July 14, 2008

ATCO wins contract to build massive worker village in United Arab Emirates

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

ATCO Ltd. has signed a contract to build a construction village to house workers in the United Arab Emirates, which is the largest workforce housing project in the history of the 60-year old company.

ATCO Structures announced on July 3 that the company has been chosen to design and manufacture a 20,000 person workforce housing complex to support construction of the $27 billion Saadiyat Island tourism and cultural district development project in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Australian subsidiary ATCO Structures Pty Ltd. and Al Habtoor Engineering have formed a strategic partnership to open a modular manufacturing facility and sales office in Abu Dhabi.

Al Habtoor Engineering is part of the Al Habtoor Leighton Group.

“We have worked closely with Leighton before in Indonesia on various large-scale workforce camp projects and know we make a strong partnership,” said Michael Shaw, managing director, Global Enterprises & ATCO Ltd. Corporate Development, ATCO Group.

ATCO’s first contract is for a 20,000-person construction village to house approximately one-third of the region’s workers hired to build infrastructure projects on the resort island of Saadiyat.

It will include sleeping accommodations, recreational amenities, kitchen, dining and laundry facilities.

The new manufacturing facilities in the UAE position the company for future phases to supply modular building solutions for the Saadiyat Island construction project and other opportunities in the Arab world.

Saadiyat Island, about half the size of Bermuda, is located only about 500 metres offshore from the City of Abu Dhabi.

The Saadiyat will be a modern residential community that will be home to 150,000 residents.

The integrated development will have a complete range of civic, cultural, leisure and tourism amenities.

The tourism and cultural development project will be built around seven districts comprising 29 hotels, three marinas, mooring for 1,000 yachts, two golf courses, arts and culture hub, and 19 kilometres of beachfront.

The project also involves the construction of three museums designed by architects Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel and Tadao Ando.

The $400 million Guggenheim Museum will be located in the island’s Cultural District and have 30,000 square metres of space.

The museum will be dedicated to modern and contemporary art and is due for completion in 2011.

The project will also have a spaceship-like performing arts center designed by Zaha Hadid and be home to the first of two championship golf courses designed by Gary Player.

For the island project, construction is expected to last up to 10 years and require anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000 foreign laborers.

The development will be linked to Abu Dhabi by two causeways.

One causeway will operate a light rail system and the other will be a bridge stretching 10 kilometres.

The Tourism Development & Investment Company awarded the US$550 million infrastructure construction contract for Saadiyat Island to Australian Gulf Leighton.

The two-year contract covers the construction of a 6.5-kilometre-long section of the highway that will link Shahama with Saadiyat, including seven bridges with a total length of 1.6 kilometres and three tunnels.

In addition, there will be 10.7 kilometres of storm water drainage; 22.3 kilometres of sewerage systems; a 30-kilometre drinking water network with a ground storage tank and pump station, mechanical and electrical works and the installation of utilities.

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