Jeddah precast

The extensive yard uses gantry cranes to move larger pre-cast pieces. The concrete is cast in molds and can be given a selection of finishes.

Construction Week visits a large concrete works, owned and run by the Saudi Binladin group.

You went where?’ was the general reaction on returning from our latest site visit. Going to a precast and post-tensioning yard would not normally be considered anything exceptional, even one which is around three times the size of a typical operation.

However, this yard is situated just past the black, basalt rocks outside Jeddah in Saudi Arabia – which at the best of times is hardly media friendly, but what made this site visit particularly exciting was the sign outside the gate: Saudi Binladin Group for Industrial Precast.

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Anybody thinking of doing business in the kingdom, and in Jeddah in particular, needs to know about the Binladin Group. Pretty much every building in the gateway city has something to do with the firm, which has interests in every step of the construction process, from raw materials through to building management.

There is a whole street in the city with offices for the company and on the outskirts there are enormous factories and holding yards.

Bizarre, black terrain surrounds Jeddah, apparently caused by prehistoric volcanoes, and it is a 45-minute drive through this jutting, basaltic landscape to get to the Binladen site.

Once there, there is time to enjoy some Turkish coffee with Ahamed Omer Bahareth, a manager at the site who welcomes us and explains briefly how this precast facility is a very important part of the Binladin Group operation. He then introduces us to Eng. Said A. Al-Khair Al-Hloul who agrees to show us around the plant.

Security is tight, but everybody at the plant seems keen to show us what they are doing and what and how the products will be used. There is a lot of work for the factory to do as well.

Currently it is supplying a number of projects across the country, including the Princess Noura Bint AbdulRahman University for Women in Riyadh, a vast female-only campus under construction in the country – itself a symbol of how much the kingdom has progressed in recent years.