Between a rock and a hard place

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BORED OUT: Geological challenges, plus the scale of the task mean this is to be a long job.

The mountain range between the furthest reaches of Ras al Khaimah and the port of Korfakkan is throwing up a few engineering challenges for those that want to tunnel through it.

There's an old puzzle, developed by a guy named Edward DeBono for management problem solving. It goes ‘Tom won't come to the mountain'.

Men in suits then have to think of solutions, but we are guessing that few will say ‘Track in several drill Jumbos and dynamite to blast through the Mountain to see Tom,' That, however is exactly the plan for the Diftah-Shis tunnel project, though ‘Tom' in this case is the village of Shis.

Although just 11.5 km long, the project is reckoned to be the most difficult road-builds in the Middle East. In short, the problems facing this project can be summarised in to that of geography both political and physical.

Politically, the project needs to skirt around the Oman border, which makes the route harder than it is supposed to be. As a result, the road takes a circuitous route, carving through the punishing terrain of the Masafi hills.

The detour means that the road has to be taken through a series of wadis and straight through a mountain.

Contract

The Government of Sharjah awarded the first phase of the project to Iranian contractor General Mechanic Co. (GMC) under supervision of Halcrow International, while a third company, Gulf Rock acts as a subcontractor.

Some unusual problems are faced by the team. Rain is not often a problem in the UAE, but in the mountains, some 600 metres above sea level, it can be. Flash floods fill the valleys, meaning that there is even more rock to be drilled than usual in order to get the machines.

The new highway in phase I is predominantly routed through wadis and this too is not without problems.

According to the site manager, Mr. Arash Foroozan Yazdani, the contractor is on constant alert throughout the rainy season, even when there is no sign of rain. "It is very difficult" he explained.

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