Concrete repair discussed
GCC countries awarded repair projects worth more than BD94.5 million ($250 million) in the last two years, said Bahrain's Works and Agriculture Minister Ali Al Mahroos, during the sixth International Conference and Exhibition on Deterioration and Repair of Reinforced Concrete in the Arabian Gulf.
More than 300 engineers from around the world attended the three-day event at the Gulf Hotel's Gulf International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Bahrain. It was organised by the Bahrain Society of Engineers (BSE) in co-ordination with the Concrete Society, UK, and the American Concrete Institute.
The minister recalled that the materials testing and research department at his ministry had worked with private industry to produce one of the world's first ultra-low temperature, normal strength concretes, to reduce or eliminate cracks within concrete.
An exhibition was also held alongside the event, which provided an opportunity for companies, consulting firms, research/academic organisations, and relevant government departments to display and demonstrate their activities, services or products in the fields of concrete production and repair.
BurJuman in bid for financing
Dubai: BurJuman Centre in Dubai, UAE, is in advanced negotiations with banks to help finance the mall's Dh1 billion ($272 million) expansion.
"We expect to wrap up these before year-end. We have yet to finalise the exact debt component and other details associated with the bank financing, but it should be about 70 per cent," president Majid Saif Al Ghurair said. Five banks are expected to be involved, three local and two international.
"We believe this is the right time to start on the expansion. There are contingency plans as is the case with any project, but we do not really expect our original estimates to go awry," general manager Eisa Ibrahim said.
UAE power grid nearly complete
Sharjah: Work on an electricity network connecting the emirates of Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain and Ajman and Sharjah will be completed by the beginning of next year. The new Scada (supervisory control and data acquisition) system would centrally control the entire power network and would reduce supply faults and power breakdowns in these areas.
The new system would enable technicians to restore power to an area which was hit by a breakdown even while repairing the fault in the network.
An official stated that the power generated was sufficient to meet requirements but the distribution network needed to be improved.
