June 2013
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
48
roads & bridges
THE BIGGEST CHUNK OF
the infrastruc-
ture spending will be poured into the
country’s rail and metro network, where
more than USD35-billion will be invested
in the next 10 years.
In addition, Qatar plans to modernise
its road systems through an extensive
expressway buildup worth a total of
USD20-billion of contracts. Other invest-
ment priorities include future expansion
plans for the USD12,5-billion Doha Inter-
national Airport.
“The next 10 years will be a crucial
turning for Qatar’s transition into a highly
progressive metropolis, with a transport
systemthatwill be amongst themostmod-
ern in the world,”says Edmund O’Sullivan,
chairman, MEED Events, organisers of the
4
th
Annual Qatar Transport Conference that
took place on 27 – 29May 2013 at the Renais-
sance Doha City Centre Hotel.
“For contractors, project owners and
developers as well as other transport industry
stakeholders, there has never been a better
opportunity to understand the key issues
and challenges shaping Qatar’s transport
requirements than at the conference, which
provided an essential breakdown of the
country’s transportation sector by key experts
and panelists.”
The transport masterplan includes an
upgrade of 400-600 km of existing roads at
an estimated cost of USD8-billion; as well as
expansions for Qatar’s three main ports –
into the riverbed with incredible force. Also,
we knew little about the currents below the
surface of the river. All this makes the work a
daily challenge and requires new technolo-
gies and techniques.” And special problems
require special teams.
Crowning the bridge
One of the special teams called in to com-
plete the work on the diamond crown of the
central span was Camargo Corrêa. Founded
in 1939, Camargo Corrêa is now one of the
largest construction companies in Brazil.
Camargo Corrêa specialises in big projects
such as energy and industrial facilities, mass
transportation, and sanitation, so it was well
placed to take charge of one of the most
important and difficult pieces of the bridge,
the cable span. After assessing the challenges
of the contract, Camargo Corrêa contacted
Topcon dealer Santiago & Cintra to supply
them with the equipment they needed to
get the job done.
But even then, the surveying teams met
unique problems, such as the fact that mov-
ing water does not make for good reference
points. As surveyor Rosivaldo Marques of
CamargoCorrêa explains,“In the construction
of a bridge we have only two fixed points,
the river banks, essentially to the north and
south. In this sense all the measurements
with the equipment was made from a fixed
point on the south side of the construction
site. Without any total station this would not
have been possible.” The surveying teams,
working from both the stable framing of the
bridge and the constantly moving barges,
had to adjust to constantly changing realities.
Wind surge, torrential rains, flooding, all could
change the playing field. Thankfully, good
equipment makes for quality work.
“Santiago & Cintra delivered our Topcon
total stations as requested and they were
always perfectly calibrated and ready to go
towork.Topcon’s local technical support was
invaluable to our work on the bridge. We
could always count onTopcon technical sup-
port from Santiago & Cintra."
The final bill is expected to total
USD614-million: 60% over initial projec-
tions. But by reducing the 40 minute ferry
ride to a 10 minute drive, and, perhaps most
importantly, by increasing the speed of com-
munications thanks to the fiber optic cable
embedded in its infrastructure, the Rio Negro
bridge will take this Amazonian region into
the 21
st
century.
●
Transport upgrade tops Qatari agenda
Upgrading its domestic transport system is among Qatar’s investment
priorities for the decade, funding at least USD70-billion worth of
projects that have already been planned.
Ras Laffan City, Mesaieed City and Doha
Commercial Port.
In addition to gaining key insights
about Qatar’s transport sector, delegates
attending the conference werebe able to
earn Continuous Professional Develop-
ment (CPD) credits at a networking and
knowledge-sharing session being held in
association with the Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Other presentations and panel dis-
cussions covered the entire spectrum
of transport projects in Qatar. These
included including rail, ports, freight, and
airport developments.
As a major international event, Qatar
Transport 2013, supported by Bentley,
EC Harris, Grace Construction Products,
Hyder Consulting and Louis Berger, at-
tracted a large and influential international
audience, and thus provided attendees
unprecedented networking opportunities
that are available with high profile govern-
ment representatives, project owners, gen-
eral engineering consultants, contractors,
financiers and investors, and specialist ser-
vice providers to the transport industry.
●
Key stakeholders and decision makers met to discuss opportunities in Qatar Transport 2013.
About Qatar Transport
2013
MEED’s annual Qatar Transport
conference has developed
successfully over the years
bringing in main clients in the
transportation sector to give
p ro j e c t updat e s, p romo t e
announcements and share
developments made in Qatar’s
Rail network initiatives, local
and major roads programmes,
highway projects, intermodal
transport networks facilities and
tunnelling developments.
