 

number of storeys of the building. Eleven 1,600-kg passenger 

elevators can ascend at a rate up to 7 m/s, or about two storeys 

a second, and are the fastest ever installed in Qatar. Another 

group of five 1,600-kg elevators ascend at a speed of 4 m/s. 

In total, the building comprises sixteen high-speed passenger 

elevators (including 2 V.I.P. elevators ascending 51 stops up 

to 195 m at a speed of 7 m/s), six MRL passenger elevators 

(for the three floors of parking area), and one service elevator 

(ascending 53 stops up to 199 m at a speed of 3.5 m/s). 

state-of-the-art elevator technology 

All high-rise elevators had to follow the strict requirements 

of the 77-page technical specifications prepared by JAPPSEN 

INGENIEURE, a top-class German elevator consultant, with 

very high standards to be achieved for each and every elevator 

component, and very demanding performance ratios for noise 

levels, stop lost times, acceleration, etc. 

sPecial large motors for high-sPeeD lifts 

Motors for the 7 m/s lifts were our Gearless DAB 530 

weighing 4,000 kg, with dimensions of 1,300 x 1,546 x 1,500 

mm in width, depth and height (machine only). 

DSC screen.

lower waiting times achieveD 

16 high-rise passenger elevators in the Tornado Tower are 

integrated into a common Destination Selection Control (DSC), 

the largest number of elevators operating on a single common 

DSC for any high-rise project in the Gulf region and the only 

ThyssenKrupp Elevator project in the world with 16 elevators 

on a single DSC – a new world record. The DSC optimises 

traffic flows and helps passengers reach their destinations 

faster through touch screen terminals placed in the lobby areas 

where travellers enter their destination before entering the 

elevator. Within seconds the computer selects the best elevator 

and informs the passenger via the terminal which elevator to 

proceed to. This results in a 30% increase in handling capacity 

and optimises passenger comfort and waiting times. 

sPecial features on the Dsc for this Project 

– The DSC special features include a personal identification 

number code access to V.I.P. floors: through the DSC 

screens a password is introduced by the V.I.P. users 

allowing them to be the exclusive users of their lifts. 

A system of several personal passwords has been 

developed for this project. 

– A PIN code for cleaning activities, allowing the 

maintenance personnel to work easily, safely and 

comfortably in the cabins. 

– The initial menu of the DSC screens counts with direct 

access buttons to restaurants, recreation floors, ground 

floor, mezzanine. 

– Buttons to change the display from English to Arabic. 

– A handicap button which activates special handicap 

functions such as longer door opening times. 

– A special feature button which activates the password 

function previously described. 

aDDitional sPecial features 

– Elevator doors: adapting to the circular lift lobby. 

In addition to the special architrave for the main lift 

lobby, the door jambs are fully walled to blend with 

the unique circular lift lobby. The doors have a 3-D door 

sensor to add to the safety and comfort feature. The sills 

for the landing and car doors are made of stainless steel. 

The main lobby and all high-rise cabins have S-5 highperformance 

doors. The service elevator’s doors were 

made of the dimension 1,400 x 2,800 mm which is more 

than the standard dimension. 

– High-quality aesthetics: Among the special features included 

in the V.I.P. cabin are a Thin Filled Transistor display 

compatible with Internet inside the cabin, as well as 

Qibco circular. 

Projects 60 / 

61 

custom-built cabin interiors for passenger and V.I.P. lifts 

as per client requirements. Most particularly, the V.I.P. lift 

was decorated with Kiwi-mesh walls and an exclusive and 

multicolour stone-engraved car floor with a company logo. 

– Safety and reliability: EN-81 standards have been complied 

with in this project; including emergency doors every two 

landings (every 7 m) for those parts of the shafts where no 

landings are available. Evacuation systems under normal 

and emergency power have also been included. All 

elevators in the project were manufactured in Germany, 

being all components of very high reliability, with special 

mention to the ThyssenKrupp motors and controllers. 

Strengths of the Project 

State-of-the-art elevation systems are a key component of this 

building. The elevators provided by ThyssenKrupp Elevator 

are the fastest in Qatar to date, at 7 m/s, and the bank of 16 

passenger elevators on a single Destination Selection Control 

is the highest number to date in the Gulf region and the largest 

ever for ThyssenKrupp Elevator. The project included a large 

number of special features, both in terms of technology as well 

as decorative elements, to ensure a highest-quality solution 

for this emblematic building.

Fact File 

Saudi Arabia 

Country Name Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 

Population 28.7 million (2009) 


Official Language Arabic is the national language, but English is now widely 

spoken in business and public life 

Currency Saudi Arabian Rial (SAR) = 100 halalah 

Main Cities Riyadh (Capital), Jeddah, Damman

Strategic Consulting in the 

Rapidly Expanding Middle East 

Aviation Market 

Saudi Arabian Airlines on the Way to 

Becoming an Aviation Group with the Support 

of Lufthansa Consulting 

As one of the leading management consultancies in the 

aviation industry, Lufthansa Consulting has also been active 

in the Middle East for more than twenty years in the course 

of its worldwide activities. Its consulting services focus on 

airline restructuring, providing support for airline start-up 

Projects 62 / 

63 

Lufthansa Consulting GmbH 

Marlene Hollwurtel 

Ala Toukatli, Partner at Lufthansa Consulting, Saudi Arabian Airlines’ Deputy Director General and Chief of the Passenger Airline, Abdulaziz R. Alhazmi, and Gero von Goetz, 

Advisor to the Deputy Director General, Saudi Arabian Airlines, during the signing ceremony for the extension of the consultancy contract. 

projects as well as upgrading the overall traffic infrastructure. 

Numerous projects were successfully concluded. Among the 

most important projects it has taken on in recent years are the 

Performance Improvement Program at EGYPTAIR Cargo, the 

restructuring of the Jordanian Civil Aviation Authority and 

the start-up of Wataniya Airways in Kuwait. 

The most challenging project that Lufthansa Consulting is 

currently managing in the region is the strategic advising of

Airbus A320-200. 

Saudi Arabian Airlines, one of the largest and most reputable 

carriers in the Middle East. Lufthansa Consulting took on 

the complex consulting task in March 2008 after the airline 

commissioned the German aviation experts to help it to 

validate and implement its new corporate strategy. 

The project was launched against the background of Saudi 

Arabia’s plans to privatise the airline sector. In this context, 

the government also intends to open the internal market to 

competition. Several airlines, predominantly low-cost carriers, 

have already based themselves in the region. While competition 

in the domestic market is strong, network carriers in the Middle 

East are also posting markedly higher growth figures and are 

achieving dominance in the region and their target markets. 

Furthermore, in the course of its privatisation, Saudi Arabian 

Airlines will not receive any more subsidies. It will have to 

refrain from regulating prices and also initiate the sale of the 

Saudi Arabian Airlines’ headquarters in Jeddah. 

airline group to private investors. For the airline, these plans 

mean the complete restructuring of the company including 

investments, especially in fleet modernisation, in a state-ofthe-art, 

standard IT platform as well as in modern management 

expertise. The carrier’s comprehensive restructuring to become 

an aviation concern is modeled on Lufthansa’s successful 

privatisation process. Saudi Arabian Airlines is rising to this 

challenge and together with Lufthansa Consulting it will tackle 

a range of tasks to reposition the airline. 

To begin with, the company’s market potential was identified 

and defined, particularly with regard to the current, specific 

dynamism in the Middle East market. In the analyses, the 

airline’s position in the international market was also taken 

into account. In addition, Lufthansa Consulting had to establish 

the extent to which Saudi Arabian Airlines is equipped 

for the new tasks facing it and for market requirements 

and its ability to face future challenges arising from the 

new strategic alignment. In all core areas and functions, 

Lufthansa Consulting conducted assessments and examined 

them with particular regard to best practice, processes and 

organisation. Here, Saudi Arabian Airlines placed special 

emphasis on the close integration and participation of the 

management and its staff. The consultants implemented a 

range of established change management methods to engage 

the support of the entire workforce for the implementation 

of the new strategy. 

Having made comprehensive structural and functional 

assessments, Lufthansa Consulting made the appropriate 

strategic recommendations to its client and presented concrete 

action plans. One of the main measures proposed for Saudi 

Arabian Airlines was the concentration on five core aims: 

– Positioning of the company as the Middle East carrier, 

committed to Arab-Muslim tradition based on state-ofthe-art-methods. 

– Future serving of the high volume of domestic traffic on 

a purely commercial basis. 

– Positioning as the most important carrier for pilgrims 

travelling to the Muslim world. Each year more than six 

million Muslim pilgrims from all over the world travel 

via the Saudi Arabian capital Jeddah to the holy cities of 

Mecca and Medina. 

– Carrying guest workers from Asian countries, mainly 

from India, Pakistan and the Philippines. 

– Establishment of a private jet service (Royal/V.I.P./ 

Private Charter).

sauDi araBian airlines 

FACTS & FIGURES 

BUSINESS UNITS: 

Passenger Airline, Royal Fleet, Private Aviation, Cargo, 

Catering, Ground Services, Maintenance, Flight Training, 

Medical Services 

STAFF: 

28,500 employees, of whom 14,000 work in the Passenger 

Airline division 

DESTINATIONS/PASSENGERS: 

81 destinations, of which 26 in Saudi Arabia with 

10.5 million passengers and 55 international destinations 

with 7.5 million passengers 

FLEET: 

120 aircraft in the business units Passenger Airline, Royal 

Fleet and Private Aviation 

REVENUE: 

$5 billion 

Since 2009, Lufthansa Consulting has been involved in the 

concrete implementation of strategic measures to reorganise 

internal structures and processes and to ensure the efficiency 

of operations at Saudi Arabian Airlines. The experts are 

currently managing 49 projects ranging from the development 

of a new network strategy including fleet and flight planning 

and the creation of a quality management system in the 

safety and quality area through to the restructuring of flight 

operations. Consultants working on site at Saudi Arabian 

Airlines’ headquarters in Jeddah are also involved in coaching 

top management and experts from the airline. A team of more 

than twenty professionals from all areas of the Lufthansa 

Group is based in Jeddah and is working very successfully in 

close coordination with the client. 

Saudi Arabian Airlines has an extremely sophisticated 

clientele and aims to offer its customers excellent, dedicated 

services. Many of the measures and steps identified jointly 

with Lufthansa Consulting meet these aspirations, and 

will thus help to develop the airline into one of the most 

important providers of airline services in the Middle East 

and further expand its role as one of the leading airlines. 

Projects 64 / 

65

Banking on Fertiliser 

in the Middle of the Desert 

Panorama view of the site. 

Outotec GmbH, Oberursel 

Rosemarie Overstreet 

and Manfred Tapfer

Background 

Long aware of the dangers of being overly dependent on its oil 

wealth, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has developed a strategy 

based on its vast mineral deposits. Economic diversification 

has been high on the kingdom’s agenda since the 1970s. Today, 

the country continues to pursue opportunities to broaden its 

industrial base and is firmly focused on making mining the 

third pillar of its economy. Metallic ores such as gold, silver, 

copper, zinc and iron can be found in the western half of the 

kingdom, and phosphate and bauxite deposits are found in the 

northeast. 

Largest Sulfuric Acid Plant Worldwide 

In an effort to exploit these deposits, the government set up 

the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) to lead the 

sector’s development. The company was formed in March 

1997. Following its success with some gold projects, Ma’aden 

decided to expand its activities by developing fertiliser and 

aluminium plants. 

The senior management at Ma’aden believed that the plant 

had to be large enough to ensure that they would instantly 

become one of the top players in the fertiliser market instead 

of taking a more traditional approach of building up a steady 

market share with a number of smaller plants. Thus, in June 

2007, Outotec agreed with Ma’aden to deliver the world’s 

largest sulfuric acid plant facility. To realise a project of this 

size and to strengthen its local presence in the kingdom, 

Outotec entered into a joint venture with the Saudi-based 

Central Mining Company Investment Ltd. in 2007 and set up 

a local office in the important coastal city of Al-Khobar. 

The challenges of a project of this scope and nature could be 

found at every turn: the site selected for construction is Ras 

Az Zawr, which is located in the middle of a desert along the 

Gulf coast, miles from the nearest city having any kind of 

infrastructure. From a technical standpoint, Outotec was to 

design and deliver a lump-sum, turnkey, gargantuan facility 

with three parallel production lines capable of turning out a 

total maximum capacity of 15,000 tons of sulfuric acid per 

day – there is no benchmark on the books of a sulfuric acid 

plant of this size. 

The scope of Outotec’s involvement ranged from the 

engineering and proprietary technology to the delivery and 

turnkey installation of all three sulfuric acid plants, with 

First fundaments at site. 

Projects 66 / 

67 

responsibility for coordinating the worldwide purchase of 

import equipment as well as all local supplies in addition to 

the installation of the facility. For the training of the plants’ 

operators, Outotec has developed a state-of-the-art, dynamic 

computer simulator. 

Roughly 31 months later, the project has reached its mechanical 

completion and will soon begin the re-commissioning phase 

before going ‘live’ in 2011. Upon its completion, the facility’s 

entire acid production will be utilised solely for the purpose 

of manufacturing phosphate-based fertiliser. In addition to 

producing the sulfuric acid necessary for fertiliser, the three 

plants will also be able to produce energy in form of highpressure 

steam at a rate of about 800 tons per hour, similar to 

that of a traditional, mid-sized power plant. 

Because the client’s goals were of a superlative nature – 

biggest, fastest, top –, it required reaching economies-of-scale 

for a fertiliser plant complex this size in a relatively short time 

frame. And it has also meant complete dedication to the task 

at hand especially under the turbulent conditions the global 

market has been faced with – the kingdom can simply no 

longer depend on oil to guide its future.

Converter area.

Projects 68 / 

69

Fact File 

Sudan 

Country Name The Republic of the Sudan 

Population 40,200,000 (July 2008) 


Official Language Arabic, also in use is English and about 115 tribal languages 

Currency 1 Sudanese Pound = 100 piaster 

Main Cities Khartoum (Capital), Omdurman, Atbara, Port-Sudan, 

El-Obeid, El-Fasher, Juba

The Merowe Dam 

and Hydropower Station 

The Merowe Hydropower Station in March. 2010: The Merowe Spillway in operation. 

The Inauguration of the Biggest Hydropower 

and Water Resources Infrastructure Project 

in Africa 

The Merowe Dam and its hydropower plant is located on 

the Nile some 350 km north of Khartoum and some 550 

km upstream of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. It has been 

designed to serve several purposes, namely: the generation 

of electricity from its 1,250 MW hydropower plant, the 

supply of water to centralised agricultural irrigation schemes 

(about 400,000 ha) and the protection against the devastating 

high floods of the Nile. Furthermore, the Merowe Dam 

will act as a sediment trap, reducing sedimentation of the 

Aswan High Dam further downstream in Egypt. Thus, 

this project represents one of the most economic ‘Green 

Energy Generation Options’ worldwide with the lowest CO 2 

emissions. 

To understand the importance of the Nile to Northeast 

Africa, which with its length of 6,650 km is the longest river 

in the world, and the value of its waters to the people, it has 

to be noted that slightly more than 400 million inhabitants 

are served by its waters currently. According to studies 

conducted by internationally recognised organisations, this 

population is expected to nearly double by 2025. 

Projects 70 / 

71 

Lahmeyer International GmbH 

Egon Failer 

In 2001, the executing agency, the Dams Implementation 

Unit (DIU), launched an international competitive tender for 

the engineering services, covering the preparation of tender 

documents for the various works, tendering and contracting, 

construction design, contracts and construction management, 

including construction supervision. In February 2002, this 

massive engineering contract was awarded to Lahmeyer 

International, Germany. 

Early in June 2003, the contract for the civil works, amounting 

to €555 million, was signed in Khartoum, Sudan, with a 

Chinese consortium of civil contractors. Further international 

contracts for the hydromechanical works (€52 million), the 

electro-mechanical installations (€257 million) and for the 

power transmission system (US$397 million) were awarded 

in December 2003. 

More than 70% of the total project costs (which reached 

€1.4 billion in 2010) were funded by Arab funding agencies 

from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Oman. 

The remaining 30% of the project’s costs were financed 

by the government of the Sudan. The first two of the ten 

generating units started commercial operation on 3 March 

2009 during the inauguration ceremony of Merowe Dam, 

which was attended by the President of the Sudan and more

than 20,000 people of the region. With the completion of the 

tenth and last power generating unit, the complete power 

station started commercial operation with full capacity on 

8 April 2010. The inauguration ceremony of this historic 

event was held at the dam site and was attended by more 

than 1,700 ministers and high-ranking government officials 

from Sudan and neighbouring countries. More than 55 

executives of the various Arab funding agencies attended 

the inauguration. 

Prior to the inauguration of the dam in March 2009, 

Lahmeyer International was awarded a further services 

contract to assist the owner (DIU) in the operation and 

maintenance of the power and dam facilities and to train his 

staff to operate, maintain and manage the complete facilities. 

During the build-up period from March 2009 to April 2010, 

more than 2,700 GWh of electric energy were generated. 

This energy represents a monetary value of more than €350 

million when using a crude oil price of US$70 per barrel. 

Since January 2010 the Merowe hydropower plant has 

generated more than 75% of the electricity demand of the 

country and has proven to be the ‘backbone’ of the national 

electric grid. 

The 500 kV power transmission lines. 

Dam Specification and Construction 

Due to the topographic conditions of the dam site, the project 

features a dam with a total length of about 9.3 km and a 

maximum height of 67 m. The dam is made up of several 

sections, including the power intake dam, powerhouse, the 

nonoverflow dam, the spillway, concrete faced rockfill dams 

on the left and right banks, the earth core rockfill dam and 

dykes on both banks. 

Local people visiting the project. 

A natural two-stream flow regime existed at the project site 

with the main channel and the secondary channel separated 

by a small island. During the first two years the water flow 

was diverted through this main channel while the spillway 

and power intake dam were constructed up to elevation 

264 m ASL in the dewatered secondary channel. 

During the second stage of construction the flow was diverted 

through the partially completed spillway for a period of four 

years. During the flood season 2006 peak flows of close to 

11,000 m³/s were diverted, while construction of the spillway 

and installation of the 14 radial gates were ongoing. 

The powerhouse is located at the toe of the intake dam and 

consists of a 38 m long erection bay and five unit blocks, each 

55 m long. It accommodates the ten power generating units, 

each with a Francis turbine with a net head of 45.5 m, a rated 

discharge of 306 m³/s and a capacity of 125 MW, directly 

coupled to the 140 MVA synchronous generators. Each two 

generators are connected via generator circuit breakers to 

single-phase step-up transformers, which feed the 500 kV 

GIS by HV cables. The power station can generate about 

5,800 GWh of low-cost and clean electricity annually. For the 

erection and maintenance of the power generating units, two 

overhead travelling cranes, each with a capacity of 3,000 kN, 

were installed. For the transmission of power to the city of 

Port Sudan via the city of Atbara, to the capital Khartoum and 

to the Northern Provinces (Dongola/Debba), some 981 km of 

500 kV lines and 795 km of 220 kV lines were constructed. 

In addition, the power transmission system includes three 

500/220 kV substations, one 220/110 kV substation and three 

220/23 kV substations.

The spillway structure, with 12 bottom outlets and two 

surface spillways, is connected to the power intake dam by 

the nonoverflow dam. At the maximum reservoir water level 

of 300 m ASL the bottom outlets and surface spillways will 

have a combined capacity of about 20,000 m³/s. The power of 

the water when spilled at full capacity reaches almost 10,000 

MW, which is dissipated in the 35 m deep plunge pool. 

The main dam of the Merowe project is a classic earth 

core rockfill dam (ECRD) with a central earth core, fine 

and coarse filters and upstream and downstream rockfill 

shoulders. Random rockfill was used for the construction of 

the cofferdams. The ECRD is founded on alluvial sediments, 

which are up to 30 m thick. To avoid seepage through the river 

sediments underneath the ECRD, a 1 m thick and 40 m deep 

plastic concrete cut-off wall was provided. On top of the cut-off 

wall a ‘cushion’ of highly plastic material was placed to avoid 

stress concentrations in the wall and cracking of the core. 

Concrete face rockfill dams (CFRD) were selected on both the 

left and right banks for economic reasons. The zoning of both 

CFRD is conventional, consisting of a transition zone, fine 

filters, coarse filters and random rockfill. The upstream and 

downstream slopes are inclined at 1 V:1.3 H and 1 V:1.5 H, 

respectively. The total volume of both CFRD is 5.3 x 10 6 m³. 

The reservoir formed by the dam is about 180 km long and 

covers a surface area of around 800 km² at the maximum 

reservoir water level of 300 m ASL. The volume of the total 

storage is about 12.5 x 10 9 m³, which represents less than 

20% of the average annual flow of the Nile. Due to the fact 

that almost 95% of the reservoir area is desert land, only 

about 40 km² of agricultural land has been submerged. 

Start of operation of units 1 and 2 and celebration with the local people. 

Merowe Dam and the People 

Projects 72 / 

73 

About 70,000 people, mainly farming families, were affected by 

the reservoir. Their original living conditions were very poor 

and the houses were without water and electricity supply, with 

very poor health and schooling facilities. These people were 

resettled in more than 6,000 new solid and modern houses, 

which were constructed by DIU. Furthermore, they received 

generous areas of agricultural land and cash payments as 

compensation. In total, more than US$500 million were spent 

by the DIU for mitigation measures to provide the same or 

better living conditions for the resettled people.

Khartoum 

New International Airport 

Main passenger terminal. 

Dorsch Gruppe 

Albert Mair and Frank Thimm

Introduction 

Sudan is the largest country in Africa. The aviation sector 

has therefore a tremendous importance for the economic 

development, especially as other transportation methods (rail, 

roads and rivers) are developed on limited standards only and 

are subject to interruptions during the rainy season. 

The existing Khartoum airport, that was opened in the early 

50s of the last century, is enclosed by settlements of the 

strongly developing capital and extremely limited for extension 

possibilities. It does not even cater for a parallel taxiway for the 

increased traffic that is currently experienced in Sudan both 

for passengers and cargo. Furthermore, the partly lax planning 

policy is contributing to the fact that safety distances between 

settlements and air routes are not in line with international 

practices. This caused a popular request for the realisation of 

a new international airport for more than twenty years. Since 

the end of 2003, Dorsch Consult Airports is general planner for 

the development and implementation of a new international 

airport in Khartoum, the capital of the Republic of the Sudan. 

Site Selection 

During a site selection analysis, which was finalised in June 

2004, Dorsch Consult Airports evaluated different locations 

around Khartoum for suitability. After analysing aeronautical, 

infrastructural, regional and environmental factors, an area 

approximately 40 km southwest of the city centre was selected 

as the most promising one. 

Planning Process 

For this location, an airport masterplan was developed. The 

project foresees total integration to a larger scale development 

strategy for the entire Khartoum region. This potential has been 

translated into an overall vision and strategy for developing 

a well-balanced mix of business, commercial, industrial, 

residential and recreational areas with their respective facilities. 

The underlying objectives in designing the project were: 

– To provide a modern state-of-the-art international 

airport catering for today’s and future aviation needs 

– To provide opportunities for economic growth, prosperity, 

employment and future industrial development both on a 

regional and national level 

– To guarantee the highest level of safety standards in air 

transportation 

Projects 74 / 

75 

Phase 1 of the Khartoum New International Airport (KNIA) 

is designed with full aircraft code-F capability, which includes 

the opportunity of handling up to Airbus A-380 aircraft. The 

runway is dimensioned with 4,000 m by 60 m and is supported 

by an efficient taxiway system that provides fast access to the 

apron areas which include passenger apron, cargo, maintenance 

and general aviation apron as well as a separate apron for 

presidential affairs. To ensure safe operation also during the 

rainy season with partly impressive sandstorms, an ILS landing 

system with category II will be installed. The urban development 

of the airport is separated in a passenger and an industrial area, 

which will be split by the centrally located passenger apron. 

The new passenger terminal is an iconographic building for 

KNIA, a welcome gate to Khartoum and to the Sudan. This 

kind of building is unprecedented in Sudan and should set a 

new standard for state-of-the-art construction and architectural 

design in both country and region. The band structure of 

the roof is uniting the different characters of the country 

and contributes to establishing a harmonic relation between 

building and landscape. It is furthermore a leading principle for 

all other buildings of the airport. 

Another landmark building is the Air Traffic Control Tower 

(ATC). It is located at the centre of the airport with a height 

of 58 m. It dominates the landscape from the distance and 

contributes to the spatial and aesthetic identity and image of 

KNIA. The ATC Tower incorporates all functions for Air Traffic 

Control and Apron Control and has a separate training area. 

The vertical concrete shaft and the 10°-inclined textile external 

membrane are creating a translucent volume between the tower 

cabin and the tower footprint. A constantly changing silhouette 

against changing light conditions can be experienced. 

Further important elements of Khartoum New International 

Airport are facilities like cargo centre, aircraft maintenance 

hangar, fuel farm for aircraft fuelling and a separate 

presidential terminal. All facilities are supported by the 

necessary infrastructure with access roads, fence and access 

gates, power and water supply system as well as waste water 

treatment. Waste water will be treated outside the airport 

area in a separate plant and may be used by the airport after 

treatment (e.g. for irrigation). 

Future development of the airport also incorporates a separate 

Hajj terminal, a General Aviation Terminal, aircraft catering 

facilities, hotel with conference centre, mosque, shopping 

mall, a residential area and own solid waste treatment.

Project Realisation 

An important step towards project realisation was taken in 

2005, when the site was handed over to local construction 

companies. 

Their scope includes the construction of an access road to 

the airport area, the installation of a power supply system 

for the construction phase, the drilling of water wells and 

installation of a water supply system up to the airport area, 

the construction of a perimeter road and fencing as well as the 

construction of 16 building units which will be used during 

construction. The start of these works was celebrated in a 

public ceremony, incorporating residents and high-ranking 

officials from politics and economy. The KNIA project, 

the second largest infrastructure project in Sudan next to 

Merowe Dam, has the highest priority and is dedicated to 

Main access corridor. 

a special Ministry of Presidential Affairs. The responsible 

project unit is carrying out highly engaged public relation 

activities to ensure support by local communities and the 

public. 

The preparatory works of local companies that were 

supervised by Dorsch Consult Airports are now nearing 

finalisation and ensure a quick start of the main construction 

works. These will on the one hand be carried out by an 

international contractor, based on FIDIC Red Book planning 

that is currently under preparation. On the other hand, 

parts of the work like cargo facilities, aircraft fuel supply, 

maintenance hangar and ground handling activities will 

be given to concessionaires. During the construction 

phase, Dorsch Consult will act as Owner’s Engineer in the 

construction management and construction supervision.

Khartoum new international airport – aerial view. 

Outlook 

After the expected construction time of 36 months for the 

main construction works, Khartoum New International 

Airport will be a new gateway to the Republic of the Sudan 

with hub functions to East Africa and the Middle East, serving 

a growing air travel and freight market. The project is designed 

as a modern and attractive airport. Its outstanding importance 

for the prosperity and future development of the Sudan and 

the region of Khartoum and Omdurman also becomes apparent 

in the context of the harmonisation of conflicts between the 

north and the south of Sudan and the resulting opening of the 

country for economic activities. 

Projects 76 / 

77

Fact File 

Syria 

Country Name Syrian Arab Republic 

Population 20.18 million (2009 est.) 


Official Language Arabic, both English and French are widely used 

Currency Syrian Pound = 100 piaster 

Main Cities Damascus (Capital), Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Idleb, al-Hasakeh, 

Dayr al-Zur, Latakia, Dar’a, al-Raqqa and Tartous

Thermal Insulation in a 

Desert Climate: 

Projects 78 / 

79 

Wacker Chemie AG 

Dr. Stefano Iannacone and 

Dimitrios Moussios 

Sustainable Construction in the Middle East 

The Merowe Dam 

VINNAPAS ® polymer powder is added to the adhesive mortar to ensure a stable bond between the EIFS insulation materials and the wall. 

Using Polymeric Binders to Save Energy and 

Protect the Climate 

The costs for energy and raw materials are rising worldwide, 

while resources are becoming scarcer. Even in regions with 

large oil reserves, people have started looking for ways to 

conserve energy. The greatest potential for saving energy in 

buildings is through the right insulation. Suitable thermal 

insulation not only optimises the indoor climate, but also 

significantly lowers energy use. In a pilot project, WACKER 

experts helped to fit a customised state-of-the-art exterior 

insulation and finish system to a building in Syria for the 

first time – to save energy and protect the climate.

Oriental bazaars, narrow alleys and high minarets: Damascus, 

one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, 

is a cultural and religious centre of the orient and redolent of 

tales of 1001 nights. Traces of settlement date back to 5,000 

BC. Today, the capital of Syria has a population of 1.6 million, 

with around six million living in the surrounding metropolitan 

area. Typical Arabian architecture is best viewed in the 

picturesque old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 

1979. However, Syrian architecture is recently undergoing a 

transformation in order to adapt to changing needs. 

Though Syria is an oil producer, its reserves are exhaustible. 

So, when the government announced that it intended to double 

oil prices, people started to rethink how they use energy. Now, 

Syrians are looking at ways to save energy and want to take 

appropriate measures and thermal insulation has become a 

hot topic. 

Thermal Insulation in a Desert Climate 

Why insulate buildings in a land of deserts? What may seem 

paradoxical at first sight, is actually quite logical as temperature 

differences in Syria are comparable to those of central Europe: 

outdoor and indoor temperatures normally differ by about 

30° C. The climate in Damascus is continental, with hot and dry 

summers and mild, sometimes damp winters. Temperatures 

below freezing point are not unusual. Not surprisingly, Syria’s 

main concern has been to save heating costs in winter. This is 

in contrast to other Arabian states, where exterior insulation 

and finish systems (EIFS) are mainly used to keep buildings 

cool in the summer heat. However, the systems are ideal for 

both purposes. 

Reference building in Syria: equipping buildings with state-of-the-art EIFS results in longterm 

energy savings and thus helps protect the climate (photo: Wacker Chemie AG). 

The greatest potential for saving energy in buildings is 

through thermal insulation. The better a building is insulated, 

the less energy is needed to create a permanently comfortable 

interior climate – regardless of whether the building needs 

to be heated or cooled. Previously, EIFS were mostly used in 

regions with cold and damp winters. But buildings in hot and 

dry areas, too, are increasingly being fitted with modern EIFS 

systems. And with good reason: a façade covered with an EIFS 

wards off heat very efficiently. Applied to a building’s exterior, 

the EIFS will protect the walls from heating up unnecessarily 

on even the hottest of days. In addition, EIFS systems reduce 

temperature differences between indoor air and wall surfaces. 

By doing so, they significantly improve the comfort level 

inside – regardless of the weather outside. 

EIFS are multilayered material systems, with each layer 

fulfilling a different task. The most important thing is that 

they bond well to the substrate. And that is only possible with 

special dispersible polymer powders, such as VINNAPAS ® , 

since modern insulating materials such as styrofoam sheets 

do not form a stable bond to cement. Only after dispersible 

polymer powder has been added can a strong and stable 

insulation system result. 

Starting from the wall, the first EIFS layer is an adhesive 

mortar modified with polymer powder. The mortar levels 

irregularities in the substrate, creates a stable bond between 

the insulation board and the wall, and provides the system 

with the necessary flexibility. This bonding layer is followed 

by the thermal insulation board, which is made of rigid 

polystyrene foam or other materials. The thermal insulation 

board is protected from weathering and mechanical stresses 

by a reinforcing layer, consisting of a glass-scrim fabric 

embedded in a mortar modified with polymer powder. The 

outermost layer is a decorative plaster or a paint coat. 

In close collaboration with Syria’s National Energy Research 

Center (NERC) and other local partners, some 500 m 2 of 

façade at their sites were extensively renovated with state-ofthe-art 

EIFS systems. The goal was to improve the building’s 

energy balance, and so conserve energy and reduce operating 

costs. The reference building is the two-storey kindergarten 

that takes care of the NERC employees’ children. For this, 

extensive tests had to be performed, both at WACKER’s 

Burghausen site and its Dubai technical centre, in finding 

the right VINNAPAS ® polymer powder formulation to be 

used in polymer-modified dry-mix mortars for the regional 

construction industry.

Construction workers fit an exterior insulation and finish system to a house in Syria. In a pilot project, WACKER experts helped to develop an optimal adhesive-mortar 

formulation to suit the climatic conditions in Damascus . 

Construction specialists expect to lower the kindergarten’s 

energy costs by about 50% with EIFS. Although more exact 

figures will not be available for another year, the pilot project 

has already won over the Syrian Ministry of Energy, which 

wants to insulate further buildings. NERC is even considering 

making EIFS obligatory for all new buildings. 

Outlook 

Some parts of the United Arab Emirates have already gone 

a step further: since January 2008, all new construction 

projects must meet a local adaptation of the US Leadership 

in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard for 

Projects 80 / 

81 

environmentally sustainable construction. Dubai is the first 

city in the region to do this and one of only a few in the world 

to commit itself to this standard. EIFS systems have been 

used successfully in the Emirates for over three years. And 

as, according to Middle East Economic Digest Magazine, the 

construction boom is continuing uninterrupted, the demand 

for intelligent, energy-saving insulation such as WACKER’s 

EIFS systems will rise, too.

Fact File 

Tunesia 

Country Name Tunisian Republic 



Official Languages Arabic and French for business 

Currency Tunisian Dinar (€ 1 = 1.9 D (2009)) 

Main Cities Tunis (Capital), Sfax, Sousse, Bizerte, Kairoaun, El Kef, Gabes, 

Hammamet, Tozeur, Gafsa and Monastir

The Backbone of Urban 

Mass Transit 

The Tunis light rail transit system. 

For over 20 years, the Tunis light rail transit (LRT) system 

has been a reliable mode of transportation for more than 

270,000 people a day. When it was built, Siemens Mobility 

was the general contractor responsible for the entire turnkey 

project. To this day, the Tunis LRT system continues to be the 

German rail industry’s showcase turnkey LRT system: the 

Métro Léger de Tunis is still the most modern LRT system 

not only in Africa, but in the whole Arab world. 

By the end of the 1970s, it had become obvious that the 

existing transportation system in Tunis could no longer 

cope with the exploding number of inhabitants. About one 

quarter of Tunisia’s total population was living and working 

Projects 82 / 

83 

Siemens AG 

Hans-Jürgen Schweer 

in the capital. Around half of all industrial enterprises were 

headquartered in Tunis. The effects of the global trends of 

urbanisation and concentration of population in metropolitan 

regions were also clearly apparent here in North Africa. 

In light of these trends, a French-Belgian-Tunisian 

engineering consultancy was commissioned to conduct a 

preliminary survey for constructing a new LRT system. 

The goal: to permanently reduce the use of private cars and 

relieve the strain on the bus network. Upon completion of 

the review phase in 1980, the signal was given to go ahead 

with the project – under the leadership of Siemens Mobility. 

Besides supplying the vehicles, Siemens was also responsible

for the entire electrification equipment, the traction power 

supply, the signaling and train protection systems as well as 

the civil works. 

In October 1985, after a mere 36 months of construction, 

the first 10-km stretch of track opened for commercial 

operation. The northern line opened in 1989, followed in 

the next year by the northwestern and western lines. Upon 

completion of the project, the Société du Métro Léger de 

Tunis (SMLT) comprised some 30 km of track, making it 

the backbone of urban mass transit system for the capital 

city’s population of over 2.3 million people, of which around 

600,000 live in the city itself, with a further 2 million in the 

Greater Tunis area. 

Today, a fleet of 134 Siemens trains provide enough capacity 

to transport around 20,000 people per hour per direction – or 

over 100 million passengers a year with fast, punctual and 

frequent service. 

Line 1 connects the port (Tunis-Marine station) with the 

main train station (Place Barcelone) and the suburb of Ben 

Arous in the south of the city. Lines 2 to 4 extend from 

the main train station to the Place de la République at the 

northern edge of the new town by way of the magnificent 

Avenue Habib Bourguiba. From there, Line 2 continues on 

to Ariana, while Lines 3 and 4 pass north of Medina, ending 

in Ibn Khaldoun and Den Den respectively. 

Safety has top priority at Métro Léger: the tracks are 

segregated from the other traffic by means of kerbstones. 

Siemens’ computerised traffic guidance systems ensure that 

the trains have right of way at all intersections. 

All stations are arranged at surface level and equipped with 

high platforms and barriers that open only upon the arrival or 

departure of trains. This means that passengers cannot access 

the train without passing the ticket kiosks. The trains can be 

boarded from both sides, and even simultaneously at many 

stations, which greatly speeds up the flow of passengers. 

Total investment in the LRT system was 165 million Tunisian 

dinars, or around €250 million based on the exchange rate 

at the time. In return, the African metropolis was provided 

with a high-capacity infrastructure and state-of-the-art 

technology such as the ‘deadman’ safety device, which stops 

the vehicle automatically and immediately if the driver does 

not keep it depressed. 

The contract went far beyond the mere delivery of vehicles, 

however. Siemens Mobility managed the entire project 

including all subprojects, a multitude of suppliers and a 

considerable number of local services. For the sake of clarity, 

the overall project was divided into eight subprojects: 

1. vehicles: 

78 cars (8-axle double-articulated) with two 240 kW chopperfed 

traction motors. The vehicles can reach a maximum speed 

of 70 km/h. The 2.50 m wide and 30 m long LRT vehicles 

consist of three mechanical sections, have four trucks and can 

carry a maximum of 360 passengers. During braking power is 

returned to the overhead system to save energy. This section 

of the contract also included the supply of two diesel-hydraulic 

shunting locomotives and the heavy workshop-equipment. 

2. track suPerstructure: 

More than 70 km of track were required. The 100,000 or so 

oak sleepers came from Germany. 

3. track construction: 

The track system was constructed in very narrow streets 

without impeding the flow of traffic along a route of over 30 

km and at the Tunis-Marine depot before the entire trackworks 

including switches and connections were laid and welded. 

4. catenary: 

The 750 V from the substations is supplied to the catenary 

suspension system and on the other hand to the direct 

suspension system in the Tunis-Marine depot. The system 

is mostly suspended by approximately 1,400 H-beam steel 

masts, of which 80% are located between the tracks, while 

the rest are on the side. Normally, block foundations are used, 

only in the depot area foundation plates are requested, due to 

the nature of the ground. The maximum span length is 60 m 

whereas the messenger wire (95 mm2 ) is fixed and the contact 

wire (120 mm2 ) is automatically tensioned. All deliveries and 

the installation were under the Siemens scope. 

5. suBstations: 

The power supply, which was also delivered by Siemens, is 

provided by 13 wayside rectifier substations, each rated at 2 x 

1,600 kW. The supply is taken from the 10 kV system of the 

public utility supply and converted to 750 V DC by cast-resin 

transformers and natural-convection-cooled silicon rectifiers. 

The DC supply is distributed in a truck-type switch-gear 

unit with high-speed DC circuit-breakers which protect the 

track sections and is fed to the catenary system through load

interrupters. The substations are controlled and monitored 

from central load dispatch station. 

6. signaling eQuiPment: 

The signals at the terminals and at the stations with turning 

possibilities are controlled manually from the console in the 

station or inductively from the train. Where the line crosses a 

road with the train having absolutely priority, the signals are 

controlled automatically from the train. The most important 

crossings, where the transit system has only limited priority, 

are controlled by the urban traffic computer supplied by 

Siemens to Tunis in 1980. As part of section 6, Siemens also 

supplied telephone systems for communication, a passenger 

information system for the stations and the safety system for 

the vehicle holding yard at the Tunis-Marine depot, including 

the signal station controlling the signals and turnouts. 

7. general structures anD BuilDings: 

Such as the buildings in the Tunis-Marine depot, the 13 

substations, the high-level platforms and station equipment. 

8. way structures: 

More than 13 bridges, underpasses, cuttings and support 

walls were required. 

As responsible party for this total turnkey project, 

Siemens performed the project management at the site 

including technical supervision of planning documentation, 

monitoring of schedules, quality standards and coordination 

of the construction works. Siemens also trained Tunisian 

drivers using a similar system in Hanover, Germany. After 

a period of theoretical and practical training and prior to 

final commissioning, the LRT network in Tunis was tested 

without passengers over a 2-week period. 

At the end of the project, the customer and general contractor 

unanimously agreed that the tasks involved could not have 

been distributed more effectively – an essential prerequisite 

for managing large projects of this kind. The cost per kilometer 

of track was equivalent to a mere €6 million including the 

first consignment of 78 vehicles. Thus, the Tunis LRT system 

is one of the most cost-effective passenger transport projects 

to date. 

Projects 84 / 

85

Fact File 


Country Name United Arab Emirates 

Population 4.8 million (2009) 



Currency UAE Dirham Dh (AED) = 100 fils 

Main Cities Abu Dhabi is the administrative centre of the Federation, 

and Dubai is the main commercial centre; Sharjah, Al Ain, Ajman, 

Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Umm Al Qawain

Lotus Garden 

Project Background 

Mainland Development in conjunction with other 

development projects is one of the solutions to the challenging 

requirement of delivering sufficient facilities to cope with 

Plan Abu Dhabi 2030, the overall development plan, in an 

appropriate way. Besides zones for residential units and 

different kinds of housing (e.g. apartments, town houses) 

the masterplan includes a variety of common facilities 

integrated both within the various townships and along the 

central spine for the overall development. 

Project Objective and Vision 

With an area of 3,700 ha and about 83,000 inhabitants, the 

Mainland Development encompasses an area of a mediumsized 

city. To avoid in general a competitive position to the 

city of Abu Dhabi, a decentralised urban development concept 

was considered most convincing. Due to this insight the 

‘Lotus’ concept was created with its township composition 

of ‘blossoms’, ‘blossom leaves’, ‘suburban centres’, spine 

centres as ‘droplets’ and landscaped parks that has a clear 

spatial concept with the potential of becoming a unique and 

lively environment. 

This decentralised concept fits well with the timetable of 

a development area of this size, where the phasing within 

complete development modules is easily realised and avoids for 

example disruption to the inhabitants by construction works 

of later scheduled extensions. This successive development 

allows for a general flexibility and variability of the urban 

constellation. The urban constellation of ‘blossoms’, ‘blossom 

leaves’, ‘suburban centres’, spine centres as ‘droplets’ and 

the landscaped parks is a well-balanced spatial concept which 

provides multifaceted relationships, links, connections and 

interfaces. Those elements are landscaped areas, various 

footpaths and traffic connections that tie the spine-centre 

functions to the ‘blossoms’ and the overall area. 

Project Data 

Projects 86 / 

87 

Dorsch Gruppe 

Rembert Wösthoff 

The following overview of key project figures indicates among 

others the total percentages between the built and unbuilt 

environment of Mainland Development:

Left and right: Birds views Mainland Development (north south and west east). 

Key to a successful development is a strong social infrastructure 

offering kindergartens, schools and development centres etc. 

for the residents. Mainland Development therefore has: 

– 17 kindergartens, 

– 9 primary schools, 

– 4 intermediate schools and 

– 4 secondary schools. 

The schools are designed to be coeducational, with primary 

schools being integrated in the ‘Lotus blossom’ and 

intermediate/secondary schools being located on the edges of 

the ‘blossom’. 

Religious life is a foundation for each Arab community. 

Mainland Development will have easy-to-reach local mosques 

as well as stately Friday mosques (located e.g. in the leaf apex): 

– 67 local mosques 

– 8 Friday mosques 

The cultural, personal improvement, social facilities located 

in the green spines and suburban centres in Mainland 

Development consist of: 

– 9 women development centres 

– 3 youth centres 

– 6 cultural centres 

Public infrastructure facilities are placed strategically 

throughout the development area: 

– 2 police stations 

– 4 civil defence stations 

– 4 post offices 

– 4 health centres 

– 2 small hospitals 

Commercial activities are focused on the suburban as well as 

the spine centres. Overall Mainland Development will offer 

a range from small-scale local shops (integrated in the green 

spines or residential zones), neighbourhood centres (at the 

suburban centres) to a large-scale mall and cinema (at the 

CBD spine centre) serving the needs of the total population. 

Transportation 

Mainland Development will enjoy a good connection to the 

regional transportation network via the Emirates Desert 

Highway as well as with the connective street grid of Abu 

Dhabi providing convenient access to the capital’s city centre 

and the CBD areas. The introduction of new public transport 

systems to the city of Abu Dhabi will connect to Mainland 

Development as well, giving residents and visitors more 

choices in choosing alternative modes of transportation in the 

future, thus reflecting the objectives of Plan Abu Dhabi 2030 

to make the city one of short trips.

Infrastructure 

water suPPly 

A few main ideas are determining the concept developments: 

– The general consideration of water as a valuable resource 

has been influencing the overall concept. 

– Future growth of population and further land use has 

been considered although decreasing consumption due to 

educated usage of water and minimised losses are 

expected. 

– Future topography (based on road design) has been 

considered by developing the water supply concept. 

– Independent networks have been developed for each phase 

due to the former objective to develop the whole project 

stepwise (in phases). 

– Synergy effects with further infrastructure are projected 

considering common corridors and required measurements, 

esp. slopes. 

– Main lines are running along/underneath arterials. 

– Maintenance should be minimised by for eyample locating 

manholes at the edge of residential roads resulting in 

higher investments in the beginning but avoiding the 

necessity of closing complete clusters in case of problems 

at one single location. 

sewerage 

The area is tentatively designed to be drained by gravity. The 

low lying areas are filled to cause gravity flow. Similarly, high 

spots are cut to have reasonable depths of sewerage pipes. The 

trunk sewer line is ranging in diametre from DN 300 to DN 

1000 and has a maximum depth of about 14.00 m due to high 

ground at that location. The branch collectors are ranging in 

diametre from DN 200 to DN 350. 

electricity 

Electrical Power System 

Design concept for the power network according to: 

– Connected load of network 

– Voltage drop calculations as per latest Wiring Regulations 

of ADWEA 

– Peak load demand of the network 

Street Lighting 

The lighting system accommodates the visual needs of night 

traffic, vehicular and pedestrian respectively. Its illumination levels 

follow both the recommendation of Commission International 

Eclarge (CIE) and the specifications of ADDC/ADWEA. 

Projects 88 / 

89 

Irrigation 

The demand of water could be estimated at 12 l/m 2 for 

intensive landscape, 10 l/m 2 for roads and intensive/ 

extensive landscape, 8 l/m 2 for extensive landscape. The total 

demand of daily water for the whole project will account for 

approximately 140,000 m 3 . 

Landscaping 

Generally, the area is not dominated by any distinct feature. 

There are some sand dunes which are visible from a distance. 

However, these do not spatially enclose the future housing 

areas. Secondly, there is a large water reservoir and some 

sparsely planted areas in the form of farmland, afforestation, 

a nursery and roadside greenery, which create a pleasant 

although minimal contrast to the surrounding desert. Thus, 

landscaping will obviously be a desideratum to create an 

attractive environment, where plants are of vital importance, 

not only aesthetically, but also in terms of their contribution 

to improving the microclimate and thus human comfort. The 

landscape design is therefore based upon ecological principles 

taking local conditions into account. 

Urban Design – Résumé 

The strong population growth in Abu Dhabi (projected two 

million residents by 2020) has created a surge in demand 

for suitable residential units by Emirati as well as expatriate 

families. The Mainland Development project located in the 

southeast of the city of Abu Dhabi developed by the Urban 

Development Committee (UDC) addresses these needs by 

creating a low- to medium-density residential and mixed-use 

development for up to 100,000 residents. 

The focus on the needs of Emirati families and their desire 

to live in low-density communities will create a viable new 

modern community. Nevertheless, Mainland Development 

will offer choices with different living possibilities (villa, 

town house, courtyard house and apartments). Its unique and 

distinctive layout will promote the values, social arrangements 

and culture of an Arab community to flourish. It will therefore 

become an important part of the unique and truly memorable 

Arab capital Abu Dhabi.

Maurer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG 

German MAURER Bridge 

Raad Hamood 

Expansion Joint System for Sheikh Zayed 

Sculptural Bridge in Abu Dhabi 

View of work site. 

Data and Contributory 

Project name: Sheikh Zayed Bridge 

Structural type: Arch Bridge 

Project client: UAE/Abu Dhabi Municipality 

Design architect: Zaha Hadid Limited (ZHL) 

Design checker: COWI Consult 

Consulting and structural design engineer: High Point Rendel (HPR) 

Project contractor: Archirodon Construction (Overseas) Co. S.A. 

Manufacturer for dynamic loaded joints: Maurer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG 

Project status: Under construction 

Anticipated completion: 2010

General Information 

A project, a sculpture, a challenge, a desert-sand-dune design 

for a bridge with a touch of the Arabic – that is the Sheikh 

Zayed Bridge in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab 

Emirates. Behind the architectural design of this unusually 

challenging project is a power woman: Iraqi-born architect 

Zaha Hadid, renowned for pushing the limits of architectural 

design. Her special architectural design for the bridge in Abu 

Dhabi makes for a challenging assignment and certainly one 

of COWI’s more unusual bridge projects. 

The bridge links Abu Dhabi Island with the mainland, 

including Dubai and the International Airport, and is shaped 

like a gigantic sculpture weaving its extreme proportions of 

concrete and steel between the traffic lanes. 

Design and Construction of Sheikh Zayed Bridge 

Design concePts 

At first the architect bridge design bureau proposed two 

concepts: the first design was characterised by a linear 

framework and was referred to as the ‘zigzag’ option, the 

second design was characterised by an asymmetric arch in the 

shape of dune sand hills, referred to as the ‘dune’ option. The 

client approved the ‘dune’ option. After months of cooperation 

and in teamwork between the consultant and the architect, 

an architecturally unique form which was considered to be 

buildable and structurally feasible was developed. 

Bridge location. 

Bridge view at night. 

Bridge construction. Google bridge position. 

Projects 90 / 

91 

main BriDge Design anD criteria 

– The overall length of the main bridge is 850 m with 

a central span of 150 m. 

– The level of the roadway at the centre will be 

22.5 m high. 

– The overall height of the main steel arch is 63 m. 

– The main bridge is a prestressed concrete 

cellular box with large cross beams linking the 

two carriageways. 

– The archs above deck level are steel boxes and 

have large cable hangars helping to support 

the concrete deck. 

– The bridge has two carriageways each with four 

3.65 m wide traffic lanes, two 3.0 m wide shoulders 

and a 2.5 m wide emergency sidewalk on the 

outer edge. 

The design had to be carried out according to AASHTO LRFD.

Bridge construction. 

The following interpretations and additional requirements 

were adopted to suit local conditions. 

– The bridge is required to have a service life of 100 years. 

– The selected vehicular live load is twice AASHTO HL93, 

mainly due to presence of exceptionally heavy trucks on 

the existing road network. A single permit vehicle type 

with total weight 1,400 KN was also considered in the 

design. 

– The removal of any hanger in cable-supported spans 

for repair works or due to accidents will be possible under 

service conditions. 

– High-containment vehicle parapets are specified for the 

inner edge of the deck to provide extra protection to the 

hangers. On the outside of the carriageway, standard 

New-Jersey-type barriers are provided, beyond which 

there is a walkway with pedestrian parapets on the outside. 

– The design temperature range is 0 to +60 °C. 

– The design wind gust velocity is 160 km/h, equivalent 

to 45 m/s. 

– The bridge has been designed for a 475-year return 

period earthquake, zone 2. The corresponding peak 

spectral acceleration was assessed to be 22.5%g. 

It was also checked for a 750-year event with 27.5%g 

peak acceleration. 

Regarding the corrosion protection system, the Abu Dhabi 

climate is hot, often humid, and the bridge is in a marine 

environment. These conditions require exceptional precautions 

to achieve durability. Thus, all exposed concrete surfaces have 

silane treatment and are painted, whereas all reinforcement 

is made of uncoated black steel for future connection to an 

impressed current cathodic protection system. In the outer 

layers in the splash zone stainless steel has been specified. 

Construction Sequence 

The construction sequence for this project required very careful 

consideration. As the structure is irregular, with each span 

being unique, no obvious sequence presented itself. The form 

and mode of action of the structure made it difficult to allow for 

construction of the deck span by span out from the abutments 

towards the middle. A reference sequence was adopted for 

design, which had to be revised at each stage as the design 

evolved. The reference construction sequence starts with: 

– The construction of the piled foundations. 

– The piers and the crossheads, which support the decks 

on half joints, are then cast. 

– The steel arches, which are curved boxes 5 to 8 m deep, 

are fabricated in sections weighing up to 800 tons, then 

brought to site and erected on staging and welded in situ. 

– The connection of the steel box to the arch is with high- 

strength alloy prestressed bars anchored deep in the 

concrete pier arms. 

The decks are cast in situ on staging, in some cases several 

spans are cast together to provide the required continuity and 

locked in stress in the deck, arches and cross-ties. 

The deck cross section is a multicellular prestressed box that 

provides the necessary torsional stiffness and strength to 

resist the constructional effects. The outer section, being open 

with cantilevers, meets the architectural requirements but 

this feature adds problems due to the nonsymmetry of the 

section. It also restricts the width available for placing bearings 

of support. A constant section was required by the architect 

throughout the length of the bridge, and a 5-m depth was 

selected to meet all of these design conditions. The deck slab is 

also prestressed transversely to minimise any cracking. 

Construction steps.

The arches and piers form a continuous integral structure. 

At each marine pier, there are outer pier arms which support 

the deck via the pier crossheads and half joints. Seen in 

elevation, these arms are within the overall arch profile. 

In cross section, they have been sculpted to maintain the 

architectural concept of the deck floating through or around 

the arches. 

The arches rise to over 60 m above sea level, and it was 

considered by the designer that at this elevation it would 

be more practical and quicker to lift them in prefabricated 

steel box sections rather than to construct concrete arches 

in situ. In addition, the dominant stresses in the arches are 

bending rather than compressing with high torsions. For 

these reasons, the sections of arch above deck level are all 

designed in steel. 

The four main piers, West Main, Marina, Central and East 

Main are all constructed within double-walled sheet-piled 

cofferdams. These are initially filled above water level while 

the foundation piling is carried out from a working platform 

at around +2.0 m. The filling is then excavated to pile cut-off 

level, typically –6.0 m and the pile cap is constructed. 

Maurer Söhne Involvement in the 

Sheikh Zayed Bridge 

Maurer Söhne GmbH & Co. KG, founded in Munich in 1876, 

is one of the leading companies in the field of structural steel 

engineering, mechanical and plant engineering. Its structural 

protection system helps to avoid damages caused by ‘forces 

in motion’ by seismically isolators and energy dissipaters, 

the antiseismic expansion joints MAURER Swivel Joist 

Expansion Joint. 

The Sheikh Zayed Bridge has been designed for a 475-year 

return period earthquake, zone 2, and was also checked for 

a 750-year event with 27.5%g peak acceleration. Therefore, 

the bridge accessory devices have been designed to absorb 

the resulting loads and any movement in all directions 

(multidirectional by full stroke) as there are bridge isolators 

and movement expansion joints part of this bridge. The chosen 

system was approved by the bridge designer and consultant 

as the joints cannot only follow the main movement of the 

bridge in carriageway direction but also distinctive movements 

in two spatial directions perpendicular to the main direction. 

Even rotations of the bridge on three spatial axes are easily 

coped with. 

Bridge construction. 

Bridge view at night. 

Projects 92 / 

93

Outotec GmbH, Köln 

Outotec Supplies Anode Paste 

Manfred Beilstein 

Plant for EMAL’s Aluminium Smelter 

Project in Abu Dhabi 

HSE award to Outotec for 1 million construction manhours worked without lost-time incident.

Background 

Emirates Aluminium Company (EMAL) is a strategic joint 

venture between aluminium producer Dubai Aluminium 

(DUBAL) and Abu Dhabi investment vehicle MUBADALA. 

The joint venture was established in 2007 under the 

leadership of HH Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, 

President of the United Arab Emirates, by Emiri Decree 

Number 7 of 2007. EMAL is constructing one of the largest 

single-site primary aluminium smelters in the world at the 

new Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone at Al Taweelah, Abu 

Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. 

Largest Industrial Project Outside 

the Gas and Oil Sector 

The construction of a new high-tech aluminium smelter in the 

Emirate of Abu Dhabi is already making history: it will be the 

largest greenfield aluminium smelter project ever – and one 

of the largest industrial projects in the United Arab Emirates 

outside the oil and gas sector. It is the flagship project of Abu 

Dhabi’s industrialisation and diversification strategy. 

The aluminium smelter will be built in two phases: phase 

one commenced operation on 2 December 2009, and once 

fully operational will produce 750,000 tons of aluminium 

per annum, doubling to 1.5 million tons annually at the 

end of phase two, making it the world’s largest single-site 

aluminium smelter – and making EMAL the fifth largest 

aluminium producer in the world. 

Building the first phase will cost approximately US$5.7 

billion and will comprise 756 reduction cells arranged in 

two potlines, an on-site 2,000-MW power plant, anode 

manufacturing plant and multiproduct casthouse. For the 

anode manufacturing plant, EMAL had awarded the contract 

to design and construct the green anode manufacturing plant 

and carbon scrap crushing facility on EPC basis to Outotec, a 

global leader in minerals and metals technologies. 

The green anode plant has the purpose of producing in a fully 

automated process green anode blocks from calcined petroleum 

coke and recycled green and baked anode scrap, with coal tar 

pitch being added as binder. After grading, proportioning and 

preheating, the carbon materials are continuously mixed with 

binder pitch to produce a homogenous paste before molding 

it into green anode blocks on vibrocompacting machines, 

also known as vibrocompactors. The molded blocks are then 

Projects 94 / 

95 

cooled in a water-cooling system. These anode blocks, after 

baking, are consumed in the reduction lines for producing 

aluminium metal. 

The EMAL green anode plant has two anode production lines, 

each rated at 50 t/h capacity, along with a crushing plant for 

recycled carbon materials. Ancillary facilities, like the calcined 

coke and liquid pitch unloading and storage system, HTF 

heating system, plant operation centre and production control 

laboratory are part of the scope. Innovative technologies, 

such as regenerative thermal oxidisation (RTO) for pitch 

fume treatment are being employed, as the best available 

technology (BAT) for this purpose.


Exterior view: Emirates flight catering facility at Dubai International Airport. 

i+o Industrieplanung + 

Organisation GmbH & Co. KG 

Torsten Brendel

Ambitious plans for expansion and large construction 

projects have been the special characteristic of the Gulf 

region. One example is Dubai. Despite the current crisis, 

the emirate is expanding its airport, which experienced 

strong growth last year. The most important hub in the 

Middle East possesses the world’s largest inflight catering 

facility. The Heidelberg-based consultancy i+o Industry 

Planning + Organization was responsible for the planning 

and realisation of the facility. 

Dubai International Airport is the headquarters of Emirates 

airline and more than another 100 international airlines, 

which fly from Dubai to more than 150 destinations. In the 

course of constant growth, in 2008 the new terminal ‘T3’ 

started operation. The terminal is designed for wide body 

planes of the type A380 and belongs to the largest terminals 

worldwide, with an utilised area of more than 1 million m 2 . 

Even during difficult economic times, the airport of the desert 

metropolis sets benchmarks: in 2009 alone, 40.9 million 

passengers were processed, an increase of 9.2% compared to 

the previous year. 

The world’s largest inflight catering facility stresses the 

efforts for expansion at Dubai airport. Emirates Flight 

Catering, a subsidiary of Emirates, authorised i+o Industry 

Planning + Organization to plan this large-scale project, 

where 1,800 employees, working on three floors, produce up 

to 115,000 meals a day. During the conceptual phase, which 

lasted about one and a half year, the team – consisting of 

i+o representatives and the management of Emirates Flight 

Catering – worked hand in hand. Together, each corner and 

each process step in the facility, which has a total size of 

55,000 m 2 , was planned down to the very last detail. Thanks 

to decades of experience in realising inflight catering systems, 

e.g. in Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore, i+o was 

once again able to set benchmarks. 

Cool Despite Desert Climate 

The biggest conceptual challenge was to not interrupt the 

cold chain, despite the fact that the temperature in Dubai 

can rise up to 50 °C in the shade during the day. Further 

developing the cook & chill principle is an essential part of 

i+o’s cooling concept. Cook & chill means that conveyer 

belts automatically forward cooked, warm meals to a central 

cooling room before they are portioned and cooled down to 

2 °C in speed coolers. This process not only saves precious 

time, it also increases the durability of the food. 

Projects 96 / 

97 

A main target of the new catering facility is flexibility with 

regard to construction, to make sure that it quickly adapts to 

an increasing demand. As a solution, i+o planned a building 

which allows capacity expansion into all directions – without 

stopping production. A central, space-saving and covered 

transport area on the ground floor connects incoming 

and outgoing goods across from each other. Moreover, the 

frontages of the building remain free for further expansion in 

the future. A traffic yard with 84 ramps simplifies transport 

to and from the planes parked on the airfield and shortens the 

process of the internal material flow, which starts at the socalled 

inbound. In addition to receiving groundside goods, the 

inbound receives, empties and cleans the airplane trolleys. 

With regard to the cleaning process, the new Emirates Flight 

Catering facility is full of superlatives. A hall as big as a 

soccer field with 20 washing facilities, a length of 10 to 17 m 

each, is provided for used dishes and cutlery only. The dirty 

trolleys are sent through two washing systems that have a 

length of 25 m, currently the most powerful washing plant 

in inflight catering worldwide. 

Sophisticated Logistics Systems 

An electronic state-of-the-art trolley conveyor is the mode 

of transport of the sophisticated intralogistics and forms 

the backbone of the new catering facility. It automatically 

transports the incoming trolleys – up to 13,000 per day. 

The facility consists of three storeys and has a size of 160 x 

130 m. Next to dishes in different ethnic varieties like Arabic, 

Middle Eastern, Asian subcontinental, Japanese, Chinese or 

Western there are also trolleys for non-food items like drugs 

or duty-free items for on-board sale.

Due to this reason a modern container conveyor system 

equipped with six automatic storage systems was designed 

and implemented. The system manages up to 40,000 container 

movements per day. In total, high bay warehouses with about 

1,800 pallet spaces for storing more than 1,000 airline-specific 

items – from napkins and tableware to blankets and duty-free 

goods – are available. All processes of the new Emirates flight 

catering facility are operated by a central control station. 

Well-connected: Dubai and the Gulf Region 

The GCC states, the members of the Gulf Cooperation 

Council, will certainly continue to develop strongly in 

order to prepare themselves for the times of decreasing oil 

reserves. Ambitious megaprojects such as the Al-Maktoum 

International Airport are already under way. Dubai’s second 

airport will be located close to the freeport Jebel Ali Free 

Zone, wherefrom more than 6,000 international companies 

do business. The first construction stage is supposed to start 

operating in June 2010. 

In this context, the region will become more important in 

their function as a central hub for trade between Asia and 

Europe. At the same time it will be absolutely necessary to 

intensively develop the infrastructure in order to be able to 

Covering three floors and an area of 55.000 m², the catering facility sets new technical, logistical and organisational standards. 

keep up with this development. This also leads to an increasing 

demand for professional consultancy know-how, especially in 

the logistics segment. 

Until today, the Emirates flight catering facility is a major 

project i+o has realised in the Middle East which still sets 

benchmarks in the market. Since the beginning of its 

activities in the Gulf region in 2005, i+o has constantly 

broadened its portfolio offering many additional services and 

core competencies. In early 2008, the German consultancy 

established its office in Dubai and acquired further largescale 

projects in the Persian Gulf region. 

One good example is the New Doha International Airport in 

the neighbouring Emirate of Qatar. Located directly at the 

shore, the new hub will develop at an area of 20 km 2 . i+o’s task 

is to create a comprehensive logistics concept which focuses 

on planning inhouse logistics for the terminal building, the 

catering facilities, the warehouses for the duty-free goods 

and the cargo centre. Furthermore, another inflight catering 

facility is being established for Qatar Airways. Just recently, 

i+o was also authorised by the investment company Emirates 

Advanced Investments (EAI) to plan a new food company that 

produces sterilised meals according to the latest international 

GMP and HACCP standards

Emirates airline aircraft and crew. 

Projects 98 / 

99

Fact File 

Yemen 

Country Name Republic Of Yemen 

Population 22 million (2009) 


Official Language Arabic, with English as the main business language 

Currency 1 Yemeni riyal = 100 fils 

Main Cities Sana’a (Capital)

Pilot Projects for Schools 

in Yemen 

Cross section. 

Overview 

Due to the inadequate education situation in Yemen the 

Ministry of Education of Yemen and the Reconstruction 

Loan Corporation (KfW) have decided to implement a 

school project. Targets of the project carried out by the 

Society for Organization, Planning and Education (GOPA) 

are the development and the construction of new schools 

corresponding to the educational, social-religious, climatic and 

topographic as well as resulting constructional requirements. 

The existing school buildings are predominantly in a very bad 

condition. They have big structural defects and lack sanitary 

facilities, clean drinking water and electricity. Since schools do 

not exist at all places, some of the children have to walk to 

their school up to three hours on foot. Within this context, 

particularly girls in Yemen are very disadvantaged. The lack 

of partition (e.g. walls around the school buildings) and lack 

of latrines frequently contribute to the fact that girls do not 

attend school at all. 

The project’s aim is to achieve schools that provide ‘a peaceful 

and democratic environment’. Several prototypes have been 

developed which can be adapted to different regions in Yemen 

Projects 100 / 

101 

Kere Architecture 

Diébédo Francis Kéré 

and thus promote an economic, practical and innovative 

variant for the construction of schools in Yemen. 

Task: Area Programme and Concept 

The preliminary draft is planned on a fictitious estate with 

the minimum dimensions of 31 x 40 m and is intended as a 

measure catalogue. According to the area programme there 

are two variants, a one-storey and a two-storey construction, 

each consisting of eight classrooms for about 30 boys or girls 

respectively. The rooms are simple, but sufficiently equipped 

to be able to teach the pupils adequately. The classrooms 

are strictly separated between the user groups of boys and 

girls. Each user group has its own courtyard, which is partly 

covered with greenery and serves as ground for the pupils 

and contributes to the improvement of the climate. Teachers 

get their own building which is structured as a multipurpose 

room and thus meets various requirements. 

The detailed adaptation to the genius loci can only be made 

when specific estates have been designated. But basically the 

draft is a module construction consisting of a classroom to 

which a porch is added. Depending on the orientation and 

offer of space the element can be added in various ways.

Floor plan. 

Foundations of the Architectural Concept 

Though Yemen is an economically very poor and hardly 

developed country, it is very rich in culture and trade, with 

a long, highly developed tradition of architecture. This 

includes particularly the use of clay in all conceivable areas 

of utilisation. There are whole towns in which all buildings 

were made of clay. This tradition and the treatment of local 

materials should not get lost, but has to be cultivated and 

supported nowadays. Thus people should be encouraged to 

deal with the local materials of their region and impart their 

utilisation to future generations. It would also ensure that 

people can identify themselves with the project, and use their 

thus gained experience in the construction of other buildings 

at a later stage. 

Furthermore, the use of prefabricated components requires 

a sufficient transport infrastructure, so that their utilisation 

rather seems to be inappropriate in Yemen. If it becomes 

obvious that certain indispensable building components 

have to be supplied, these should be designed in such a way 

that they also can be transported with a donkey. Primarily, 

however, building components and materials should be used, 

which are available on the spot, are manufactured there or 

at least can be repaired and maintained on the spot so that 

construction can be as economically as possible. 

minimal version a – one-storey 

In principle the one-storey building clearly separates the two 

user groups by space. Two classes are allocated a building 

established at the outermost edge of the estate. In their midst 

two further buildings, which are connected to each other, are 

placed. By this, a clearly defined courtyard is created, to which 

four classes are connected. A separation according to age 

groups or sex can easily be achieved this way. This common 

courtyard can be placed in the shadow or partly be covered 

with greenery. The created space constitutes a buffer zone, 

which is used for the ventilation of the classrooms. 

Due to the low height of the construction less scaffolding 

is needed. In case of a one-storey construction there are no 

stairs, no floor slabs and no exterior corridors, which cause 

relatively high costs at the common way of construction. A 

great part of the mandatory surrounding wall is used as part 

of the buildings. 

minimal version B – two-storey 

The two-storey building is the ideal solution in case of a very 

small estate. By means of an intelligent form this variant 

attempts not only to achieve climatic but also economic 

advantages. There is a subdivision of the classes into two user 

groups, which is achieved by a gap between them. This gap 

constitutes a shadowed area and guarantees the air-conditioning 

of the classes. By not integrating an exterior corridor, which 

would be obligatory in case of an entry installed at the side, a 

great deal of construction material is saved. 

Perspective.

architectural elements anD PrinciPles 

(version a anD B) 

classrooms 

As far as possible, combinations of fanlights and low-situated 

openings are preferred to optimally ventilate and light the 

rooms, and, additionally, to protect the girls against gazes 

from the outside. The ventilation of the rooms is guaranteed 

by openings installed in a well-directed way, which however 

protect the pupils against the climate (e.g. insolation/rain). 

toilets 

In hot areas latrines are a source of stench. To avoid this, the 

latrines have to be placed in a corresponding distance to the 

classrooms. In both drafts two units were planned, which 

stand in the front area of the estates. They are very plain bodies, 

which are formed like a snail due to the protection of sight. 

Each class is to receive its own latrine, which can be locked as 

this makes it easier to supervise the cleanness and efficiency. 

teachers’ offices 

A big room is planned in the entry sector, which is structured 

as multipurpose room, e.g. as conference room for the 

teachers, as a place of encounter between teachers and parents. 

Furthermore, a part of the room can also serve as school library. 

A small room is separated from the multipurpose room to the 

front and determined for the school’s guard. This room can 

also serve as a small store. Thus, the guard has the possibility 

to sell something to earn himself a small income. This is also 

advantageous for those families, who live in remote villages 

with the nearest market miles away, as their children could 

buy small things after finishing school and take them home. 

garDen moDule 

The plantings are very important to guarantee fresh, cool 

air for the pupils not only in the classrooms but also on the 

school playground. They are oriented towards the openings 

of the rooms. Apart from this, the plantings are installed as 

protection of sight between the two user groups. 

wall 

The wall is not only a sheer element of separation. It is 

used to establish a room and correspondingly engineered. 

The buildings are part of the wall and not surrounded by it. 

Together, building and wall, form the courtyards, which are 

designed and covered with greenery. Within the context of the 

often extremely barren Yemen landscape an oasis with a high 

quality of staying is created. With reference to the wished 

Projects 102 / 

103 

protection against gazes the girls can freely move behind the 

wall. In some places openings in the wall are planned, which 

can be developed from diagonally placed stones or plantings 

that give the wall a structure and guarantee ventilation as 

well as protection against sight. The wall thus will become a 

decisive component of the architecture. 

roof 

The roof can be formed as a massive barrel-shaped roof or as 

light sheet metal construction. Depending on the region it is 

decided which construction is readily available. 

materials 

If possible, local materials such as BTC-stones/adobe, 

bamboo, sand or pieces of rock are to be used. Only when it is 

indispensable, materials like steel or concrete are used at the 

construction. 

measures 

The climatic conditions on the spot are of central importance for 

any architectural draft as they have effects on almost all parts 

of a building. Thus, according to the various climate regions 

in Yemen, the individual building components and openings 

are adapted and optimised. For example, in the coast region 

attention is paid to a strong ventilation of the rooms in order 

to avoid dampness collecting in the rooms. In the mountain 

region, smaller openings and more massive walls are planned. 

By this, the high variations in temperature between day and 

night can be compensated. The massive walls store the heat of 

the day and guarantee a constant temperature in the rooms. 

Further precautions will be taken in the deserts so that dust 

caused by sandstorms will be kept away from the rooms. 

In order to fulfil the requirements of the climate in desert 

regions one will work with massive elements comparable to 

those used in the mountains, too. A special challenge is the 

topography of the terrain. Here an installation of terraces 

may become necessary. However, the system of the module 

with its diverse possibilities of combination will facilitate the 

implementation.

Special Topics

Working Group 

Infrastructure and Construction 

The Ghorfa Arab-German Chamber of Commerce and 

Industry is currently undergoing a transformation process 

driven by the President Dr. Thomas Bach, the Secretary 

General Abdulaziz Al-Mikhlafi, the Executive Board, the 

Board of Directors and the members. With the introduction 

of industry-sector-specific working groups Ghorfa is offering 

its members the possibility of actively building industryspecific 

networks, thus making it possible for each member 

to adjust its level of activity within the Ghorfa individually, 

dependent on individual time frames and personal or 

business interests. As overall issues are discussed on the 

executive level, every member is invited to now take over 

a shaping role within the Ghorfa on a sector-specific level, 

thus not only broadening one’s own horizon but Ghorfa’s 

as a whole. 

The Board of Directors agreed on the following working 

groups: education and training, financial services, energy, 

health, infrastructure and construction, investment 

and technology transfer, information technology and 

communications, legal affairs, security technologies, tourism, 

transport and logistics, and environment and water. Each of 

these will be self-organised and will be led by a CEO of a 

company doing business in the specific field. 

In autumn 2009, the working group ‘infrastructure and 

construction’ was established. With the construction industry 

in the Arab world continously growing and its tremendous 

business opportunities the exchange of views is getting ever 

more important for German construction companies doing 

business in the Arab world. Thus, the idea is 

Special Topics 104 / 

105 

Dorsch Gruppe 

Olaf Hoffmann 

1. to built up a dynamic network of professionals 

to analyse, anticipate and discuss developments in the 

Arab markets. 

2. to use our experiences and common business contacts 

in an ever more synergetic and target-oriented way. 

3. to mark and visualise the main trends and important 

developments in the region on the basis of our daily 

insights. 

We are convinced that clearly defined points of contact, based 

on individual interests, will not only build an effective and 

well-connected platform but will also expand and cultivate 

professionals’ relationship to the Arab world by gaining 

valuable insights and by discovering new and profitable 

business opportunities.

Project Contracting 

of Foreign Companies in Syria – 

Legal Issues of Foreign 

Construction Consortia 

Legal and Administrative Background 

of Construction Consortia Business in Syria 

Syria is opening its country to foreign investment and business. 

Thus, many laws dealing with commercial and civil law as 

well as finance and tax issues have undergone fundamental 

changes during the past few years. Among these are the 

commercial law, the companies law and the investment law. 

These laws now provide a much more reliable legal basis for 

foreign companies entering the Syrian market as contractors 

or investors. 

The strong desire to reform the legal framework and to 

provide an attractive environment for foreign investors comes 

along with an increased number of infrastructure projects 

commissioned by Syrian ministries and state organisations. 

It is a recent development that international contractors 

may now bid on infrastructure contracts in Syria as part of 

construction consortia. This provides for better risk sharing 

among participating companies. However, the laws in Syria 

are not yet prepared to deal with this structure. Hence, many 

legal issues must be solved by trial and error. This paper shall 

set forth recent observations relating to doing business as a 

construction consortium in Syria and shall offer practical 

suggestions for overcoming obstacles such consortia may face. 

The Customer Contract 

Syrian civil law is far more liberal after its reform, and public 

procurement can now be found in Law No. 51/2004, which 

repealed several old laws dealing with the tender process for 

public entities. For all high-value contracts, the law still requires 

a public tender. Only in urgent cases may state organisations 

Amereller Rechtsanwälte 

Dr. Wolfgang Graf von Armansperg 

choose noncompetitive or sole-source contracting. Even under 

the new law, contracting with public entities still means more 

or less accepting the contract terms and conditions presented 

by the customer. All procurement contracts refer to the 

‘Special Book of Conditions’, which clearly shapes the contract 

in favour of the government customer. 

Although Syrian law thus far does not specifically address the 

consortium structure, state customers have, in the meantime, 

accepted consortia as contract partners in large infrastructure 

projects. Since the customer tends to consider the consortium 

as one contract partner and prefers to communicate only with 

one spokesperson for the consortium, it is in the interests 

of consortium members to set out in the contract the shares 

of the respective consortium members and, in addition, to 

separate the price of its off-shore component (all supplies and 

services effected outside Syria) from its on-shore component 

(all supplies and services provided inside Syria). As the 

combination of both components into one overall price could 

have a negative tax impact on the project. For example, one 

overall price could apply that value to the entire contract 

taxation, including all off-shore components of the project. 

For a foreign contract partner, also being taxed in its home 

country, this could mean general or partial double taxation 

of the income from the contract. Accordingly, it is also 

recommended that the invoicing should distinguish between 

the contributions of various consortium members. 

Place of Jurisdiction and Applicable Law 

Contracts with public entities in Syria regularly provide for 

application of Syrian law and for legal disputes to be decided 

by Syrian courts. This is clearly in favour of the customer as

there are almost no examples of a private claimant successfully 

being awarded a judgment against a public defendant. In 

practice, it is difficult to enforce any judgement, even an 

arbitration award, against a public entity in Syria. 

With private contract partners, such as Syrian consortium 

partners or subcontractors, there is a much better basis for 

agreeing on foreign law and on arbitration procedures. Swiss 

law and the rules of the ICC in Paris are well known and well 

accepted in Syria. 

In any event, the chances of enforcing a foreign judgment in 

Syria are rather limited. Reciprocity under Syrian procedural 

law still does not exist in practice, and it is unlikely that a 

Syrian civil court would affirm any foreign judgement. 

Liability under the Customer Contract 

and towards Third Parties 

Under Syrian law, contracting with public entities under 

the consortium structure always involves joint and several 

liability of all consortium members, even if this is not 

specifically stipulated in the contract. This is the result of Law 

No. 51, describing the conditions for public procurement. 

As was previously the case with Decree 195 and Decision 

1336, Law No. 51 states that the actions of one member of 

the consortium impute the same liability to all consortium 

members, and with a similar effect. Moreover, if the customer 

gives notice to one consortium member, this is considered 

notice to all consortium members. 

The consortium structure, as such, does not result in liability to 

third parties not contractually connected with the consortium. 

An association of contractors and suppliers carrying out a 

common goal to fulfil the obligations of a customer contract 

does not automatically result in a partnership relationship. 

As long as this entity does not do business with the public 

and does not hold itself out as a partnership, it is a purely 

undisclosed partnership. In Syria, this could be compared 

with a ‘Sharekat al-Mahassa’, an undisclosed partnership that 

is not a legal entity. 

The analysis would be different if the company had a 

fixed place of business and operated as a commercial firm 

with the general public. Such a company would constitute 

a de-facto company (Art. 56 Commercial Code) and all 

participating partners would have unlimited liability. The 

company, therefore, could be compared with the German 


107 

‘offene Handelsgesellschaft (oHG)’. In addition, if the leader 

of the consortium had the authority to issue directives and 

was responsible for controlling the performance of the 

other partners, that member could be made liable for all the 

company’s business activities. 

Branch or Agency Requirements 

under Syrian Civil Law 

In theory, a foreign contractor may supply its customers in 

Syria without the involvement of a local entity or agent. 

However, on 3 July 2001, Legislative Decree No. 15 (effective 

3 January 2002) was released. According to this Decree, all 

foreign parties who wish to conclude contracts with the Syrian 

public sector require a commercial agent or a branch office 

in the country. Both must be registered with the Ministry of 

Commerce and Economy. The agent must be registered as the 

exclusive agent for the company. In contracts with the Syrian 

private sector no branch office or agent is required. 

Usually, foreign companies operate through an agent or 

authorised dealer. Agency law is partly contained in the 

Syrian Civil Code and, in addition, in the new Agency Law 

No. 34/2008. It is important to note that only Syrian nationals 

may operate as agents. In the case of a company agent, the 

company must be registered in Syria and its shareholders 

must be Syrian nationals. 

Law No. 34/2008 also is the basis for regulating the 

establishment of a branch office of a foreign company. In the 

case of a registered branch office, the general manager of the 

office must be resident in Syria. Branches of foreign companies 

are required to keep their accounting books and records in 

Arabic. This requirement must be fulfilled even if the tax on 

the entity is not assessed based on the profits shown in its 

books, but is levied, instead, as a withholding tax from the 

payments of its customers. In contracts combining off-shore 

and on-shore components, the books and records also must 

include the off-shore component of contract income. 

How will these principles be applied to a construction 

consortium? As long as the consortium is not considered 

to be a partnership or a de-facto company, it is not required 

to have a branch office or agent on its own. Consequently, 

the requirement for an agent or branch office registration 

is applied to every member of the consortium separately. 

Moreover, every branch office of a consortium member must 

have its own set of books and records.

Taxation of Construction Consortium Activities 

in Syria 

In principal, Syria’s income tax on commercial activities, selfemployment 

and industrial activities is levied on the profit 

generated from these activities. However, with the introduction 

of the new Income Tax Law No. 24/2003, the law provides for 

a withholding tax approach to income generated by foreign 

companies or individuals. The withholding tax is defined as 

a certain percentage of all payments for supplies and services 

and must be withheld by the Syrian customer in settlement 

of the foreign contractor’s tax obligation under the Syrian 

income tax law. It not only covers the income tax obligation 

of the foreign contractor, but also extends to salaries for all 

personnel employed under the contract. 

If the customer contract provides for a clear price differentiation 

between off-shore and on-shore components of the contract, 

the tax withheld is 5% for income tax, and 2% for the salaries 

tax, on the amount invoiced for the domestic component of the 

contract. Should the contract not provide for such a clear price 

differentiation, a 3% income tax and 1% salaries tax will be 

due on the combined components of the customer contract. 

Under a consortium structure it is advisable that every 

member of the consortium submit its own invoices to the 

customer. In practice it is accepted that payments to the 

consortium are collected in an account of the consortium 

leader, who in parallel transfers part of his or her payments 

to the other consortium members. In addition, the consortium 

leader should provide a statement allocating the overall tax 

deduction to the respective consortium members. 

Bank Account – Currency Issues – 

Transfer of Money – Letter of Credit 

Since the consortium is not a legal entity and has no registered 

place of business, it is not allowed to open a bank account 

in its own name. A local bank account in Syria must be 

opened by one of the registered members of the consortium 

under its own name. This is normally the account that will 

receive customer payments and pay local debts. In the event 

the account is held by a branch office of a foreign company, 

all transfers must be reflected in the accounting books and 

records of the branch office. 

The local bank account normally is used only for payments in 

local Syrian currency. Due to legal restrictions on convertibility 

and transferability, payments in foreign currency typically 

will be operated from accounts abroad. Contractors, therefore, 

often request the customer to make payments in foreign 

currency to their overseas accounts. A letter of credit also is 

an accepted tool to secure customer payments. It is not yet 

common practice to accept individual letters of credit from 

all participating consortium members. Normally, documents 

on consortium letterhead are used to request payment of 

all consortium members. This is typically handled by the 

consortium leader. It is obvious, however, that this approach 

involves the risk of illiquidity for individual members in 

the event the money is paid to the consortium leader’s own 

account. Therefore, it is important to structure this account as 

an escrow account. 

Bid Bond and Performance Bond 

Bid bonds and performance bonds customary in international 

project business also are common in Syrian project business. 

However, in contracts with public entities, it is still a challenge 

to get a performance bond returned immediately after all tasks 

under the contract have been fulfilled. This is surprising since, 

under ‘The Special Book on Conditions’ for Syrian public 

entities, the contract is fulfilled when the work is completed, 

and not after an additional guarantee period. However, the 

request to ‘pay or extend’ is a frequent experience for foreign 

contractors. Under certain circumstances it may be worth 

trying to seek relief in Syrian courts. There are cases where 

foreign contractors have been successful in settling their cases 

and having their bonds returned. 

Foreign and Local Workers Employed 

with the Project 

If a foreign contractor performs any local work in Syria, the 

full scope of an employer’s legal obligations are applicable. 

Syrian labour law is still regulated by Law No. 91/1959 and 

by Art. 640 to 664 of the Syrian Civil Code, as amended. There 

is a new law under consideration, however, it is not known 

if or when this will be implemented. Syrian labour law is 

considered employee-friendly. Termination of an employment 

contract is an especially severe obstacle for any employer. The 

practical solution of many local employers – making moderate 

compensation payments – is probably not easily available to 

foreign companies. In practice, many hire their personnel 

through local third-party companies. However, this is now 

seen as by-passing the law and should not be used. In some

cases, but not all, actually subcontracting local work may help 

to overcome these labour law issues. 

In addition, a local work permit is required for foreign experts 

or supervising personnel. This is regardless of the duration 

of their stay. Only in exceptional cases may an exemption 

be granted. Due to the withholding tax approach in project 

business, which includes the tax on salaries, there is no need 

to declare the salaries tax by individual employee. However, 

the obligation to contribute to the local social security system 

is also applicable to foreigners. This contribution amounts to 

24.1% of the gross salary. Furthermore, the employer must 

furnish the Ministry of Labour with a bank guarantee in the 

amount of 100,000 Syrian pounds for every foreign employee. 

The Ministry will draw down on this guarantee in part or in 

full if payment obligations with respect to the employee are 

not fulfilled. The employer must provide for the immediate 

filling of any gap that may arise. 

Outlook 

Many of the mentioned legal requirements appear complicated 

and impose an administrative burden on foreign contractors 

entering the Syrian market. Moreover, despite legal reforms, 

contracting with the government in Syria is still slow and 

complicated. Legal and administrative support, therefore, may 

be necessary to avoid the obstacles that crop up during any 

project activity. 

On the other hand the opening of the Syrian economy to 

private investment, and Syria’s interest in European imports, 

especially German technological products, will further improve 

conditions for foreign entities doing project work in Syria. The 

practical solutions currently in use by foreign consortia may 

be viewed as evidence of an evolving business environment 

going beyond narrow legal regulations. Syria likely will 

continue to develop in this area and become an interesting 

market for large international infrastructure projects. 


109

Saudi Arabia’s Industrial Parks 

Offering Opportunities 

to Solar Companies 

Business park within King Abdullah economic city at the Red Sea. 

Apricum – 

The Cleantech Advisory 

Romy Schildhauer

Background 

Following a slight recession in 2009, Saudi Arabia’s 

economy returns to robust annual growth rates of 3 to 4% 

in 2010. The high oil prices of the past years have provided 

the strongest economy of the Arabian peninsula with a 

sound capital base. Apart from the petrochemical industry, 

primarily the construction business has profited from oil and 

gas revenues. The people of Saudi Arabia, too, experienced 

a notable improvement in living standards. However, Saudi 

Arabia continues to face a broad range of economic and social 

challenges. 

The sudden improvement in living standards of a vast majority 

of people combined with the economic focus on the heavy 

industry sector have also led to a rapid increase in energy 

demand. The kingdom’s energy infrastructure however is 

not prepared for peak demand. Thus, blackouts are a frequent 

occurrence during peak times. In the future, blackouts are 

predicted to worsen, as both the usage of electric appliances 

and water consumption increase. Producing potable water 

through desalination processes is highly energy-intensive. 

Energy demand in the kingdom is therefore predicted to 

have doubled by 2020. 

In addition to the above developments, Saudi Arabia’s 

population is growing at above average rates. Nearly half of 

the 25 million Saudis are still enrolled at school. And with 

rising levels of education, many of these graduates aim for 

a position in management or in the technology sector. Such 

positions however are short in supply in Saudi Arabia’s 

current economy. 

The Saudi government is therefore keen to diversify 

the national industry. While today’s lion’s share of GDP 

is produced by the petrochemical industry and related 

industries, in the future, attention will also be paid to other 

modern, high-tech industries. Of those selected industries, 

the solar industry is especially suited to generate long-term 

growth and to respond adequately to social challenges. 

Solar Energy – a Future Pillar of 

Saudi Arabian Economy 

Thanks to its geographic location, Saudi Arabia fulfils all 

requirements for the profitable production of solar electricity: 

vast spaces and one of the world’s most excellent solar 

irradiation. As such, the Saudi government has identified solar 


111 

energy both as one of the future pillars of national energy 

supply as well as an export product. The utilities and power 

stations needed would at first be imported from Europe or 

Asia. In the long run, the kingdom plans to attract high-tech 

solar enterprises to profit from the benefits of a national solar 

industry, such as creating a large number of highly skilled 

jobs. The national strategy for attracting enterprises focuses 

on large industrial parks, which will foster the creation of 

industry clusters. These clusters comprise various stages of 

a product’s value chain, the associated suppliers and relevant 

research institutes. 

Already today, Saudi Arabia lists more than 30 industrial parks, 

where mainly the petrochemical and the crude-oil industry 

are represented. The parks are located throughout the entire 

country, but concentrate in particular in coastal regions along 

the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea. Several parks have already 

reached the limits of their capacities and cannot accept any 

more enterprises, as is for example the case with Jubail 1 Park. 

Others are still in the exploration phase. Some parks, such 

as Petro Rabigh und Yanbu, are currently actively searching 

for investors and are intentionally geared towards becoming 

sites for the solar industry. In the context of a national solar 

study for the Saudi Arabian government, Apricum, a globally 

operating strategic management consultancy specialised in 

Cleantech and renewable energies particulary focussed on 

solar energy, has assessed the suitability of the kingdom’s 

industrial parks and structural characteristics for attracting 

solar manufacturing companies. 

Petro raBigh conversion inDustrial Park (rciP) 

Petro Rabigh Conversion Industrial Park is located at the Red 

Sea, next to a large petrochemical complex approximately 

120 km north of Jeddah. The park encloses 240 ha. The 

petrochemical complex was created through a joint venture 

between oil giant Saudi Aramco and the Japanese Sumitomo 

Chemical Corporation. It marks Aramco’s first entry into the 

petrochemical sector and is the first of several downstream 

investments designed to keep as much value as possible 

inside Saudi Arabia from domestic oil output, while trying to 

create jobs for a young and rapidly growing population. The 

project was put into operation in 2008. It produces a diverse 

set of petrochemical derivatives including polyethylene, 

polypropylene monoethylene glycol and propylene oxide 

mounting up to a total of 2.4 million tons of petrochemical 

products per year. RCIP is a nonprofit base project where 

power and water will be provided at cost bases. It is targeted 

to attract investors for producers of high value-added and

Modern service centres within the industrial parks are to offer high standard support for international companies.

export-oriented products, like high-performance plastic films 

that for example are used in photo-voltaic modules. 

royal commission yanBu 

Also near the Red Sea lies Yanbu Industrial Park. At 

158 km², it is one of the largest industrial parks of Saudi 

Arabia. The Yanbu site is a perfect example how park 

developers successfully managed the challenges imposed 

by geographical and infrastructural conditions in Saudi 

Arabia. When preparations at Yanbu started, the site 

lacked everything required to support even a minimum 

level of human existence, let alone full-blown industrial 

development. Unlike its neighbouring facility Jubail, the site 

was far from the nearest metropolitan area and ready access 

to essential goods and services. The challenge, therefore, was 

enormous: to provide power, water, roads, airport, industrial 

port, telephones, housing, schools, health care facilities 

and all other services and facilities required by a modern 

industrial city. 

Today, Yanbu is home to approximately 20 heavy hydrocarbon, 

petrochemical and mineral facilities as well as 37 light 

manufacturing and support operations. Its power needs 

are supplied by nine gas-turbine and three steam-turbine 

generators, all capable of burning either gas or fuel oil. 

Together, these units can produce 900 MW of electricity. Also 

in the central utility complex, water from the Red Sea is fed to 

nine desalination units producing 95,000 m 3 fresh water daily. 

With the large amount of energy readily available at low cost, 

Yanbu is especially suited for upstream PV production, e.g. 

polysilicon ingot and wafer production. 

king aBDullah economic city (kaec) 

The King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) pursues a concept 

reaching beyond industrial park development to foster 

national industrial cluster creation. KAEC is located north of 

the Jeddah metropolitan area, directly on the Red Sea coast 

and in close proximity to the King Abdullah University of 

Science and Technology (KAUST). 

It is a major development project with six districts including 

industrial, commercial and residential zones covering a total 

area of 168 km². KAEC planners envision a futuristic new 

form of living and working for the inhabitants of their city. 

They intend the city to be built for ‘intelligent’ living, which 

means that communities will enjoy a suite of value-added 

services such as eGovernment, home automation, efficient 

health care and an advanced transportation infrastructure. 


113 

From the outside, the park is accessible via several multilane 

main highways, a future seaport within city boundaries and 

the Jeddah International Airport. Contrary to the industrial 

park approach, the economic city concept rather focuses on 

establishing light industries and service providers. It therefore 

seems predominantly poised to become a manufacturing 

location for PV-module or thin-film companies. 

Outlook 

Saudi Arabia´s industrial parks and economic cities offer 

attractive manufacturing conditions for various high-tech 

industries, including solar. Beyond those facilities, the country 

offers a wide range of assets that are especially advantageous 

for high-tech manufacturers: 

– Low energy costs, which are primarily relevant for 

energy-intensive manufacturing processes, the first steps 

of the photo-voltaic value chain 

– Excellent financing opportunities including practically 

zero tax burdens for industrial companies 

– Very high market potential within Saudi Arabia and 

neighbouring countries

List of Contributors

Amereller Rechtsanwälte 

Project: 

Project Contracting of Foreign Companies in Syria – 

Legal Issues of Foreign Construction Consortia 

Contact: 

Dr. Florian Amereller, Partner 

Lenbachplatz 4 

D-80333 München 

Germany 

Tel: +49 89 549019-0 

Fax: +49 89 549019-99 

E-mail: fa@amereller.com 

www.amereller.com 

Apricum – The Cleantech Advisory 

Project: 

Saudi Arabia’s Industrial Parks Offering Opportunities 

to Solar Companies 

Contact: 

Nikolai Dobrott, Managing Partner 

Neue Gruenstrasse 17 

D-10179 Berlin 


Tel: +49 30 308776-221 

Fax +49 30 308776-225 

E-mail: dobrott@apricum-group.com 

www.apricum-group.com 

ASS Planungs GmbH Freie Architekten 

Project: 

Al-Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Stadium 


Contact: 

Susanne Schmid, Managing Partner 

Seestrasse 65 

D-70174 Stuttgart 


Tel: +49 711 220226-60 

Fax: +49 711 220226-66 

E-mail: schmid@ass-architekten.de 

www.ass-architekten.de 

Dorsch Gruppe 

Project: 



115 

Contact: 

Ulrich Beer, Project Manager 

Kerstin Schneider, Head of Marketing and Public Relations 

Dorsch Holding GmbH 

Berliner Strasse 74-76 

D-63065 Offenbach am Main 

Tel: +49 69 130257-0 

Fax: +49 69 130257-32 

E-mail: kerstin.schneider@dorschgruppe.com 

www.dorsch.de 

Project: 

Waste Water Treatment and Reuse in the Gaza Strip 

Contact: 

Keith Brooke, Regional Director 

Dorsch Consult Wasser und Umwelt GmbH 

Regional Office Cairo 

6 El Sad El Ali St., P.O. Box 31 

11431 Maadi, Cairo 

Egypt 

Tel: +20 2 23802563 

Fax: +20 2 23802394 

E-mail: keith.brooke@dorscheg.com 

Internet: www.dorsch.de 

Project: 

Khartoum New International Airport 

Contact: 

Albert Mair, Project Director 

Hansastrasse 20 



Tel: +49 89 5797-0 

Fax: +49 89 5797-874 

E-mail: albert.mair@dorsch.de 

www.dorsch.de

Project: 

Lotus Garden 

Contact: 

Hany Labib 

Dorsch Consult Abu Dhabi Office 

Salam Street 

P.O. Box 26417 

Abu Dhabi, UAE 

Tel: +971 26721923 

Fax: +971 26720809 

E-mail: Hany.Labib@dorsch.ae 

Ferrostaal AG 

Project: 

Construction of a Methanol Plant: 

A Strategy to Diversify the Omani Economy 

Contact: 

Adalbert Graff, Head of Petrochemical Industry 

Hohenzollernstrasse 24 

D-45128 Essen 


Tel: +49 201 8182099 

Fax: +49 201 8182822 

E-mail: adalbert.graff@ferrostaal.com 

www.ferrostaal.com 

Fichtner GmbH & Co. KG 

Project: 

Ain Béni Mathar – an Integrated Solar-Combined Cycle 

Plant 

Contact: 

Mansour Hamza, Managing Director 

Sarweystrasse 3 



Tel: +49 711 8995371 

Fax: +49 711 8995459 

E-mail: Mansour.Hamza@fichtner.de 

www.fichtner.de 

German University of Technology in Oman 

(Gutech) 

Project: 

Masterplan and Main Building of the German University of 

Technology in Oman 

Contact: 

Prof. Dr. Burkhard Rauhut, Rector 

P.O. Box 1816 

Athaiba PC 130, Muscat 

Sultanate of Oman 

Tel: +968 98134616 

Fax: +968 24495568 

E-mail: burkhard.rauhut@gutech.edu.om 

www.gutech.edu.om 

gtz International Services 

Project: 

Aqaba Residence Energy Efficiency (AREE) 

Contact: 

Florentine Visser, Architect, Project Manager 

4D, El Gezira Street 

11211 Zamalek/Cairo 

Egypt 

Tel: +20 2 24181578/9 

E-mail: florentine.visser@gtz.de 

www.med-enec.com/en/ 

i+o Industrieplanung + Organisation GmbH 

& Co. KG 

Project: 


Contact: 

Martina Dandl, Business Unit Manager Marketing/PR 

Roemerstrasse 245 

D-69126 Heidelberg 


Tel: +49 6221 379-0 

Fax: +49 6221 379-200 

E-mail: info-eu@io-consultants.com 

www.io-consultants.com

Kere Architecture 

Project: 

Pilot Project for Schools in Yemen 

Contact: 

Diébédo Francis Kéré, Architect, Owner 

Arndtstrasse 34 



Tel: +49 30 789523-91 

Fax: +49 30 789523-98 

E-mail: info@kere-architecture.com 

www.kere-architecture.com 

KfW Entwicklungsbank 

Project: 

Improving the Living Conditions of the Poor 

in Manshiet Nasser 

Contact: 

Mandana Bahrinipour, Project Manager 

Palmengartenstrasse 5-9 

D-60325 Frankfurt Main 


Tel: +49 69 7431-0 

Fax: +49 69 7431-3559 

E-mail: mandana.bahrinipour@kfw.de 

www.kfw.de/entwicklungsbank 

KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten GmbH 

Project: 


Contact: 

Sebastian Tokarz, PR 

Hanauer Landstrasse 287-289 

D-60314 Frankfurt/Main 


Tel: +49 69 944394 0 

Fax: +49 69 944394-38 

E-mail: frankfurt@ksp-architekten.de 

www.ksp-architekten.de 

Lahmeyer International GmbH 

Project: 

The Merowe Dam and Hydropower Station 

Contact: 

Egon Failer, Executive Director 

Friedberger Strasse 173 

D-61118 Bad Vilbel 


Tel: +49 6101 55-1745 

Fax: +49-6101 55-1414 

E-mail: egon.failer@lahmeyer.de 

www.lahmeyer.de 

Lufthansa Consulting GmbH 


117 

Project: 

Strategic Consulting in the Rapidly Expanding Middle East 

Aviation Market 

Contact: 

Marlene Hollwurtel, Manager Public Relations 

Von-Gablenz-Strasse 2-6 

D-50679 Köln 


Tel: +49 221 826-8101 

Fax +49 221 826-8263 

E-mail: marlene.hollwurtel@lhconsulting.com 

www.lhconsulting.com 

MAURER Söhne GmbH & Co. KG 

Project: 

German Maurer Bridge Expansion Joint System for Sheikh 

Zayed Sculptural Bridge in Abu Dhabi 

Contact: 

Raad Hamood, Sales Director Middle East 

Frankfurter Ring 193 



Tel: +49 89 323 94-354 

Fax: +49 89 323 94-306 

E-mail: hamood@maurer-soehne.de 

www.maurer-soehne.de

Outotec GmbH, Köln 

Project: 

Outotec Supplies Anode Paste Plant for EMAL’s Aluminium 

Smelter Project in Abu Dhabi 

Contact: 

Dipl.-Ing. Manfred Beilstein, Vice President Sales and 

Process Aluminium Technologies, Paste Plants 

Albin-Köbis-Strasse 8 

D-51147 Köln 


Tel: +49 2203 9921-0 

Fax +49 2203 9921-333 

E-mail: aluminium@outotec.com 

www.outotec.com 

Outotec GmbH, Oberursel 

Project: 

Banking on Fertiliser in the Middle of the Desert 

Contact: 

Steffen Dietzig, Director Sales & Marketing, 

Head of Middle East Market Region 

Ludwig-Erhard-Strasse 21 

D-61440 Oberursel 


Tel: +49 617 19693-0 

E-mail: steffen.dietzig@outotec.com 

www.outotec.com 

Papadopoulos Associates GmbH 

Project: 


Contact: 

Dipl.-Ing. Jürgen Papadopoulos, Managing Director 

Arnulfstrasse 124 



Tel: +49 89 540184-0 

Fax: +49 89 540184-18 

E-mail: info@papadopoulos-group.com 

www.papadopoulos-group.com 

Passavant-Roediger GmbH 

Project: 

Design and Construction of a 

Municipal Solid Waste Treatment Plant in Saida 

Contact: 

Mazen Bachir, PhD, Managing Director 

Kinzigheimer Weg 104-106 

D-63450 Hanau 


Tel: +49 6181 309-250 

Fax: +49 6181 309-320 

E-mail: mazen.bachir@passavant-roediger.de 

www.passavant-roediger.de 

schlaich bergermann und 

partner- structural consulting engineers 

Project: 

Al-Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Stadium 


Contact: 

Dipl.-Ing. Knut Göppert, Managing Director 

Hohenzollernstrasse 1 



Tel: +49 711 6487134 

Fax: +49 711 487166 

E-mail: k.goeppert@sbp.de 

www.sbp.de

Siemens AG 

Project: 

The Backbone of Urban Mass Transit 

Contact: 

Hans-Juergen Schweer, Head of Business Development 

Complete Transportation 

Mozartstrasse 33b 

D-91053 Erlangen 


Tel: +49 9131 726134 

Fax: +49 9131 725170 

E-mail: hans-juergen.schweer@siemens.com 

www.siemens.com 

ThyssenKrupp Elevator 

Project: 

Qatar’s Fastest Elevators – The Qipco ‘Tornado’ Tower – Doha 

Contact: 

Christian Kozma, Country Manager 

1st Floor, Office No. 104 

Shk. Khalifa Bin Jassim Building, Al Sadd District 

P.O. Box 47405, Doha 

Qatar 

Tel: +974 434 1950/1 

Fax: +974 434 1949 

E-mail: Christian.kozma@thyssenkrupp.com 

www.thyssenkrupp-elevator.com 

Tilke GmbH & Co KG 

Project: 

An Oasis in the Desert – Bahrain International Circuit 

Contact: 

N. Baxter, Marketing & Public Relations 

Krefelder Strasse 147 

D-52070 Aachen 


Tel: +49 241 9134-0 

Fax: +49 241 9134-400 

E-mail: mailbox@tilke.de 

www.tilke.de 

Wacker AG 


119 

Project: 

Thermal Insulation in a Desert Climate: Sustainable 

Construction in the Middle East 

Contact: 

Dr. Stefano Iannacone, Branch Manager Dubai, 

Wacker Chemicals Middle East 

P.O. Box 341071; Dubai Silicon Oasis 

0001 Dubai 


Tel: +971 4 709-9999 

Fax: +971 4 709-9911 

E-mail: info.dubai@wacker.com 

www.wacker.com

Imprint

Editor 

Ghorfa Arab-German Chamber 

of Commerce and Industry 

Garnisonkirchplatz 1 



Tel: +49 30 278907-0 

Fax: +49 30 278907-49 

E-mail: ghorfa@ghorfa.de 

www.ghorfa.de 

Dr. Thomas Bach, President 

Abdulaziz Al-Mihlafi, Secretary General 

Olaf Hoffmann, Chairman of the working group 

‘infrastructure and construction’ 

Coordination 

Rafaela Rahmig, Ghorfa Arab-German Chamber 

of Commerce and Industry 

Kerstin Schneider, Dorsch Holding GmbH 

Editorial Office 

Tanja Reindel 

Lektorat & Redaktion 

Nordendstrasse 19 

D-60318 Frankfurt/M. 


Tel: +49 69 449140 

Mobile: +49 173 3413118 

E-mail: tanja.reindel@t-online.de 

Photos 

Cover picture: © Jeanet Dijkstra – Fotolia.com 

Other pictures: Kindly provided by the 

contributing companies and the Economic 

and Commercial Office of the Embassy of the 

Arab Republic of Egypt. 

Producer 

Marktforschung und 

Kommunikation GmbH 

Friedrichstrasse 187 



Tel: +49 30 2061343 

Fax: +49 30 2061344 

E-mail: info@marktkomm.de 

Kindly supported by 

© May 2010 


121

Arab-German Yearbook 2010 - Ghorfa

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