Arabian Canal Project: What a waterway!

Morphing the arid Jebel Ali desert into a 75-km Arabian Canal will place Dubai in the record books for one of the most ambitious engineering projects ever attempted.

When the $11-billion (Dh 40.4 billion) project is completed in five years, it will create a Venice in the Middle East, with everything from gondolas to 40-metre luxury yachts, say developers.

"Some fairly large pleasure yachts will be able to travel here," said Ian Raine, Project Director, Limitless (the real estate arm of Dubai World), from its headquarters in Dubai. "We’re guessing a lot of boats and marinas will be in use here."

* Read how the project has positively affected the life of a family living in Satwa.

Raine said that there will be a mixed community of canal users who will have different expectations from both their boats and the waterway which will extend 25km inland from the Gulf at its farthest point.

Residents of a new city may decide to use smaller boats to travel along those points of the canal, either for work or leisure.

Those with sizeable vessels, however, are expected to even venture out into the Gulf and visit other waterways along the Dubai coast such as the Dubai Creek and its extensions.

* What about the buildings in the project area? Read...

The Arabian Canal master- plan, meanwhile, calls for a continuous canal depth of at least six metres, and at the widest points the waterway will stretch 150 metres across.

The depth is needed to give luxury yachts enough draught to circumnavigate the U-shaped canal south from Nakheel’s Dubai Waterfront, then east around Dubai World Central Maktoum International Airport and then north towards Palm Jumeirah, Raine said.

Big challenge

The challenge now remains for Limitless to excavate an extraordinary amount of soil and rock, Raine said. About one billion cubic metres of sand and rock will be removed. Work on the project has started with a 700-metre pilot trench excavated – less than one per cent of the canal’s entirety, said Rebecca Rees, Limitless spokeswoman.

When the project is completed, Limitless will have removed five times more soil than the builders of the Panama Canal.

‘Canal city’

The large amounts of land fill being removed will help create a miniature mountain range of sorts in planned residential areas along the most southerly stretches of the canal.

A Dh184 billion, 120 square-kilometre city to be built in 15 years, will serve up to 2.5 million people, more than double the current population of Dubai.

Marina life: Berth of an industry

Billions of dirhams in new marine projects are buoying demand for marine facilities, says a Dubai-based engineering firm.

Septech said that with canals, man-made islands and creek extensions emerging , it will lead to an expanding boating market which in turn will require all things related to marinas.

Iwan Baxter Hughes, Group Projects Director, Septech, said his firm is expecting the market to grow from the existing 3,000 floating docks in the UAE to 50,000 docks within the next 10 years, he said.

YOU SPEAK

• Do you live or work in the areas where the Arabian Canal and Jumeirah Garden City project is coming up?
• Do you fancy living alongside the canal?
• Will Dubai replace Venice as the romantic capital of the world?

Tell us what you think. Write to us at news@alnisrmedia.com