Mitsubishi-led Dubai Rapid Link (DURL) consortium has erected more than 70 per cent of the viaduct spans for Dubai Metro’s Red Line project that is slowly but surely snaking its way through the city.

Adnan Al Hammadi, director of Rail Construction Department at Rail Agency said that 11,000 precast segments of a total of 12,300 planned for the Red Line had been produced at the Jebel Ali casting yard.
“Over 90 per cent of the precast structures for the viaduct segments have been produced at the Jebel Ali casting yard itself,” he adds.
The casting yard, which is one of the largest in the world and has a capacity of 3,000 segments, currently, has 2,500 segments that are ready for delivery.
The yard produces around 40 segments per day using roughly around 800 cu m of concrete and 160 tonnes of steel per day.
More than 350,000 cu m of concrete, 75,000 tonnes of reinforcement steel and 13,500 tonnes of post-tensioning high- strength stands steel and 500 tonnes of epoxy glue will be required for the entire casting.
“Around 63 moulds, including 33 differently designed moulds, have been used for the fabrication of the precast units based on the type of element to be cast,” says Hammadi.
The precast plant employs more than 1,800 workers and the concrete segments are transported on demand from the casting yard to the launching gantry sites using 33 heavy haulage trucks.
The project calls for the construction of 1,700 spans in total for both the lines, which will involve the use of 16,500 precast segments, nine tower cranes, and 11 gantry cranes.
“Launching gantries have been used for a majority of the viaduct construction, which has allowed a fast-track installation process, enabling the erection of a complete viaduct span in two days,” he says.
Currently 10 launching girders are working simultaneously using the span–by-span erection method. However, for special bridges spanning over 72 m and also in areas where the viaducts pass over urban obstacles such as interchanges, existing and future road projects, the contractor has used the balanced cantilever method.