Saudi master developer Diriyah Company announced on Tuesday the completion of the largest volume of single-location pour of reinforced concrete to date in the Diriyah mega project.

Located in the southern portion of the development, El Seif Engineering Construction and China State Construction Engineering Corporation ME  (CSECME) joint venture poured 6,100 cubic metres of reinforced concrete for the underground main spine tunnel roundabout base slab, which connects to four adjacent tunnels.

Using a fleet of over 75 concrete trucks from five different batching plants on site and seven pumps, the pour was completed in 21 hours, ahead of schedule due to seamless coordination between the batching plants and logistics teams.

The initial phase of the pour used external sources for concrete, while the remainder was from the internal batching plants on site, including those owned by other contractors.

Jerry Inzerillo, Group Chief Executive Officer of Diriyah Company, said: “The scale of the infrastructure works underway across Diriyah reflect the ambition and transformative power of Vision 2030’s programme for the Kingdom.”

The El Seif- China State Construction JV was awarded the 6.65 billion Saudi riyals ($1.8 billion) Diriyah Gate Tunnels and Infrastructure Phase B contract in June 2021, according to UAE-based trade magazine Construction Week.

In January 2023, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Prime Minister and Chairman of the Public Investment Fund, Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, announced including the $63.2 billion Diriyah giga-project masterplan as the fifth giga-project of the sovereign wealth fund.

Last week, Diriyah Company and Saudi Real Estate Infrastructure Company (Binyah) broke ground on the 544-million Saudi riyal ($144.95 million) Northern Cultural District Car Park project.

Read more: Saudi's Diriyah giga-project awards $311mln transportation works contract

(Writing by D Madhura; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)