Major expansion is under way at Eastern Precast – a division of the Eastern Asphalt and Mixed Concrete Company (Eamco) – which has just seen the conclusion of a highly successful year.

“We have seen our turnover double last year and we expect the trend to continue this year,” says Kristian Sannerum, general manager of the precast concrete specialist.
“We attribute our success to our quality and speed of delivery,” he adds.
Alongside, the company has also strengthened its workforce from 200 to 750 over the past year.
The reputation for speedy delivery and quality of work that Eastern Precast had achieved with its first contract last year with Al Areen Resort and Spa project – the Sales Centre – helped it secure a string of repeat orders within the development, according to Sannerum. It has subsequently clinched orders to supply systems for the villas and the spa at the resort.
“We started on the Sales Centre project with the basic concept drawings on January 6, 2005 and completed it two months later,” he says. “The project called for 2,000 sq m of hollowcore slabs in thicknesses, ranging from 150 to 400 mm, 1,220 sq m precast solid wall panels, 160 sq m of precast shear walls, as well as precast rectangular and circular columns, prestressed beams, precast form slabs, stair slabs and parapets.”
Since then, Eastern Precast has also completed 78 one and two-bedroom pool villas of the Al Areen resort – known as the Banyan Tree Desert Spa and Resort - within a period of five months and is now working on finalisation of the spa itself.
Having signed the contracts with just the basic conceptual drawings in hand, the company was required not only to fabricate and erect precast elements but also undertake the structural design including the design of the foundations, retaining walls, basement, buggy path and other cast-in-situ facilities for these fast-track projects.
For the villa project, the company supplied 79,000 sq m of precast solid wall panels in thicknesses ranging from 120 to 250 mm, 14,000 sq m of 150-mm hollowcore slabs, 450 sq m of solid slabs and 3,000 linear m of boundary walls as well as precast cornices and finials.
“We are now working on the spa buildings, which we started last September, and are on track to complete them shortly,” he says. “Every building is different, ranging in height from 7.5 m to 27.5 m for the tower at the main entrance.
The spa comprises a total of 11 structures including a conference centre, main entrance, hydrotherapy, spa treatment, health club, reception and restaurant buildings. The main contractor for the project is Al Hamad Construction and Development Company.
Assisted by an in-house design force led by Alberto Francisco and a construction force headed by Arnulfo Corrales, the company has expanded from eight casting tables in the beginning of 2005 and is now utilising 50 casting tables and a battery mould which can produce 15 panels simultaneously to ensure timely delivery of the projects. A further 35 casting tables have been ordered and are planned to be operational by early 2006.
Another major development on which Eastern Precast is working is the Bahrain Financial Harbour, where the company is engaged on the Financial Mall building and a five-storey car-park for the Bahrain International Insurance Company (BIIC).
The Mall building – which is also being built by Al Hamad Contracting and Development Company – has involved 60,000 sq m of hollowcore slabs in thicknesses of 150, 200, 265 and 320 mm, 1,350 sq m of precast solid wall panels, 1,400 prestressed/precast beams and circular entrance columns. The contract period was eight months.
The BIIC car-park involves the supply of columns, beams (4,000 linear m) and hollowcore (15,000 sq m).
Eastern Precast is also handling a number of other projects in Bahrain, including a 20-storey residential building in Hoora, where the main contractor Master Contracting is using a combination of prestressed/precast beams and cast in-situ columns to speed up work on the development.
Among its recently completed projects is a multi-storey precast cark-park building which is the first of its kind in Bahrain for the Almoayyed Tower in the Seef District. The seven-storey structure comprises a fully precast structure including columns, spandrel beams, stair slabs, shear walls, parapets, wall panels and railings, prestressed beams and 13,750 sq m of hollowcore slabs. The project was completed last month within a span of five months.
Last year, Eastern Precast also completed work on the Sitra Shopping Mall – another first all-precast component building in the kingdom – where internal fitout works are currently under way. The project for the Central Municipality comprised the supply of precast columns, 900 prestressed beams, 39,000 sq m of hollowcore slabs and 6,700 sq m of architectural sandwich panels. The external surface of the façade features pigmented concrete with marble aggregates with a sandblasted finish.
Buoyed by the massive surge in demand, Eastern Precast has recently launched an expansion of its 200,000 sq m facilities in West Eker, which involves construction of two factories for the production of hollowcore slabs.  Work on the first of these facilities is well under way with the casting beds already in place and machinery delivered to site. It is expected to be operational in two months time. The first phase of expansion will boost the company’s capacity with additional 65,000 sq m of hollowcore per month.
Eastern Precast stakes claims to being the only hollowcore manufacturer in Bahrain to offer the full range of profile thicknesses of 150, 200, 265, 320, 400 and 500 mm. The company’s product range also includes prestressed hollowcore slabs, precast columns, precast/prestressed beams, architectural precast insulated wall panels, bearing walls, stairs, retaining walls, road barriers, culverts and manholes and park accessories and still developing new products such as corbel-less columns, long span beams, prestressed formslabs ect. to maintain their goal of being the leader in structural precast in the kingdom.
The company – which is accredited with ISO 9001:2000/EN ISO 9001:2000 certification – can offer a complete integrated precast building system to form the main superstructure, comprising precast columns, beams, stairs and flooring slabs.  
Eamco – a joint venture between the Ahmed Mansoor Al A’Ali Group and Abdul Aziz Mansoor Al A’Ali – manufactures and lays asphalt and supplies readymixed and precast concrete.