Meraas’ Bluewaters Island in Dubai moves into the ‘building-finishes’ stage


Michael Fahy
  • English
  • Arabic

The developer of the Dh6 billion Bluewaters Island off the coast of the Jumeirah Beach Residence island in Dubai said work is nearing completion.

Meraas Holding said construction work on the island is now 75 per cent complete, with the project moving on from its structural phase to building finishes.

It said work has already started on 90 per cent of external facades of the buildings on site, including the 10 apartment blocks and 17 town houses. There are five major projects under way, including the construction of the 210-metre high Ain Dubai Ferris wheel, infrastructure links to the mainland, the mid-rise towers and town houses, the boulevard area with retail and dining units, plus the construction of two hotels. Work is set to complete by the end of the first quarter of next year.

“In bringing the entire Bluewaters experience to life, we’ve engaged five main contractors and over 40 of the world’s leading consultant firms,” said Brian Schofield, the vice president of projects at Meraas. “At its peak, 16,500 employees and 25 cranes a day have worked on Bluewaters, with 64 million man hours recorded and 12,000 direct jobs sustained over the last 12 months.”

Last week, the joint venture that created the personal rapid transport system running underneath Abu Dhabi's Masdar City, 2getthere Middle East, announced that it had secured a contract to supply an automated system of driverless vehicles to the island from the nearby Nakheel Harbour and Tower metro station.

The 25 vehicles each have a capacity to carry 24 passengers per trip on a 2.5-kilometre journey. The system is capable of ferrying 2,500 passengers per hour in each direction.

Contractors working on the Bluewaters Island project have included Kier, Al Shafar General Contracting and HLG Contracting.

mfahy@thenational.ae

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Gothia Cup 2025

4,872 matches 

1,942 teams

116 pitches

76 nations

26 UAE teams

15 Lebanese teams

2 Kuwaiti teams

Skewed figures

In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458. 

MATCH INFO

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TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.

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May 12, 2020: PM and his wife Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at least 17 staff 

May 20, 2020: They attend 'bring your own booze party'

Nov 27, 2020: PM gives speech at leaving party for his staff 

Dec 10, 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary Gavin Williamson 

Dec 13, 2020: PM and his wife throw a party

Dec 14, 2020: London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff event at Conservative Party headquarters 

Dec 15, 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz 

Dec 18, 2020: Downing Street Christmas party 

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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.