Photo: COWI-Larsen Joint Ventures

Oman Airports prepare for take-off 

The consultant team responsible for designing two international airports has reached a major milestone, paving the way for construction to begin in the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in Oman.

Plans to turn the Sultanate of Oman into a tourism and business hub in the Gulf region came a step closer to fruition this summer.

COWI-Larsen Joint Venture, the principal consultants for the Muscat and Salalah International Airports, delivered detailed design studies in June. Construction is expected to begin in early 2009.

Greg Shockley, COWI’s Project Director on the Oman Airport projects, feels there’s something special about this project, despite over twenty years of experience in the aviation industry.

“There’s already quite a buzz in Oman about the airports,” says Shockley, who took over as project director after Ervin Haukrogh moved on to head COWI’s Gulf Region Division. “It’s the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in Oman, so the Omani people are really excited.”

Local colour

Although the airports’ state-of-the-art features will provide millions of passengers with the highest service levels, Shockley notes the facilities’ architecture bears a traditional Omani feel.

“It’s a culturally sensitive project,” Shockley explains. “We’ve taken care to use materials found in the region to help structures blend into the landscape.”

The airports’ design also allows airport officials to expand combined capacity to 60 million passengers annually to meet increased demand.

The SuperjumboThe detailed plans delivered by COWI-Larsen JV outline everything from the airports’ automated baggage handling system to the runways engineered to withstand pounding from the world’s largest airliner, the Airbus A380 ‘Superjumbo’.

The project itself is something of a ‘superjumbo’ for COWI.

Since 2005, some 425 employees from offices around the globe have been involved to offer their expertise to the largest project in the company’s history.

Photo: COWI-Larsen JV


Mission: Impossible

A number of challenges have sprung up along the way. Cyclone Guno struck Oman last year, for example, causing severe flooding. Designs for Muscat International Airport’s were nearly completed, but the client called on COWI-Larsen to eliminate tunnels and other subterranean structures.

COWI-Larsen’s engineers and architects kept the deadlines, nevertheless, working around the clock to produce some 2600 drawings and 13,000 pages of documents. And that was for only one of six main contracts being prepared.

“Practically every division was involved,” Carsten Kærgaard, Manager of Project Economy, notes with a sense of pride. “We managed the seemingly impossible.”

Shockley agrees, calling the delivery nothing short of ‘herculean’.

After the stormAn air of relative calm has now temporarily settled over COWI’s office in Oman. Documents are being processed and a bidding round is under preparation. Over the next six months, contractors will turn in their bids and construction can begin so the project can race on.

Shockley takes a moment to relax in the Omani office, however, to savour what COWI-Larsen have already achieved.

“We’re both exhausted and elated. It’s a team effort on a global basis.”

By Uzi Frank uzif@cowi.com
Published: 08.08.2008