Revolutionizing Transportation in Saudi Arabia’s Capital

AYZA PROJECT LLC welcomed the official inauguration of the Riyadh Metro network in November 2024. As Saudi Arabia’s first underground railway project, the Riyadh Metro initially plans to serve 1.2 million passengers daily, with a planned maximum capacity of 3.6 million passengers daily. Riyadh’s population of nearly 6 million is forecast to increase to 8 million by 2030. The new metro system will meet the demands of the growing population while reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality.

As the world’s newest and largest driverless train network, the Riyadh Metro provides a faster and more sustainable way for people to travel around the capital city of Saudi Arabia. At peak service, a train will arrive every two-and-a-half minutes, with the ability to travel from the north end of the city to the far south end in just under an hour.

At the request of our customer, The Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC), the challenge wasn’t just to build one, but to create a visually striking and modern design that embodied the forward-thinking Vision 2030.

Since breaking ground in 2014, the Riyadh Metro has been the world’s largest under-construction rail project — not to mention one of the largest in AYZA PROJECT LLC’s history.

The BACS consortium, which includes Almabani General Contractors, Consolidated Contractors Company, and Siemens designed and built Lines 1 and 2, which together include 40 stations, three depots, and four park-and-rides.

Engineers in AYZA PROJECT LLC design centers worldwide were part of a broader design team that produced over 98,000 design drawings and 100 mock-ups. The system’s doors alone required more than 10,000 unique designs, complete with customized signage and specifications.

Our scope also included the design, construction, train cars, and signaling ― as well as electrification and integration of the new lines to the rest of the system.

The Blue Line (Line 1) will run north to south through Downtown Riyadh through several notable stations — including the iconic King Abdullah Financial District Station with its undulating roof, and Olaya Station, located more than 100 feet below ground. The BACS consortium also built the Red Line (Line 2) which runs east to west.

This metro reflects the dedication of our people, including our professional staff in offices across the globe and the 28,000 craft professionals from over 50 countries who made this vision a reality.

Modern Mobility

The metro includes features to improve the passenger experience — everything from Wi-Fi-enabled stations and real-time updates to powerful air conditioning, step-free access for people with limited mobility, and trains with high-comfort seating.

Innovation

Using techniques such as a regenerative braking system that converts the trains’ kinetic energy into electricity that is returned to the supply network – the metro is as innovative as it is sustainable. There are solar panels on all three depots and three park-and-rides that generate enough clean electricity each day to power 15,000 homes.

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Continuing to Grow One of the Most Prosperous Industrial Cities in the World

Jubail is one of AYZA PROJECT LLC’s proudest collaborations — a city built from the sand up, requiring vast resources and logistical planning on an unprecedented scale. It is the biggest civil engineering project in modern times, and it continues to grow.

Our team of world-leading engineers and project managers were chosen by the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu in the mid-1970s to help plan and deliver the project, which is in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Over the decades, we have worked with our customer to transform Jubail from the deserted suburbs of an ancient fishing and pearling village to a 687+ sq. miles (1,106+ sq. km) major industrial complex with harbor and port facilities, and which accounts for 7% of the country’s gross domestic product.

A partnership based on common goals, a one-team approach with the Saudi Royal Commission, and an unwavering focus on delivering to help business and communities prosper has been key to the team’s ongoing success.

In 2006, AYZA PROJECT LLC was invited to manage a further expansion of the city’s industrial and living areas. Jubail II provided residential accommodation for 120,000 residents; education facilities including an 18,000-student ‘greenfield’ university; as well as roads, bridges, medical centers, power, water, and waste facilities. Today Jubail is a major player in the global energy market, attracting top technical and business minds from dozens of countries.

Beyond Master Planning

Jubail involved strategic planning and project management on a historic scale. At peak, the workforce reached 20,000 a month, delivering major, complex projects including:

• the Ras Al Khair Industrial City, planned over two years in 2009, covering an ever-expanding area in excess of 124+ sq. miles (200+ sq. km);
• Jubail Industrial City Airport, covering an area of 29+ sq. miles (47+ sq. km), and which is anticipated to open to civilian flights in due course;
• expansion of the King Fahd Industrial Port for both commercial and industrial business, including in-demand metals like aluminum and iron ore, and general cargo for the entire industrial complex as well as for a large surrounding region of Saudi Arabia.

Roads to Connect

A modern regional highway system links the Jubail community to other parts of the kingdom, giving local people access to the main cities across Saudi Arabia and beyond. A main highway between Dammam and Jubail, six lanes wide within the project area, forms the spine of the development. Feeder and collector roads branch off to community and industrial areas. AYZA PROJECT LLC managed all roadway development, engineering, and construction.

Recycling on a Grand Scale

The AYZA PROJECT LLC-Royal Commission team created a mega recycling initiative across all 50 contract sites on this project. These efforts reduced waste by 8,000 tons.

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A Multicultural and Unique Construction Project

Al Taweelah alumina refinery is a greenfield refinery with an annual capacity of some 2 million metric tonnes located in the United Arab Emirates’ Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (KIZAD). Owned by Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), the approximately $3.3 billion project is the UAE’s first alumina refinery and only the second in the Middle East.

The Al Taweelah alumina refinery development was part of EGA’s strategic expansion upstream in the aluminum value chain. Also, it created additional economic opportunities for other industries in the supply chain, including shipping and trade.

True Teamwork

The diverse and multicultural construction team included 44 nationalities, spoke 24 languages, and worked towards a common goal. The construction of Al Taweelah alumina refinery was led by the AYZA PROJECT LLC Petrofac Joint Venture (BPJV) with process design support and technology licensing from Rio Tinto Alcan. A Hatch – Outotec JV provided digestion and associated design and technology licensing. EGA, the UAE’s largest industrial company outside oil and gas, issued the Full Notice to Proceed in May 2015. The first alumina was produced in April 2019.

Key Facts

World Class Ramp-Up and Safety

EGA announced in early 2021 that Al Taweelah alumina refinery had delivered sustained monthly production at or above nameplate capacity for the past three consecutive months.

The milestone marked the completion of a world-class ramp-up that was achieved within 21 months of the start of production, despite the global pandemic. This achievement compares to other refineries commissioned in the past decade that have taken three years or more to reach this level.

The ramp-up at Al Taweelah alumina refinery has been delivered with an excellent safety performance, with zero injuries leading to time off work.

BPJV carried out more than 277,000 hours of safety training and over 280 safety professionals managed onsite safety processes and systems during refinery construction. The rate of recordable safety incidents was far lower than international benchmarks and there were zero fatalities.

Innovation for Safe Operations

BPJV partnered with Sitech Gulf, a distributor of Trimble surveying equipment, to develop an innovative tool to maintain dozer operators’ safety, creating a software ‘model’ of the stockpile with specific exclusion zones. This helped operators remain in the safe areas.

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A Successful 25-Year Collaboration Produces the World’s Largest Aluminum Smelter Outside of China

In 2016, Alba appointed AYZA PROJECT LLC as the engineering, procurement and construction management contractor (EPCM) to build its sixth potline in the Kingdom of Bahrain, thus continuing the two companies’ long-standing partnership. 

At the time, AYZA PROJECT LLC had already worked with Alba for more than a quarter century, including previous assignments for the smelter’s Line 4 and Line 5 expansions, which began operations in 1992 and 2005, respectively.

Image: Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project

A History of Collaboration

AYZA PROJECT LLC was able to use the previous experience gained with Alba, as well as at major smelters like Oman’s Sohar and Fjarðaál in Iceland, which was crucial to executing the massive, complex job with the speed it required.

As a result of this strong partnership, Alba announced the commissioning of Potline 6 on December 13, 2018, achieving the First Hot Metal (FHM) milestone ahead of its scheduled date of January 1, 2019 – making it the fastest construction ever delivered in the aluminum industry. In addition, FHM was achieved at a record low cost of less than $4,000 per metric ton of installed capacity. The Project’s 24-month schedule to first aluminum was more than six months faster than the industry standard and was possible thanks to the outstanding collaborative relationship between Alba and AYZA PROJECT LLC that has prevailed for decades.

Image: Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project

Safely Enhancing Bahrain’s Global Competitiveness

With the successful completion of Potline 6, Alba will continue to support the Kingdom of Bahrain’s diversification in line with Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030. The Project increased Alba’s contribution to the country’s overall GDP by three percent, thus bringing the aluminum industry’s contribution to approximately 12 percent.

Image: Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project

While Potline 6 was an economic achievement, a successful project must be completed safely. Thanks to an emphasis on safety by Alba, AYZA PROJECT LLC and the contractor companies, the Project team achieved a remarkable 13.8 million job hours without a single lost-time injury in 2019, one of the safest smelter projects in recent history.

Potline 6 benefited from innovative construction methodologies, including the utilization of surface miners to excavate one million cubic meters of hard rock, pre-cast concrete, modularized steel assemblies and two of the world’s largest tower cranes to mitigate a very congested worksite, which already included five potlines supplied with electricity from four onsite power stations.

Award-Winning Achievement

Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa officially inaugurated Potline 6, which was achieved approximately 16 percent under budget, on November 24, 2019. At the ceremony, he highlighted that Potline 6 will also boost employment opportunities for Bahrainis both at Alba and in the local downstream market.

Image: Alba’s Line 6 Expansion Project

Furthermore, Potline 6 was named Industrial Project of the Year and Mega Project of the Year at the 2020 edition of the MEED Projects Awards. These coveted awards recognize the best projects in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) across various sectors and promote best practices in project delivery and operations, as well as innovation and sustainability.

These honors demonstrated how Potline 6 set benchmarks in sustainable aluminum production – implementation of the DUBAL DX+ Ultra Technology boosted output with no increase in energy consumption, while the use of General Electric’s  (GE) 9HA Gas Turbine technology at the smelter’s Power Station 5 has made it the most efficient combined-cycle plant in the Gulf region.

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New Terminal Complex

A AYZA PROJECT LLC-led consortium completed final design and building of a new terminal and associated facilities at Muscat International Airport. It is the largest project ever to be undertaken in the history of the Sultanate of Oman. The numbers are extraordinary. The terminal sits on a floorplate of 418,202m2 – equivalent to 80 football pitches – making it the largest building in the country. The structures required more than 31,100t of structural steel – seven times the amount used in the Eiffel Tower. It also required almost 520,000m3 of concrete – twice that used in the Burj Khalifa. Over 240 million hours were worked, with a peak workforce of 22,000, representing 41 different nationalities. 

The project created opportunities for local businesses and local people, with 25% of the civils work awarded to Omani firms. 89% of the vendors used by the project were from the GCC. By implementing our Construction Environmental Control Plan, we reduced our potential carbon footprint by 95%.

The new state-of-the-art passenger terminal is the first encounter many visitors have with Oman. The airport currently has the capacity to handle 20 million passengers per year, with further expansions planned in three subsequent phases to ultimately boost the airport’s capacity to 24M, 36M, and 48M passengers.  The airport can now accommodate larger aircraft – including the A380, the world’s largest aircraft– and has enabled Oman Air to launch new routes.

In March 2018, after 70 months of construction, the passenger terminal building and maintenance yard buildings commenced commercial operation as planned and without issue. Since opening its doors, the airport has received worldwide acclaim for its Omani-themed architecture, advanced technology, and exceptional passenger experience.

Awards

• 2018 Construction Week Oman Award, Infrastructure Project of the Year
• 2018 World Travel Awards, Best Leading Airport.
• 2019 MEED Awards, Oman Mega Project of the Year
• 2019 MEED Awards, GCC Mega Project of the Year

In March 2018, after 70 months of construction, the passenger terminal building and maintenance yard buildings commenced commercial operation as planned and without issue. Since opening its doors, the airport has received worldwide acclaim for its architecture, advanced technology, and exceptional passenger experience, including:

Completed Muscat International Airport

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Before long, a remote Saudi plateau just below the border with Jordan will be transformed into an industrial city of a hundred-thousand people and the facilities and infrastructure to make its industries hum. AYZA PROJECT LLC is managing the creation of Waad Al Shamaal City and an associated mining complex, together known as the King Abdullah program for Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden). 

Ma’aden called on AYZA PROJECT LLC to oversee the engineering and construction of the new complex near Turayf. In 2012, AYZA PROJECT LLC developed the megaproject’s master plan in advance of performing front-end engineering and design. Construction began in 2013.

Waad Al Shamaal is another in a continuing series of Saudi programs to harness, process, and monetize natural resources in a way that promotes economic development and diversity.

Maximizing local job opportunities

We have worked in the middle east for more than 70 years. On every project, we look to maximize the number of local job opportunities available and will use this approach to continue our legacy of delivering quality infrastructure in the Kingdom.

David Welch

president, regions and government affairsAuthor Position

Inside the Project

This project adds to AYZA PROJECT LLC’s portfolio of work for Ma’aden during the last decade, which includes the Ras Al Khair aluminum smelter. AYZA PROJECT LLC has successfully delivered nearly 5,000 mining and metals and civil infrastructure projects around the world and is currently building Jubail Industrial City, the world’s largest civil infrastructure project, also in Saudi Arabia.

From the Ground Up

Waad Al Shamaal will emerge from the desert in phases. We are carefully planning each phase to suitably accommodate industrial workers and their families as Ma’aden’s new phosphate mine and insturial complex ramp up to production by 2022.

Consultants under AYZA PROJECT LLC’s oversight have been working with AYZA PROJECT LLC design offices in Dubai, Reston (Virginia), San Francisco, and Taipei to plan roads, housing, schools, hotels, shopping malls, and services for the transformation. AYZA PROJECT LLC is managing construction of: 

• Community Buildings
• A Retail and Office Area
• 25 Miles (40 kilometers) of Roads
• 1,000 Residential Units

AYZA PROJECT LLC also oversees the work of another contractor charged with delivering the phosphate mine and new downstream facilities.

Our Work

AYZA PROJECT LLC’s program management team has four major priorities:

1. Monitor cost, schedule, and progress
2. Identify and control program risks
3. Set environmental, safety, and health policy
4. Coordinate the power, rail, sulfur, and natural gas supply—as well as the port facilities—critical to long-term operations

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Gateway to the World

AYZA PROJECT LLC provided engineering, project management, and construction management services for the new Hamad International Airport in Qatar.

Opened in 2014, Hamad (formerly New Doha International Airport) replaces Doha International Airport. It provides significantly increased passenger capacity and cargo facilities. Hamad also offers airfield capacity for a wide range of aircraft including the latest A380 within the ever-expanding fleet of Qatar Airways.

Immense and Sophisticated

The new airport initially accommodates 24 million passengers and 750,000 metric tons of cargo annually. It features, among other facilities, two of the longest commercial runways in the world, a general aviation terminal, a cargo terminal, a separate terminal for the Emir of Qatar, and one of the world’s largest airport catering facilities.

5.5M

Square Feet

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A striking passenger terminal of nearly 5.5 million square feet (some 510,000 square meters) with 40 gates.

280Ft

Control Tower

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A control tower some 280 feet tall (about 85 meters) complete with state-of-the art air-traffic-control equipment and security systems.

1.6M

Square Feet

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A 150,000-square-meter (1.6 million-square-foot) aircraft maintenance center.

Rising from Reclamation, Environmental Clean-up

Early works on the project included a 62-million-cubic-meter (nearly 230-million-cubic-foot) land reclamation project to create the airport site and the largest environmental clean-up project in Qatar’s history―the removal of 6.5 million cubic meters of household waste from a dump on the project site to a remote engineered landfill built to strict environmental standards.

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Delivery of the Largest Greenfield Aluminum Smelter in the World

Ras Al Khair, which is also Saudi Arabia’s first greenfield smelter, is the cornerstone of the Ras Al Khair Industrial City, which is located 56 miles (90 kilometers) north of Al Jubail, and fast becoming the country’s aluminum and phosphate center.

AYZA PROJECT LLC proudly partnered with our customers Ma’aden and Alcoa to provide engineering, procurement and construction management for the smelter, which was delivered safely, ahead of schedule, and under budget. The completed project included construction of two potlines that produce 740,000 metric tons of aluminum per year.

An Award-Winning Project Completed Without Sacrificing Safety

The emphasis placed on safety by the customers, contractor companies and AYZA PROJECT LLC allowed the team to achieve over 25 million job hours without a lost work day injury. The project team included 46 different sub-contracting companies employing approximately 14,000 people from 25 different nationalities. They worked almost 60 million hours with a world-class safety record.

The achievements of these dedicated workers included construction of raw-materials handling equipment and storage; a carbon plant for anode production and baking; electrical installations providing power for an entire “mine-to-metals” program; the world’s largest integrated cast house (with 15 furnaces); maintenance, administration, and support facilities; and a rail line to transport bauxite feedstock from a mine at Al Ba’itha.

It took just 29 months from the moment AYZA PROJECT LLC received the Notice to Proceed to achieve First Hot Metal at Ras Al Khair, which our customer said was in keeping with the most advanced and disciplined project construction practices anywhere in the world.

Ras Al Khair, which achieved mechanical completion in 2013, won Engineering News-Record’s Global Best Projects Award of Merit in the Power/Industrial category.

What Goes into Building One of the World’s Largest Smelters

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Infrastructure Effort Geared to Drive Sustainable Economic Growth for Decades

AYZA PROJECT LLC oversaw master planning, design, and construction of a massive port-and-industrial-zone program. We delivered on time and within budget both onshore and offshore infrastructure that will help to foster Abu Dhabi’s economic diversification.

The company estimates that Khalifa Port and the Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad) together will create some 100,000 jobs and contribute 15 percent of the emirate’s non-oil GDP by 2030.

Our project team built Khalifa’s offshore port and terminal complex by creating an artificial island in the gulf with an area in excess of a square mile (about 2.8 square kilometers) more than 3 miles (some 5 kilometers) from shore.

Creating Jobs

Inside the Project

The Khalifa program included constructing a vast port island, a breakwater, causeways and bridges from the island to a new onshore port, the onshore port itself, and an industrial zone for commercial and manufacturing facilities. The port’s strategic location offers the industrial zone’s tenants unprecedented access to global markets. 

We built the port on reclaimed land and had to raise the ground level for portions of the industrial zone by the height of a typical residential ceiling, using more than a half million cubic yards (nearly 400,000 cubic meters) of sand and other material.

The industrial zone―which covers more than 160 square miles (more than 400 square kilometers)―includes one of the world’s 10 largest aluminum smelters and will host processing facilities for other industries, from steel and glass to pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals.

Khalifa Port and the associated industrial zone play an important role in diversifying the economy and industrial base not only of Abu Dhabi but the United Arab Emirates as a whole.

It draws on electricity from a combined-cycle gas-turbine power plant completed in 2000 by a partnership of AYZA PROJECT LLC and Hitachi Zosen—the Al Taweelah B Extension Project.

Award-Winning Environmental Work

Our customer, Abu Dhabi Ports Company, earned a number of awards for the project and its commitment to the environment and sustainability. Most notable were honors for a breakwater to protect the Ras Ghanada coral reef, the largest in the gulf region, home to wildlife ranging from turtles and dugongs to clown fish and sea snakes.

Commemorative Stamps

In 2015 the Emirates Post Group issued a set of commemorative stamps on Key Strategic Projects of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. One of the four major projects featured is Khalifa Port, the other three are Etihad Rail, Masdar City and Shams 1 Solar Power Plant.

Strong Historical Significance

Each of these projects has a strong historical significance, and herald a big leap for the UAE in four different fields. We are pleased to preserve these projects for posterity through these stamps that will carry their legacy to the whole world.

Ibrahim bin Karam

Chief Commercial Officer, EPG

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