Financial details

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KAFD is a clear highlight of the many projects in Saudi Arabia, with LEED and market-leading excavation vehicles just the beginning.

It is known globally that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is in the process of transforming itself, with plans for its infrastructure, services and residential sectors about to keep the big players busy for the next decade. Of all the voluminous projects spearheaded by the royal family, Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) may be the most intricate.

Situated just a short drive up from the centre of the city, the district will house the large community of professionals working within the financial sector and related industries, to rival the best and most attractive business venues in the world – including the Capital Market Authority and the Tadawul, Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange. The finished project will be split 42% to private use and 58% to public use.

The intricacy derives from the challenge of constructing 77 buildings on the site over six zones, occasionally with just a few metres of space between them.

Despite a focus on housing corporations, there will also be residential and retail outlets, a 152,511 m2 hotel, a centre for conventions and exhibitions, as well as buildings earmarked for the government.

Today, the most developed buildings have passed phase one; their basic structure in place ready for arterial partitions. But the entire site overall, blinding white in the sun, is still filled with deep holes as the excavation continues.

The SR 4.4 billion ($1.1 billion) project will build 10 towers first (PP10) and then another 30 (PP30), explains Whysal Haddad, mechanical engineer and LEED-In-Charge at the Saudi Bin Laden Group, which is building four of the first 10 towers.

The project is built over four distinct areas, each with its own workers and timescales. Standing between two enormous excavated holes in the ground, with JCBs and trenchers little more than beetles at the bottom, he points out that there is not enough room for two lanes of vehicles to come in and out, between what will be skyscrapers.

“The spaces between the buildings on these pathways, as you can see, are very narrow. It means we’ve had to be very coordinated when delivering materials as there is only one lane for the vehicles. It’s a challenge for the construction, though Saudi Bin Laden (SBG) can deal with it.”

He adds that the soft earth of the narrow paths on which we are standing has been reinforced by concrete to prevent a crumbling landslide into the excavated holes, which can be around 60 feet deep. Along with the regulatory safety netting, the firm footing inspires full confidence as a visitor.

“Each of the four areas has its own teams, management and designs. Sometimes the coordination is a big challenge, and of course there are restrictions in a safety sense, which is a good thing,” says Haddad, who gained both education and work from Jordan, his home country, and the US. “However, you can see that we have no restrictions moving between zones.”

SBG excavates holes at the bottom of these cavernous foundations for 10 metres and then injects the correct amount of concrete to fill them. Haddad says if the ten metres encounters a cave or other underground opening, the company sends down a combination of concrete and special chemicals to fill the space.

He explains that some of the excavated areas contain a lot of potable water. Despite the company’s drive to reuse and recycle, this water does not have a further use, and is pumped out by tubes. But for the materials discarded from the skeletons of towers down chutes – such as steel, wood, cables and plastic – they can be separated and sent off-site to be recycled.

Facilities for recycling concrete in this part of the country, however, still need to be provided. “This is a big dilemma for us as Riyadh has not yet got the facilities to recycle. The credit system for recycling is based on weight – seeing as concrete is our big material it would be good to recycle it, but we can’t, and so the waste management for this is one of the challenges for the project.”

Despite the fact that a few different contractors are working on site, Haddad points out that each building – or ‘parcel’ – is clearly identified with a sign that lists the project, the designer, the parcel number, the building’s end use, and how many floors.

Nearby is one that will be 24 floors. Next we see on the horizon over the excavated hole that the sign is standing beside, building 209, one of the most advanced of the towers in development. “The first phase was completed a few months ago in terms of the casting, and now it is onto the finishing and arterial partitions,” he says. “This building will generate renewable energy, with solar heaters on the roof and a photovoltaic system.”

In fact, there are clear signs that each building is slightly different and notable for certain design aspects. Adjacent to building 209 are two buildings that share the same first floor and so appear as non-identical twins. The front section of the building on the right is slanted. “What’s unique for the building on the right is the slope. All the towers will have something different.”

Zone six is the centre of the district’s utilities. In a single strip, ‘U-Tunnel’, currently excavated, the whole district’s hot and cold water supplies, electricity cables, chiller systems and generators are situated. Also in zone six is SBG’s batching plant, producing all concrete and ready mix.

Though all tools and equipment on site needed for general construction of SBG’s towers are owned by the company, there are a few specialist additions. In particular are the 10 muscular trenchers, which carry out some of the excavation.

Haddad explains that these machines were procured from the US and Italy, and come with their own driver. “The trenchers are the equivalent of 50 jackhammers,” he says. “I believe we were the first company to bring them to Saudi Arabia, and they are operated by the company itself; certainly the machines are not that common here.”

The tour reaches the Financial Plaza, the heart of the district and home to what will be the tallest building (number 1.16), at approximately 385 m. It will hold five towers with a maximum depth of excavation of 22 m from ground level. In the biggest excavation plot the tallest building is very much clear from the added depth of its hole.

Sustainable building – with the LEED certification at its heart – is central to SBG's task on KAFD, and Haddad explained to delegates at the Construction Week: Building Sustainability conference in Riyadh what this has entailed for the project so far.

Building PP10 is registered under LEED V2.2, for which there are a possible 69 points. Building PP30 is registered under LEED V3, for which there are a possible 110 points.

Haddad explains that some elements of sustainability – based mainly around the use and reuse of utilities – will be more feasible than others for this project, and that the company is in constant dialogue with the developers. The project aims to use a minimum of 10% recycled content based on actual total material cost, according to Haddad’s presentation.

Information flows from the designers to the LEED executive, then on to the LEED coordinators working across the four zones. “I was in California just a month ago, in meetings with the developers regarding the design and the direction for the LEED requirements. We look at which would be more of a challenge to achieve and which we can do; they send the amendments back to me for review.”

If it all goes ahead as planned, the KAFD will be a defining point in the Kingdom’s renaissance. There is evidence that it is the most stable economy in the Gulf, even if this does depend on the price of oil. Some indicate that there is a direct correlation between oil price and construction, with the peak prices per barrel seen in the last few years producing many new projects.

Perhaps it is fitting that this project is centre around finance, with the aim of providing a Gulf-leading venue for business, matching the country's domination of the world's hydrocarbon markets.

“You can tell by looking at the project overall that each spot is used wisely and there is a good use of space,” says Haddad, coming back to the proximity of the buildings. “When you have a lot of business buildings in a small space, it’s going to be a nice view.”