World Tunnelling > Global News > Bahrain cooling project milestone

Global News

Atkins has successfully completed a crucial portion of microtunnelling work beneath Bahrain’s financial district, as part of the construction of the Northshore District Cooling project.

The project is the first of its kind in Bahrain and will provide chilled water to Manama’s densely populated urban areas, significantly reducing the cost of providing air-conditioning to offices, residential towers and shopping malls. Air conditioning is a major component of energy usage in the Gulf region and analysts estimate that nearly 70% of all energy within the area is used to cool buildings.

The Diplomatic Area Chiller Plant, which is nearing completion, will supply chilled water to the Bahrain World Trade Centre and other developments on the south side of King Faisal Highway in the capital city of Manama. Parallel 900mm diameter insulated carbon steel pipes will be used to carry water from the Chiller Plant to Bahrain Financial Harbour, Reef Island and other north shore developments.

Using a Herrenknecht micro-tunnelling machine, Atkins successfully drove the new tunnels beneath the King Faisal Highway at a depth of 10m with zero impact on the heavy traffic above. Both were driven at an average rate of 6m/d using a laser guidance system to achieve tolerances within ± 20mm in each tunnel.

Atkins’ site operations manager, Ian Cordingley comments: “It’s not easy to drill through 86m of earth with such little disturbance to the surroundings. The team did a fantastic job in ensuring we deliver a chilled water network that will make the cooling of developments in Manama more economical and help in reducing Bahrain’s carbon footprint.”

The Northshore District Cooling project is expected to be complete by summer 2010 and will supply 22,800t/d of chilled water to a growing population.