Construction and Infrastructure

There is huge potential for the spread of mobile and internet-based telecommunications services in Africa. Regional market leader Uganda Telecom Ltd is required to invest heavily in management, infrastructure and technology improvements to increase its share of the market.

As the first government owned corporation in the Northern Territory and the only combined utilities company in Australia, Power and Water Corporation is a trendsetter in a challenging environment, as Jane Bordenave reports.

Engineering and project management provider AMEC has been awarded a £150 million contract to deliver engineering and project management services for the Clair Ridge project, west of Shetland.

Clair Ridge is the second phase of the giant Clair oil field. The contract was awarded to AMEC by BP and its Clair partners Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron.

Dutch engineering consultancy Arcadis has announced it is to acquire UK-based consultancy EC Harris.

Through the merger, Amsterdam-based Arcadis will grow to almost 19,000 employees and €2.3 billion in revenues. Combined, the two companies will obtain a top five global position in strategic advisory and project delivery services for built assets, Arcadis said.

Yousif Mirjan, managing director of Dubai-based marble contractor, Dar Al Rokham, talks to Gay Sutton about creating the architectural heritage of the future, and expansion beyond the Middle East.

Dubai-based port operator DP World has announced that London Gateway, the UK’s newest port, is due to open in the fourth quarter of 2013.

The port will have an initial capacity of 1.6 million TEU (twenty foot equivalent container units), and is expected to boost the UK’s economy by an estimated £3.2 billion per annum.

Swiss power and technology group ABB has announced it is to construct two solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants for Eskom, South Africa’s national electricity provider.

The two one-hectare pilot plants will be located on greenfield sites adjacent to the coal-fired power stations at Lethabo in the Free State, and Kendal in Mpumalanga. They will be the first of their kind to be built in South Africa.

There’s been a harbour at Gibraltar for 2,000 years; but today it’s never handled so little freight. Instead, it has found its own unique mix of services, as Alan Swaby learns.

If ever an estate agent was called upon to sell the Port of Gibraltar, you know for a fact it wouldn’t take long for them to start banging the ‘location, location, location’ drum. At the crossroads to just about all north/south and east/west routes, it couldn’t be better placed. 

GeoSea, part of the DEME group of companies, has applied a pioneering approach to a host of underwater construction challenges. Business development manager Bart De Poorter talks to Jayne Alverca about the company’s flair for innovation.

The Hamilton Harbour development is creating a new iconic landmark in Brisbane, Queensland; and represents a major milestone for project managers Devine Constructions. Commercial contracts manager George Defteros talks to Jayne Alverca about the development.