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29 March 2024

Deep Tunnel Project to be completed before Expo 2020

Photo: Staff

Published
By Dubai Media Office

Dubai’s prestigious Deep Tunnel Project to drain rainwater in the Airport City and Expo 2020 areas will be ready by September next year, a month before the World Expo 2020 kicks off.Currently, 65% of the project is completed, while a total of 4 million working hours were spent.
 
As part of the continuous follow-up on various projects of Dubai Municipality, Dawoud Al Hajri, Director General of the Municipality on Tuesday inspected the strategic project.
 
“The first of its kind project in the Middle East and one of the most prominent specialized tunnels in the world, with a cost of Dhs2.5 billion, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, is the latest infrastructure development in the emirate using the best technology, through which Dubai is going to be one of the most important investment destinations in the world,” said Al Hajri.
 
He added that the site works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a total of four million man hours spent so far, with the participation of national engineers working in international camps to gain more experience in such mega projects and using two giant drilling machines, which are the largest in the Middle East region.
 
Al Hajri added that the big project will have a major impact in developing the infrastructure for rainwater or groundwater drainage for the Al Maktoum City area in general and the Expo area and the Airport City in particular and will remain in service for a century.
 
Eng. Fahd Al Awadhi, Director of Drainage Projects Department at Dubai Municipality, explained that the work stages witnessed the giant drilling machine successfully reaching the 8th intersection on Sheikh Zayed Road, where it will be extracted, dismantled and reassembled to move to the 7th intersection to begin the final stage of drilling the tunnel until reaching the pumping station, which is located in the reclaimed land at the sea, opposite Dubai World Ports, where it is expected to reach early next year.
 
Al Awadhi said the project has a length of ten and a half kilometers, which serves an area of 490 km including the Expo area, making it the largest in the Middle East and the Arab world. “The work continues on two tasks, the first tunnel, which has reached about 4.5 km so far, and the second task will be the construction of the main pumping station, in a parallel system. The three final foundation stages will see the use of about 55,000 cement pieces in the tunnel, each weighing 2 tons, along with the installation of 4,400 huge metal rings, ensuring the immunity and strength of the deep tunnel,” he added.