Construction Week visits the construction site of Nakheel's epic Waterfront project, which will be twice the size of Hong Kong when completed.
What is it about waterside developments and Dubai? From Dubailand's Wadi Walk to the Palm, developers are desperately vying for a lucrative slice of the Gulf coast. Nakheel has gone a step further.
When completed, its epic Waterfront project will be twice the size of Hong Kong Island and will provide more than 70km of coastline to Dubai.
Unsurprisingly given these statistics, the project is expected to become the world's largest waterfront and its largest man-made development. Planners are reinventing the landscape; aiming to create an entirely new city with a new way of living.
A conglomeration of canals and artificial islands, the project will consist of a series of zones with mixed use including commercial, residential, resort and amenity areas.
Positioned between the leading hubs of the UAE, with Abu Dhabi to the west and Dubai to the east, Waterfront is located close to prime international commerce and industry hubs Jebel Ali Port, Dubai World Central Airport and the Jebel Ali Free Zone.
With 100 different waterfront developments and more than 150 master-planned communities, Waterfront will create "a world-class destination for residents, visitors and businesses in the world's fastest growing city," according to Nakheel.
Flooding in Dubai's Palm Cove Canal, the first of four waterways at Waterfront, began last week. Described by developers as a "monumental" occasion, the water was the first to be introduced into project's waterway system and demonstrated the progress that has been made since work began on the canal in February 2007.
Flooding in section one of this canal will take about two weeks to complete and will hold 4.2 million cubic metres of water.
"The flooding of the canal marks the first step in bringing this waterfront community to life.
The waterway system will also form an important arterial link for Waterfront in line with a study that has been commissioned to achieve Nakheel's vision of delivering sustainable communities; focusing on integrating water transport with land-based transport to form comprehensive networks," said the managing director of the Waterfront project, Matt Joyce.
Joyce said that "close to 80% of work has been completed on the Palm Cove Canal and we will be finished in December of this year." Asked if he anticipated any problems in meeting this deadline, he said "we have been very lucky in terms of labour and products. We have had no delays."
"A project of this scale will always present challenges," he said, "but we forward program, forward purchase, and get to grips with the logistics early."
More than 3,000 construction vehicles are currently on-site, manned by around 1,000 professional staff and 20,000 workers.
A quarter of the total groundwork is also finished.
Confident that the Palm Cove Canal will meet its December deadline, Joyce said that the entire project would take "20-odd years to finish."
Waterfront will consist of 10 key areas including Madinat Al Arab, which is expected to become the new downtown and central business district of Dubai.
It will feature resorts, retail, commercial and public spaces, a broad mix of residences and an integrated transport system including light rail and a road network.
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