A front view of two of the ten buildings
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Golden Mile on the Palm Jumeirah, which is finally nearing completion, is one of the largest MEP works contracts ever undertaken by Drake & Scull International PJSC (DSI). MEP Middle East paid a visit to the site to catch up on the milestones achieved.
Golden Mile is located on the western portion of the Palm Jumeirah. It comprises ten buildings, with a total of 860 residential units. These consist of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, townhouses and penthouses with sea and park views. All residences will be managed by the neighbouring Fairmont Palm Jumeirah hotel, scheduled to open in 2010, a project that DSI is also involved with. Golden Mile will also host the first freehold offices on the Palm Jumeirah, as well as an extensive retail area.
“Golden Mile resides at the heart of the Palm Jumeirah, and will be the centre of the community living on the manmade island. It is the first mixed-use project on the trunk. Our partnership with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts started with The Palm Residence (Shoreline Apartment Buildings 7 and 8, namely Al Haseer and Al Nabat), which were handed over in January 2008,” says IFA Hotels & Resorts development VP Patrick Smith.
The main contractor, Al Shafar General Contracting Company LLC, was appointed in March 2006. The project itself was launched in 2004 as a joint venture between IFA Hotels & Resorts and Nakheel. “The residential component was practically sold out within the first 48 hours. The majority of the residences were sold before the market changed.
Good team
“Our customers believe in the project, and have been with us for years, looking forward to living in their new homes. We are also very fortunate to have a good team in place that has dedicated a lot of time and effort to ensure delivery of a quality project with excellent finishes,” comments Smith.
This sense of pride and achievement is readily evident when speaking to DSI project director Darko Macura and operations manager Naser Yaseen. “The completion of the project has occurred at an important time in the market, helping to instill confidence that major, quality-based developments are still being delivered successfully,” says Macura.
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“The project has maintained the same momentum from beginning to end, with the client, contractors and suppliers all committed to the end result,” adds Yaseen. Smith admits that, “As with many projects in Dubai, there have been some unexpected delays. It is not a small development.”
However, Smith is upbeat about what has been achieved to date: “As the largest foreign private developer on Palm Jumeirah, we are committed to ensuring that a consistently high standard is delivered and maintained.
“We are very proud to be able to continue to deliver high-quality projects during these challenging times. We are definitely proud of this project. Our partnership with Nakheel has remained strong; we will look at other opportunities for the joint venture.”
MEP works
DSI has been involved with the project for about three years, which covers a total built-up area of more than 360 000 square metres. Golden Mile 2 (Buildings 7 to 10) is now complete, with handover commencing in May 2009. “We are aiming to finish Golden Mile 1 (Buildings 1 to 6) during the summer, and will then start handing over the residential units shortly thereafter,” says Smith. The overall project comprises two stretches, with six buildings on one side and four on the other. The Trump Hotel was meant to be the centrepiece, but this project has since been put on hold.
Yaseen says DSI clinched the initial MEP works tender “due to a combination of commitment, quality and delivery, together with reasonable prices, which all translates into good value.” The scope of work may appear simple from the outset, but Yaseen points out that none of the ten buildings are exactly alike.
For starters, they are wider than is the norm in Dubai, plus the four sides of each building face onto adjacent plots. It is for these reasons that DSI opted to appoint a dedicated logistics manager to co-ordinate and oversee the clockwork movement of workers and materials from one end of the long site to the other. The height of the project saw 3 000 workers on-site, which has since tapered off to about 550.
Due to the immensity of the project, MEP services were divided into five areas, explains Yaseen, with a set of basement plant rooms feeding two adjacent buildings. A Palm District Cooling chilled water network supplies a total of 12,500 TR of cooling. A series of risers distributes the chilled water to about 100 air-handling units. The apartments themselves are fitted with fan-coil air-con units, which were selected due to the layout of the buildings.
The total 37MW electrical load will be supplied by seven substations, all of which have been completed. Three have six 1,500 kVa transformers; one has two, while the others have three. Distribution from the main electrical rooms is via a combination of cable and busbar, depending on the location and the distance to the local main distribution boards.
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hi can anyone plse give me a realistic idea of when the park area and retail area thats between the shoreline apartments