A NUMBER of landmark buildings and structures in Saudi Arabia owe their durability to the geotechnical engineering excellence of the Arab Center for Engineering Studies (ACES), a Jordan-based company which has affiliates in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar.

ACES has recently offered its expertise to developments such as the prestigious Princess Nora University (PNU) for Women and the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) and prominent King Fahd Road, all in Riyadh. These projects count among thousands of projects carried out by the company for its clients in Saudi Arabia, the larger Middle East and elsewhere.

In Saudi Arabia, ACES’ sister companies offer services such as site and geotechnical investigations, materials technology and testing, quality control of projects, special studies, environmental studies and testing, land and marine surveying and pavement studies and evaluation.

ACES Riyadh has provided geotechnical investigation of several parcels, cavity probing and grouting at the KAFD in Riyadh. According to the plan, the project’s second tallest tower is to be built on Plot 1.15 within the KAFD cluster. The masterplan guidelines stipulated a ‘faceted’ architectural design, and clear regulations regarding the height (303 m). Work also included quality control of five parcels and materials testing.

At the PNU project in Riyadh, its scope of work consisted of cavity probing, while for the King Fahd Road intersection with King Abdullah Road, Riyadh, the company carried out cavity probing and grouting. ACES Riyadh has also conducted geotechnical investigation for 305 buildings throughout the kingdom for the Ministry of Interior.

In the Eastern Province, ACES Khobar was involved in the 37-storey Khobar Gate in Al Khobar and the Correction Facilities in Dammam. “For the Khobar Gate building, five boreholes were drilled to a depth of 35 m below ground level and necessary laboratory testing and recommended pile foundations were done. During construction, material testing (aggregate, cement, sand, crushing cylinder) was conducted in ACES Khobar laboratories as per the consultant’s requirement,” says a spokesman for the company.

The Correction Facilities consist of 30 three-storey buildings, for which 89 boreholes were drilled to a depth of 10 m below ground level. Data analysis was carried out after laboratory testing and shallow foundations were recommended, he says.

Meanwhile, ACES Jeddah carried out quality control and material testing for Jeddah’s bridges with Advanced Company for Contracting and Maintenance, for the Shumaisy Lodging Centre (with the Saudi Binladin Group), for the Jeddah East Hospital (with Al Majal Al Arabi Group) and for precast concrete works by Bahra Precast Company for the PNU project in Riyadh. It has also handled site and lab supervision of backfilling and asphalt works for Saudi Electric Company.

ACES was established in Amman in 1983, initially as a geotechnical and materials testing engineering organisation. Today, it provides a complete range of specialised consulting services.

“All ACES projects, regardless of their size, are approached with the expertise, technology and equipment required to meet its clients’ needs,” the spokesman concludes.