King Abdullah Economic City
Introduction
King Abdullah Economic City is the largest private sector investment in Saudi Arabia. The city is well based on the coast of the Red Sea at about 100km to the northern part of Jeddah. The city is distributed into sections; there is the Sea Port, Industrial Zone, Central Business District, Educational area, Resort District and Residential area. The city takes up about 168 million meters square. The city is still in progress and the project completion is projected to be in 20 years with a capacity of 1.4 million with several opportunities for employment (Kaec, 2013). The education area provides high level of education with multi-university campus with a capacity of 20,000 and about 7500 in staff. The medical research and technology centers are the only structures that are in line with the modern time.
The city’s aim was to grow the economy, provide employment for several Saudi Arabians, investment chance, international trade, commerce and industry. The seaport is what facilitates the operation of the city with the help of its modern craning system that facilitates shipping of products. This port, in addition to shipment, it handles the arrival of pilgrims that are about 300,000 that come by sea for the Haji as well as the railway that connects Mecca, Median and the Economic City. The financial region is comprised of about 4 million meters squared of first class office area adding to the retail and conventional areas (Crispin, 2008). The city has been made with home-made aspects of the varied income range Saudis. With the rich living in the waterside villas offered areas to park their yachts, the middle income are provided with great living areas. The locality is bound to be vibrant with several eating areas.
Cost and Construction
The cost to build the city is projected to be $80 billion with Tadawul-listed firm, related to Emaar, will see the project to its completion. Emaar is joint stock organization found in the same country and is among the front runners in real estate business. SAGIA (Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority) is the main implementer the city with supervision by the Saudi Consultant services.
The King Abdullah Economic City has however been placed on hold due to budgetary concerns by EMAAR. It lacks a systems engineer that would be charged with the project and only construction management companies are charged with all aspects from all areas (Oxford Business Group, 2009). It would be relevant to focus on the tasks undertaken by the construction manager and the system’s engineer so as to get an appropriate solution to what is facing King Abdullah Economic City. This would be vital in leading the project to its completion.
Construction Manager Focus
A construction manager has the main duty in planning and supervising a project as well as the financial aspects of it among other matters that may come up. He is charged with allocating tasks that are to be undertaken prior to beginning the project. He is charged with acquiring land, getting staff and supervision, budgetary issues, resources and ensuring the project is on schedule. This jobs involves doing a number of tasks at the same time; supervising, and planning among others (Crispin, 2008; Halpin 2006). This job calls for skills and experience as well as leadership attributes.
System’s Engineer Focus
The systems engineer is charged with the task of creating and implementing a disciplinary process so as to make sure that the client gets what they need. This should be done in the most reliable, effective and affordable means possible as well as conscious on time. The systems engineer is charged with getting to the issues that may arise, focus on alternatives, and assess performance. Basically, he is charged with technical issues of the project.
Both the construction manager and systems engineer have a common duty which is to supervise the project. The difference comes in when the construction manager is restricted with tasks he does and firmly on administrator who supervises the work and undertakes executive issues. The systems engineer takes part in almost each and every stage of the whole project with extreme precision (Hitchins, 2007). They are able to see areas that are faulty while formulating the plan, they focus on optimizing solutions and make sure that they are applied in the best way possible.
To a great area, the planning and implementation of King Abdullah Economic City is left to the hands of the Saudi specialists and investors like Emaar and Saudi Bin. This can be attributed to the education policies of the Saudi government. The centers in construction is bent on bringing about highly competent planners (Oxford Business Group, 2009). Energy saving and environmentally effective city with integrated housing that would make sure an utmost social connection in the Saudi urban planning. The project is focused on using the most effective and affordable of resources to complete the project. This ranges from the resources like finances, time, energy and environmental aspects.
Conclusion
This project has been placed on hold due to its construction management company lacked the capacity to operate within the stated budget, a systems engineer appeared to be the most effective answer for the project. The construction manager’s work is bent on issuing information on projected costs that would be foreseen and get to know what is and what is not in the budget frame. The main work would be re-assess their present position and acquire answers for problems that may arise like what causes high financial drain and get to know other means that are better.
Another issue in the King Abdullah Economic City is time management. Taking to fact that the project started in December 2005, it was distributed into stages where the first one was to end in 2007. Just like in most projects, it was bound to be postponed due to a number of issues that may arise. Considering that issues that arise are to be handled by the construction manager, his task is to a great extent managerial and would not be able to get the source of the problem. However, a systems engineer would be in a position to estimate the source of the issue and undertake the project to an answer against what has led to the constant delay of the project.
The King Abdullah Economic City would benefit from the use of system engineers in their working staff. This would offer them an ability to focus on administrative issues while the system engineers would be able to apply their problem solving skills to the project. The amount of production would be in good proportion to the size of people taking part in the project. This would be of great benefit to the economic city as it would save on cost and time.
References
Crispin Thoroldm (2008). New cities rise from Saudi desert. BBC News, King Abdullah Economic City. Retrieved on 19th December 2013 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7446923.stm
Daniel W. Halpin (2006). Construction Management. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. (47-5)
Derek K. Hitchins (2007). Systems Engineering: A 21st Century Systems Methodology. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd 2007 (85-95, 180-197).
Kaec (2013). Retrieved on 19th December 2013 from http://www.kaec.net/
Oxford Business Group (2009). The Report: Saudi Arabia 2009. Qatar: Oxford Business Group
