KSA: Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) has restarted work on the world’s tallest tower, the 1,000-metre-plus-tall Jeddah Tower project in Saudi Arabia.
Jeddah Tower will be taller than Dubai’s Burj Khalifa by more than 172 metres. It is the centrepiece of the Jeddah Economic City development. The project’s first phase, which includes the main tower, covers an area of 1.5 square kilometres. When complete it will include a hotel, branded residences, apartments and office space.
The developer has invited contractors to bid for a contract to complete the record-breaking structure by the end of this year. Kingdom Holding Company CEO Talal Ibrahim Almaiman confirmed that the tender has been officially issued.
The contractors have been given three months to prepare their bids, and the companies are expected to form joint ventures comprising local and international partners.
JEC commissioned an independent assessment of the structure before the tender was issued.
The foundations and piling work for the record-breaking tower are complete. The construction work for the superstructure of the tower, which began in the early 2010s with the local Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) as the contractor, is one-third complete.
Germany’s Bauer completed the piling work for the tower.
While SBG is no longer working as the contractor on the project, the consultancy team remains the same. The architect is US-based Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill, and the engineering consultant is Lebanon’s Dar al-Handasah (Shair & Partners).
The shareholders in JEC are Kingdom Holding Company with a 40 per cent stake, Bakhsh Group with a 40 per cent stake, and Sharbatly Group with a 20 per cent share.
The companies that have been invited to bid for the contract include:
Almabani (local)
Bawani (local)
China Harbour (China)
China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China)
Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC – Lebanon)
El-Seif Engineering Contracting (local)
Hyundai Engineering Construction (South Korea)
Mohammed Abdulmohsin al-Kharafi & Sons (Kuwait)
Nesma & Partners (local)
Powerchina (China)
Samsung C+T (South Korea)
Saudi Freyssinet (local)
Skanska (Sweden)
Strabag (Europe)
