SNC-Lavalin, a fully integrated professional services and project management company, has been awarded facilities management (FM) services contract by the Wave 2 Schools Project of the Saudi Ministry of Education (MoE), which is jointly procured with Tatweer Buildings Company (TBC).

The Wave 2 is a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme that aims to finance, design, build, and facility manage 60 public schools in Madinah in western Saudi Arabia, for a duration of 20 years. The project is expected to benefit more than 50,000 students.

The scope of work for SNC-Lavalin – which is part of the TBC consortium along with partners Vision Invest and Al Omran Group – includes integrated facilities management services, grounds maintenance, and lifecycle management.

In addition, the Canadian engineering group will provide management services and develop processes supported by a computer-aided facilities management system (CAFM) and a virtual FM helpdesk mobile application that will be easily accessed in real-time by the school administration team to enable timely and effective reactive maintenance.

In 2020, SNC-Lavalin was also awarded the FM services contract by the Wave 1 Schools Project of MoE that covers 60 public schools in the Saudi cities of Jeddah and Makkah.

Youssef ... significant PPP project.

On the new contract, Mohamed Youssef, Senior Vice-President (Mena) Projects and O&M, Engineering Services, at SNC-Lavalin, says: “We are proud to be part of this significant PPP project that aims to support Saudi Vision 2030 by expanding educational services in various regions across the kingdom.”

“The repeated wins of TBC’s Wave 1 and 2 Schools projects are testament to our successful track record as a leading FM services provider and trusted partner to maintain these facilities according to the highest technology, quality, and safety standards,” he adds.

As part of Saudi Vision 2030 goals, MoE and TBC are partnering with the private sector to provide high-quality infrastructure for all public schools and an attractive learning environment that will ultimately replace the current facilities.

As part of this initiative, MoE and TBC are procuring schools in Saudi Arabia by using a PPP model under different waves, says Youssef.

“With extensive experience in infrastructure projects engineering services, SNC-Lavalin works closely with clients across the Middle East to help them implement advanced facilities management solutions designed to deliver a responsive, consistent operations and maintenance structure and ensure all systems are running to their best potential,” he adds.

Meanwhile, SNC-Lavalin has completed the acquisition of Flex Process, a leading UK-based process engineering, safety and digital simulation company which specialises in the support and transformation of process plants across a wide range of power and industrial sectors.

To date, it has worked alongside SNC-Lavalin on numerous projects including the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority’s Hydrogen-3 Advanced Technology facility, Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in England, and an ammonia production plant in the Middle East.

The acquisition adds to SNC-Lavalin’s rapidly growing net zero energy capability which sees multidisciplinary services delivered across power and renewables; transmission and distribution; hydrogen; carbon capture and storage; energy storage; and industrial decarbonisation.