Floating structures specialist Clement Systems Gulf is busy working on a ‘floating street’ which will be used between the fronds and the breakwaters of the Palm Dubai.
‘‘The floating street, which is 500 m long and 20 m wide, is being built over individual concrete pontoons connected by special technology, allowing a load of 100 tonnes over a length of 40 m,’’ says a company spokesman. ‘‘The street is designed to have a double or single lane.’’
He continues: “A big advantage of the floating street is that it is a solid system, flexible, usable at different places, and is easy to tow from one place to the other.
‘‘This allows it to be used at Palm Jumeirah as well as at Palm Jebel Ali and the World. In addition, the street can be cut into lengths of 40 m, giving flexibility in design.”
“The floating units have the same characteristics of a conventional street on land, including flexural stiffness and a non-slip surface,” says the spokesman.
‘‘The floating street will have an additional concrete surface to accommodate heavy vehicles, support barriers for safety and light masts that will ensure that the street is lit to Dubai Municipality standards.
“The dead weight of the pontoons give them excellent wave damping properties and their specificaitons have been approved by Det Norske Veritas from Norway.’’
‘‘Clement Gulf Systems’ pontoons and floating platforms are produced locally and our customers are therefore assured of their compatibilty to the Gulf and their quality,’’ he says. ‘‘The pontoons are stable and have a lifetime which no other product can match.’’
The company – a joint venture between Istithmar and Clement Yacht Harbour Systems – offers all kinds of floating structures like floating pontoons, breakwaters and platforms.
“We get our technology from our parent company Clement Yacht Harbour Systems, Germany and all our products are approved by Lloyd’s Register,” he says.
The list of Clement’s major products include floating concrete pontoons, floating breakwater pontoons, turnkey marinas, floating platforms, floating restaurants and floating street. Clement has already landed several multi-million dollar contracts since setting up base in the UAE, and is confident of a bright future, he adds.
