Mammoet installs first villas at Sheybarah Island Resort
Mammoet, the Dutch specialist in heavy lifting and transport, said that it has started 2023 with the delivery of the first batch of modularly constructed villas for Red Sea Global’s Sheybarah Island Resort, on the Red Sea Coast.
In a statement, Mammoet said that a total of four villas were loaded-in at the Port of Hamriyah, in Sharjah, and were shipped to the island to be installed at site. It added that a new milestone on the project has been achieved with the installation of the first prefabricated, stainless steel overwater villa orb on its foundation.
For the installation, Mammoet said that it used its 650t capacity Demag CC3800 crawler crane, which was positioned on top of Mammoet’s modified barge, ALE 250. The shallow draft of the barge meant that there would be minimal disturbance to the sensitive marine environment around the site.
At the construction jetty, the crane loaded and placed the first orb on the barge deck and sailed to the installation area. Once at the location, the barge was positioned using a hyper-accurate GPS system and the barge’s own winches, for precise alignment with the foundation.
The barge was then stabilised using a retrofitted 300t spud jacking system provided by Combifloat - Mammoet’s partner for floating and self-elevating marine equipment suitable for nearshore operations. Safe and efficient lifting, lowering and (re)positioning of the barge was achieved through a locally controlled jacking mechanism and a 4-point mooring system, it added.
The crane was raised to lift the orb into place - its super-lift was replaced by a system designed specifically for the project, where the back mast of the CC3800 is ‘tied back’ to the barge. This gave the crane enough capacity to skilfully place the orb onto the foundation without requiring the additional mass of a super-lift tray, explained Robert van Tinteren, Lead Project Engineer for Mammoet.
“[This is] creative engineering at its best. It has been an exciting nine months building up to this point, but it never gets tedious to see the incredible things we at Mammoet can do when we put our minds to it,” he added.
Mammoet was awarded the contract to transport and install all 73 villa pods in May 2022. In order to support the shipment of the villas from the UAE to Saudi Arabia, Mammoet teamed up with P&O Maritime Logistics, a leading provider of critical logistics and marine solutions.
Hospitality Benchmark
Sheybarah Island is located in the southeast of the archipelago on the Red Sea. The island is home to a highly diverse environment with mangroves, white sand dune beaches. It also has some of the most pristine coral reefs in the world, which host diverse species of fish and marine animals.
The 73-key Sheybarah Island Resort has been designed by the Dubai-based architectural firm Killa Design. It is comprised of uniquely shaped overwater and beach villas, arrival, front of house and F&B buildings and other facilities.
The approach to the façade design was to minimise visual impact of the architecture on the environment by employing a highly reflective polished stainless-steel cladding that reflects the natural surroundings: the ocean, the sky, sand dunes and the reef below.
The resort embraces the latest sustainable technologies in all elements of its design; an eco-friendly and sustainable design that not only preserves but enhances the biodiversity and the surrounding natural habitat, while offering a luxurious experience that will attract visitors from around the globe and elevating Saudi Arabia as a top tier marine eco-tourism destination.
The resort is a LEED Platinum off grid, zero energy, zero water development that widely promotes sustainable design in every aspect of its environment, to ultimately create a hospitality benchmark for regenerative developments. It is powered by a centralised solar farm and fresh water is supplied from a solar powered desalination plant. The recycling of waste material takes place on the island which minimises the need to bring or remove materials from or to the island.
