Sheikh Zayed Bridge project delays
Sheikh Zayed Bridge reflects a new strategic dimension which aims to keep
pace with the comprehensive development plan taking place in Abu Dhabi to move forward progress of construction and development and promotion of
infrastructure projects, according to giant global best practices.
This comes within the framework of
the municipal plan emanating from the Strategic Plan of Abu Dhabi 2030, which includes a comprehensive urban plan for the development of Abu Dhabi to make it in
the top tier among modern cities in the world.
Sheikh Zayed Bridge (upload.wikimedia.org)
Project Delay:
The construction sequence changed
multiple times due to constructability issues and delays in the delivery of
fabricated steelwork; in addition the initial contractors Buckland &
Taylor and Archirodon Construction unfortunately apologized for completing
the project due to the difficulties they both faced in the below mentioned project
stages:
1)
Construction: where the most reliable, proper
and high quality materials are selected for the bridge construction by Buckland
& Taylor Ltd. Company initially.
2)
Design time: where the most modern designs
associated with the optimum engineering aspects are correlated by Archirodon Construction
Company initially.
3)
Budget: the initial budget for the bridge construction
was initially around 700 million DHS at year 2003.
Six Construct replaced the Greek company Archirodon
Construction on the project and forecasts that it would be open for traffic by
autumn and finished by July 2011. And as Six Construct said: "We are
taking it over as the general contractor for that project." Bart Wuyts,
the communications manager for Six Construct in Brussels, confirmed, "The
bridge was already under construction for five or six years, and I think there
were some difficulties with the previous contractor, so the client decided to
have Six Co finish it."
Ethical Issues involved:
Erection of the Sheikh Zayed Bridge
has been difficult because it requires perfect engineering skills and precise
measurements for every cross-sectional area in order to create an elegant and
iconic bridge for the capital that would be instantly recognizable widely. Every
construction company has the ambition to have their title on a well-designed
framework where eventually they will gain positive reputation widely and so
they will be promoted to perform giant projects such as the Sheikh Zayed Bridge
project. However, such projects are not easily managed because they require
difficult constraints of quality, cost and time.
The first companies Buckland & Taylor
and Archirodon Construction recalculated their task and concluded that
there would be significant losses if they maintained their performance and due
to the complicated job, the performance rate is subjected to decrease and so it
will cause slower operation and finally lead to undesired losses. At that time,
there was a sudden increase in the construction materials cost widely which
negatively affected the sources of both Construction Companies. Unfortunately, Buckland & Taylor and
Archirodon Construction companies are not the only companies who have ended
the contract.
Opinion:
In my
point of view, I could say ethically that Buckland & Taylor Ltd. and
Archirodon Construction companies fault was when they suddenly ended the
contract without informing that they were facing difficulties from the
beginning; they were greedy to earn a good reputation at the expense of the
project’s performance. They could have stated in the contract that the budget
is subjected to increase due to the increase in material cost and to have
overcome this issue eventually from the beginning rather than applying the job
and ending up finishing only 20% of the project requirements. It is legal for
any company to end the contract at any time but there will be charges for such
a decision as mentioned in the contract. It is unethical in this case because the
construction base was not fully built and suddenly stopped; this will affect the
material’s efficiency with time leading to a decrease in the life span of the
bridge. In addition if Abu Dhabi’s municipality had been informed before
the companies ended the contract, they would begin to arrange tenders to
be assigned for the job regardless of the budget increase associated with
the aim of saving the construction base efficiency of the bridge.
Bibliography:
1)
Sheikh Zayed Bridge. (n.d.). ARUP. Retrieved ,
from http://www.arup.com/projects/sheikh_zayed_bridge.aspx
2)
Sheikh Zayed Bridge officially opened.
(n.d.). Archirodon. Retrieved , from http://www.archirodon.net/content/news/news_details.php?mainkat=Sheikh%20Zayed%20Bridge%20officially%20opened
3)
Constructing an Icon: the Sheikh Zayed
Bridge. (n.d.). Roads and Bridges. Retrieved , from http://www.roadsbridges.com/constructing-icon-sheikh-zayed-bridge
4)
Sheikh Zayed Bridge. (n.d.). Wikipedia.
Retrieved , from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Zayed_Bridge
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