Kingdom Tower project in Jeddah progressing as planned

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), headed the fifth board of directors meeting of Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) in Riyadh with the board members.

The board members are Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly, Saleh Bin Laden, Samaual Bakhsh, Talal Almaiman, executive director development and domestic investments, chairman and CEO of Kingdom Real Estate Development Company (KRED), a board member of Kingdom Holding Company and Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) and Hassan Sharbatly.
The meeting was also attended by Mohamed Fahmy, Kingdom Holding Company’s CFO and Fahad bin Saad bin Nafel, executive assistant to the chairman.
During the meeting, Talal Al-Maiman updated the board about the latest developments relating to agreements of operating the tallest tower which will be more than 1,000 meters high with value of SR4.6 billion.

Mounib Hammoud, CEO, Jeddah Economic Company (JEC), briefed the board about the status of the project and presented them with the progress of infrastructure and services for the project including electricity, water and district cooling.

The board has expressed their satisfaction with how the project is progressing and the completion of piling works.

In December 2013, Hammoud announced the completion of the piling works for the tallest tower in the world (Kingdom Tower).

This achievement is considered to be the base of works over ground.

In November 2013, JEC appointed a British company EC Harris Mace to provide Project Management services for the Kingdom Tower project in Jeddah.
The contract value is SR162 million and includes the management of all aspects of the project’s delivery with specific emphasis on the management of the program and cost.

Prince Alwaleed said: “This contract further confirms that the Jeddah project continues on its strategic path.”
Talal Al-Maiman added: “The selection of the working team has been completed to realize the vision of the investors and the city of Jeddah for this world-class standard national project. Also, I would like to reiterate that Jeddah Kingdom Tower piling works has been completed by Saudi Bauer Company.”

Building of Kingdom Tower to start on April 27th

After several months of testing and preparation work a date was announced for the start of the building: April 27th. After this date there will hopefully be more updates regarding the construction and later this year pictures of the rising building. No new estimates about the ending of the construction were given, but a 2017 or 2018 deadline is highly unlikely at this point.

Quality control works commissioned for Kingdom Tower

Lebanese firm, Advanced Construction Technology Services (ACTS) has been appointed for quality control works on the Kingdom Tower. The company will be responsible for testing the half million cubic meters of concrete and the 80,000 tons of steel that will be required for the massive construction. Advanced Construction Technology Services will set up a laboratory on the site of the construction where over 100 professionals will be deployed. The Lebanese company which was founded in 1996 has extensive area of expertise and was also responsible for quality control at the construction of the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah.

Foundation works complete

Recently the German company Bauer contracted to lay the foundation for the Kingdom Tower finished its work the company reports. The work involved installing very long piles deep into the desert ground. Thus 72 piles that were 1.5 meters in diameter were laid at a depth of 110 meters another 154 piles at various depths and another 44 piles of 1.8 diameters were laid 50 meters deep. After this initial phase of the construction work is over it is expected that we will see the tower rise from the ground soon although there are no reports about the construction’s schedule.

Information of Construction and cost

QUICK FACTS:
Location: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Architect: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
Construction estimates: - start date: 27th of April, 2014 - end date: 2018 -
cost: $1.230.000.000 USD -
hight: 1000+ m
Photos of the construction site will be coming soon! Until then, please find some renderings of the Kingdom Tower, thanks to Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture