Face to face: Hans Wenkenbach, El Seif COO

Hans Wenkenbach

Hans Wenkenbach still remembers the atmosphere at the inauguration ceremony for the Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University (PNU) in Riyadh, a project still to be entirely finished, but which was officially opened by King Abdullah in May this year.

“I was present at the inauguration and although, let us say, I am not such a fan of theatre, looking at all the people who were there – I think about 2,000 in the convention centre, and 500 female Saudi students were there as well, and it was well set-up – and it was visited by the King,” explains the COO and VP of the El Seif Engineering Contracting’s infrastructure division.

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“The King came into the convention centre and the enthusiasm of all the people there, the contractors were there and all those that contributed, the main suppliers, consultants, government bodies, people from the diplomatic circuit ... the enthusiasm was fantastic,” says Wenkenbach.

For El Seif Engineering Contracting, it was the end of two years building and installing all the utilities on the 800ha mega project. He adds that the event finally allowed everyone to relax and enjoy having been fully focused right up until the ceremony.

“Everyone was so engaged in making sure everything works, and it was a success, that I think everyone was living in ‘work mode’. Then suddenly, one afternoon, you take off your overalls and go to the convention centre and the King enters.” The good feeling is well-justified.

Amid the construction renaissance in Saudi Arabia that will see the creation of new economic cities, financial districts, numerous new airports and the renovation of existing hubs, half-a-million new houses and countless infrastructure projects, PNU has caught the attention and imagination of the region like no other.

The societal implications of what will be the world’s biggest women’s university are matched by the scale of the project itself.

The new campus includes a 700-bed university hospital, 15 colleges, a central library, a conference hall, laboratories and three research centres, along with staff and student housing units, primary, intermediate and secondary schools, recreational facilities and administration buildings.

Two years ago, El Seif was awarded the third package of the university’s construction, a mandate that included all utilities infrastructure. The contractor built one strip of utility buildings and ring roads next to the academic buildings and all the colleges. At the head of the strip is the hospital and, on both sides, the ancillary facilities, explains the Dutch-born executive.

“Our Package 3 runs along the spine of the university up to the hospital, the service tunnel: we have all the utilities with drinking water, potable water, storm drainage, electricity supply, communication chilled water, hot water. We have provided for the entire university area.”

The central ‘brain’ for all the utilities is in this strip, he continues, and the company also provided a service tunnel. “We have laid about 700km of pipeline and utilities to serve all the buildings. On top of that, we have done all the roads and all soft landscaping. That is basically the scope of El Seif.”

That is, in fact, just the beginning. The cooling plant, serving the whole site, is one of the largest in the world. The company also installed a sewage treatment plant, solid-waste systems for compacting material for further processing, standby power generation for vital areas such as the hospital and the IT system, and a chilled water system backed up by two huge water tanks.

Then there is the warehouse that contains facilities that can cater for 340,000 people, and which contains a printing press room and storage, topped off on the roof with 32,000m2 of solar panels to provide hot water. Finally, a data centre provides IT systems, along with internet, telephone and television.