Campus City

The entrance to Princess Noura University.

RELATED ARTICLES: Princess Noura Uni gets ready for first students | Saudi king opens Princess Noura University | In pictures: Saudi King opens Princess Noura Uni

On 15 May, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, inaugurated the new campus and university city of the Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University (PNU).

Situated at a distance of 25km from Riyadh’s city centre, the PNU is the largest women-only university in the world, with its 15 colleges together capable of accommodating as many as 40,000 students.

It is part of an ambitious education plan by the Saudi government. This mega project was carried out successfully by Saudi Oger and other contractors.

Saudi Oger worked with more than 580 local companies to provide all materials used in the project, an effort aimed at strengthening the Kingdom’s national firms. The contractor also helped local importers acquire materials not available domestically by providing information about the sources.

Story continues below

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

These efforts were part of Saudi Oger’s policy of working to improve local importers’ performance and professionalism, which benefits the national economy in general.

The campus occupies a site in excess of 800ha, with a total built-up area of 300ha. It is comprised of 15 colleges and several departments, a conference hall, 700-bed hospital, extensive hostel facilities, a sports city and waste management plant.

Taking advantage of the latest energy-saving technology, the campus buildings have been designed in a way that uses sunlight as a source of light and energy. A total of 40,000m2 of solar panelling will provide 16% of the energy requirement for campus heating, and 18% for air-conditioning.

The central library, which will be fully accessible to students electronically, is one of the largest in the world, with five million books. It is planned that the library will be accredited for LEED Gold.

Saudi Oger, one of the Kingdom’s leading construction companies and headquartered in Riyadh, was the main contractor for Package One at PNU, which it won in January 2009. Since construction work began, Saudi Oger has been fast-tracking the execution of Package One.

This package comprises the construction of several educational colleges for medicine, including dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and non-medical specialties, as well as the arts, humanities, design and IT.

Saudi Oger is also responsible for the administration buildings, housing facilities, medical research centre and hospital, as well as landscaping and multiple support facilities spread across the campus.

By May 2009, construction work began in earnest, with the various construction teams in place to deal with site enablement, from shoring and excavation works to foundations and asphalting. At the peak of the project, more than 30,000 employees were involved on-site.

“One of the many strengths of Saudi Oger is the culture of the organization, which is multi-divisional, from design, procurement and construction through to facilities management.

Through its Saudi Arabian and international structure, Saudi Oger harnessed expertise at all levels, including Oger International in Paris and other global offices,” explained Mazen Fayed, director of corporate communications.

“One of the biggest challenges at the beginning was to house the people, due to the sheer scale of the project. One has to think in a different way when mobilising and dividing responsibilities into six project areas under five project managers,” said Fayed.

The typical work programme was 24/7, with more than 93 tower cranes in operation. Package One covered 100ha within the overall construction programme. Finding skilled workers was also a major challenge.

“Saudi Oger is bullish about the success of Saudisation, and the benefits of the nearby Saudi Oger Training Institute. Saudi Oger hired many Saudi engineers and administrative staff and, importantly, the training institute provided quality vocational training for new Saudi staff to immediately join this mega project,” said Fayed.

PNU will accommodate up to 40,000 students on the campus, which also includes 400 villas for housing families and ancillary staff. Specific areas of the campus will be allocated to latest R&D in nanotechnology, biological sciences and IT, in collaboration with the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.

“Environmental concerns are implicit on the PNU campus, which features energy-saving technologies, including a district cooling plant, solar power and water recycling,” said Fayed. Lead consultant for is Dar Al Handasah for design and MEP.