COWI wins major contract in Mecca

COWI will prepare the detailed design for the development containing significant underground works such as two giant metro stations, metro tunnels and four carparks totaling 10,000 spaces.

One of the largest contracts
The KAAR project is a large multidisciplinary project in line with the strategy. A significant factor in winning the contract was the great per-formance by the COWI team during the earlier design review for the client Nesma. The global team work will continue as the contract will involve deliveries from mainly BTM, but also from India, Qatar and UK, as well as other departments in COWI DK.

“Ongoing urbanization drives a need for more underground utilization to facilitate smooth and seamless transportation and to accommodate facilities for an increasing dense population. Undertaking the KAAR infrastructure project is in line with our strategy to participate in the world’s largest transportation infrastructure projects,” says Lars-Peter Søbye. Last year’s acquisition of Donaldson’s 143 tunnel and underground engi-neers allowed COWI to become one of the largest engineering consultancies in the field.

“With the Donaldson acquisition last year, we are now one of the world’s largest within tunnel and underground engineering. Combined with services from BTM and other BUs, we are among the few who can deliver all services to such a significant and complex project. I am very, very happy with this contract and would like to express a big congratulations to all involved. It is an impressive achievement,” says Lars-Peter Søbye.

Above ground, the project also includes a large ring road and bus rapid transit station. The new city development will have 100,000 residential units, hotels and apartments and 28,000 hotel rooms, alongside commercial and recreational areas as well as a new mosque, expected to be among the world’s largest mosques. COWI is designing the utility networks necessary to support these future Buildings.