First off-site-manufactured residential units delivered to Coastal Village

The Coastal Village is a key element of The Red Sea Project that is providing homes and amenities for employees when the first phase of the destination opens.

All Coastal Village buildings are being developed with a low carbon footprint and are designed to be as self-sustaining as possible.

The CEO and senior management team visited the site to witness the delivery and installation of the first prefabricated units which were manufactured off site by Saudi Amana Contracting, and their subsidiary DuBox from a new factory established in Rabigh in Saudi Arabia using local suppliers and manpower.

This approach generates opportunities for the local community while minimizing the impact on site from construction.

The 70-tonne boxes were transported by road to our site where they were installed by a huge crawler crane and connected together to form a series of individual apartments and subsequently entire buildings.

The boxes are almost entirely complete with floor, wall and ceiling finishes and all major MEP installations plus complete bathrooms.

Andy has given a succinct summary.  To add a couple of points, the residential apartments are not being build for TRSDC staff but are the first part of our 12,000 person community ‘Coastal Village.’  We are just taking beneficial use during construction, but that is an aside.

We do not have OSM as a key priority for coastal development and in fact future buildings in the Coastal Village are unlikely to be OSM, at least not to the same level as these first ten apartment buildings.  We can though say we are fully committed to OSM for island development and that these units will support with the analysis of OSM for island works.

The parallel story, that we have discussed before, is that Amana Dubox (a UAE entity) built a purpose facility in-country for the opportunities on TRSP and other Saudi giga and mega projects. It would be good to get the film crew down to their facility and show what they set up and the units in production.  Our first (Turtle Bay) Hotel is also being constructed by Amana in large part by similar methods.

Not sure if Ian has had the opportunity to respond, but here is a brief summary of what is happening with our first residential project this week.

We appointed Saudi Amana to Design and Build our first 10 residential buildings, consisting of a mix of 1 & 2 bedroom apartments, providing 288 No. apartments for TRSDC staff.

Each building contains between 24 and 30 No. apartments and is made up of a total of around 90 No. pre-finished concrete elements (boxes).

These boxes are almost entirely finished with floor, wall and ceiling finishes and all major MEP installations in the bespoke factory established by Saudi Amana and their in-house sister company, Dubox, in Rabigh.

The bathrooms in each apartment are also manufactured as complete, finished units (with tiles, mirrors, sanitary ware etc.) and installed into the concrete boxes prior to finishing and subsequent transportation to site.

They are then transported by road to site where they will be installed by a very large, 600T, crawler crane and connected together, to form a series of individual apartments and subsequently entire buildings.

The boxes weigh up to 70T each.

The boxes coming from Rabigh tomorrow will be the first such units to be delivered and installed on our project using this Off-Site Manufacturing (OSM) methodology, which is an important part of our drive to minimize the amount of work carried out on site, in line with our Environmental and Sustainability policy to minimize the carbon footprint of less efficient on-site methods, thus minimising labour accommodation and waste generation on site, in the process.

The first units will be lifted into position at 08:00am on Thursday morning.

This is step 1 in our plan to have 150 apartments (the first 5 buildings) complete by the end of the year and the balance complete by the end of March 2021.

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Hope this answers your question.

• Have copied in Sean Lee (Project Director for Program 3 – Coastal Village) to add more, if you need it.

Amana has scheduled a professional photographer to take photos, videos, and drone shots of the factory and the site covering the full process of fabrication, transportation, and installation

• You mentioned that this progress showcases the first attempt of an “off-site manufacturing”, can you explain what is an “off-site manufacturing” and why is The Red Sea Project leading the way on that?

Off-site manufacturing refers to the construction methodology where a substantial portion of the building or installation is built and assembled in a factory located away from the building site. The assembled components may range from individual elements to fully completed and finished rooms or sections of the building or installation. For the Coastal Village Management Residential Apartments, it is the latter case. This approach has multiple beneficial characteristics from a sustainability perspective including reduction of material waste and reduction of number of workers required on site.

• Can you list other upcoming developments that will adapt the off-site manufacturing method at The Red Sea Project?

We are balancing the needs of individual projects to determine if a particular project will adopt this approach. Specific cases will be confirmed as the project’s design and construction progresses.

• Explain how this off-site manufacturing method is protecting The Red Sea environment?

By reducing materials being handled, fabricated, and consequently wasted on-site, and by reducing the number of people required on-site, the off-site manufacturing method reduces the environmental impact of the project overall.

• Let us speak money wise, does the off-site manufacturing method cost more or less than the normally done onsite manufacturing? 

Cost of adopting off-site manufacturing method will vary by project based on many factors, including location of project, access, and performance requirements. One primary factor is if the design itself is conducive to off-site manufacturing methods. The Coastal Village buildings are all designed to allow off-site manufacturing in an efficient manner.

• The Red Sea Project want to set example for other destinations on Sustainable development, how can we do that and at the same time make sure that we adapt affordable and practical manufacturing solutions?

Further to above, we are also actively reaching out to the market to identify potential partners that have off-site manufacturing expertise. By engaging such partners, we aim to adopt the latest technologies and solutions that will allow us to deliver The Red Sea Project in the most sustainable yet cost-effective manner.

• You mentioned that the boxes are built in a factory in Rabigh) رابغ a town close by to the Red Sea). Can you elaborate more about that in terms of how this actually help with the enriching of local economies and jobs?

AMANA TO ELABORATE. The factory in Rabigh has been set up by Saudi Amana Contracting and their subsidiary DuBox. The factory was set up to first serve the Management Residential project but is planned to potentially support many other upcoming works at The Red Sea Project and beyond. The factory will create numerous job opportunities in the area as well as further opportunities for suppliers and other vendors to be engaged.