How the Palm Jumeirah island, Dubai's Artificial Island Was Built

How did the Palm Jumeirah island was built?

Are you interested in the procedure of building the Palm Jumeirah island? Stay with us to know more. Dubai, an Emirate in the United Arab Emirates, has transformed itself from a small trading port into an international hub, playing host to some of the world's most iconic structures. The wealth generated from Dubai's rich oil resources has allowed the country's rulers to create a city known for being one of the world's hottest tourist destinations, with its impressive skyline, luxury resorts, and endless shopping malls. Dubai is one location that should be on everyone's bucket list. In this article, we are going to investigate the Palm Jumeirah island.

What put Dubai on the map? Dubai has experienced incredible development over the last 50 years. The Dubai World Trade Center and Jebel Ali Port were some early projects that set Dubai on its path. In more recent years, the country's leaders have demonstrated great vision by taking on ambitious engineering feats, the likes of which have never been seen.

Dubai is now home to the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, and the Palm Jumeirah Island Hotel, the world's only seven-star hotel. But Dubai's most ambitious group of projects to date has been the construction of the Palm Jumeirah island, a group of man-made islands that have attracted the entire world's attention.

The islands have transformed Dubai's cream-colored coastline into a work of art. While the Palm Jumeirah islands are famous for their beauty, the engineering, and manpower that brought the Palm Jumeirah island into creation are truly spectacular. The Palm Jumeirah islands are the brainchild of Dubai's leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who first envisaged the project to turn Dubai into one of the world's leading tourist destinations by developing a mesmerizing coastline full of luxury real estate, hotels, resorts, and commercial centers.

Nakheel, a government-owned real estate company, developed the islands. Work began on the Palm Jumeirah island in 2001 with the construction of the most famous of the islands, the Palm Jumeirah island. From the air, the Palm Jumeirah island resembles a palm tree inside a circle, stretches 280 meters out to sea, and is connected to the mainland by a bridge. The parts of the Palm Jumeirah island include the trunk, spine, fronds, and crescent, each of which is a stand-alone island connected by a bridge, underground tunnel, and a monorail used for public transportation.

Work was completed on the Palm Jumeirah island in 2006, and the Palm Jumeirah island is now home to thousands of residents, luxury resorts, and the world-famous Burj Al Arab Hotel. The other offshore islands include the Palm Deira, Palm Jebel Ali, World Island, and Blue Waters Island. Due to the international economy, work halted on Palm Deira, Palm Jebel Ali, and World Island.

However, Blue Waters Island was completed in 2018 and is home to the Ain Dubai Ferris Wheel, the world's largest, standing at 230 meters tall. How to build an island in the sea? The process used to build the islands is known as land reclamation, where sand is dredged from the seafloor and pumped into its new location.

A build-up of sand will form, creating an island structure. As simple as this sounds, in reality, many engineering challenges had to be overcome to ensure that the islands were constructed according to the developer's plans. Building a breakwater. The first major issue that engineers had to address was how to protect the islands from beach erosion and strong currents, which have the potential to destroy the islands.

To offer the Palm Jumeirah island sufficient protection, engineers utilize a breakwater. A breakwater is an island constructed to encircle the interior islands, known as the crescent. This protects the Palm Jumeirah island from longshore currents reducing the risk of beach erosion and provides a barrier between the Palm Jumeirah island and sea currents and freak waves.

The first step of this process is to build up the seafloor with sand. Dredgers pick up sand from the sea bed nearby and drop it into the location. To keep it in place, barge loads of rubble are dumped on the sand, raising the breakwater from four meters below sea level to three meters above. The outer layer of the breakwaters is made of large boulders, each weighing six tonnes, and is designed with sloping layers to minimize the force of the waves as they hit the breakwater.

Sourcing the sand and the rocks. The engineers' second major challenge was where to source the sand and rock from. You may think Dubai, located in a desert, would have an ample supply of sand. However, desert sand is unsuitable for sea construction because it liquefies easily. Engineers decided to dredge sand from the sea bed nearby in the Persian Gulf, which offers good compaction and strength, both vital for the project's success.

The rock was sourced from 16 quarries across the UAE, and when put in place, experienced divers inspected the stability of the rock formations beneath the water. It took 84 million cubic meters of sand and 7 million tonnes of rock to complete the Palm Jumeirah island, an enormous amount of raw material.

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Positioning the Palm Jumeirah island

Building a structure of this size also presents the challenge of knowing where to place the sand and rocks.

The perimeter of the Palm Jumeirah island is mainly curved. Therefore, ensuring that the correct shape is constructed is of paramount importance. Engineers used advanced GPS technology to precisely ensure that the sand and rock were positioned. A team would walk the island's perimeter every day, tracking the height and position of the islands, where mobile receivers would send a signal to a satellite and a fixed position on land.

This allowed engineers to monitor whether they were on track or not continuously and make adjustments as the project progressed. The breakwater and interior islands advanced at the same time. Due to the breakwater encircling the interior islands, it would not be easy to gain access to and deliver raw materials for the interior islands if it were completed first.

However, if the interior islands were constructed before the breakwater, they would not have the necessary protection from currents and waves. Therefore, GPS tracking played an essential role in ensuring synchronicity between the breakwater and island construction teams. Ready to build on. When the breakwater and island construction were complete, the engineering teams turned their attention to building the island's infrastructure and buildings.

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Interesting Facts about Palm Jumeirah

Here are interesting facts about the Palm Jumeirah island.

• Geometric Shape: Palm Jumeirah Island is designed in the shape of a date palm tree, making it a unique architectural marvel and a major tourist attraction in Dubai.
•  Diverse Projects: The island features a variety of projects including luxurious hotels, villas, shopping centers, restaurants, and residential and commercial buildings, providing ample facilities for tourists and residents alike
• Shopping and Entertainment Centers: Palm Jumeirah Island boasts renowned shopping centers such as The Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates, and The Atlantis, offering excellent opportunities for quality shopping, luxury retail experiences, and entertainment.
• Waterfront and Beaches: The island offers beautiful and pristine beaches, which are often chosen as destinations for relaxation and leisure activities. It provides amenities for water sports and floating services for visitors.
• Outstanding Architecture: In addition to its geometric shape, the island showcases remarkable architecture including hotels, villas, and residential buildings, representing modern and luxurious architectural designs.

The sand that forms the islands' base was sprayed into place, meaning it is loose and does not offer a good base to build on. Engineers also had to consider that Dubai is located on the edge of a major earthquake zone, and the risk of sand liquefying in an earthquake is a real danger. To prevent liquefaction, the sand must be compacted to 12 meters deep.

The process used to compact the sand is in vitro compaction, where probes drill holes into the ground across the island's surface. High-pressure water and air drive each probe into the ground. The probes are then vibrated, causing the surrounding earth to compact, and as the land sinks, more sand is pumped to maintain its height until the ground is rock solid. Building begins.

In March 2004, two and a half years into the Palm Jumeirah project, the engineering team was ready to begin constructing what would become one of the world's most iconic tourist destinations. The infrastructure will play a vital role in day-to-day life on the island and includes the construction of local bridges, drainage and sewage systems, water supply, gas networks, telecommunications, electrical supply, roads, streets, and port facilities. At the height of the construction of Palm Jumeirah, 850 buses transported 40,000 workers on and off the island on two 12-hour shifts.

These workers would go on to construct the homes, resorts, luxury hotels, and commercial properties that make up the island today. Environmental concerns. Early in the construction of the Palm Islands, it was determined that there was a risk of algae growth and the water becoming stagnant due to the interior islands being entirely encircled by the breakwater.

The lack of fresh water flowing into the channels around the fronds was the source of this problem. Engineers then decided to create several openings in the breakwater to allow the water to circulate more effectively without compromising the protection provided by the breakwater. Building such a large structure in the middle of the sea raised other environmental concerns.

Environmentalists stated that the island's construction would negatively impact the area's marine environment and risk burying oyster beds and coral reefs. Another impact is how the altered currents would affect the shoreline of the mainland, and studies have shown that tides have increased the rate of erosion.

Despite these setbacks and concerns, the island's developer did not give up on the project and took steps to replenish coral reefs and work to minimize the erosion of Dubai's coastline. Dubai's Palm Islands are engineering masterpieces that have helped transform what was once a small town into an international hub of luxury, travel, and business.

With more exciting projects on the horizon, such as the world's first rotation skyscraper, it is unlikely that Dubai will lose its position as one of the world's tourist hotspots any time soon.

Significant projects of Dubai

Here are some of the significant projects of Dubai: