The Great Fish Story - Property World ME

The Great Fish Rescue - Property World ME
That life shall not perish

Quoting the press release:

To link The Palm, Jumeirah´s spine (the stretch of land that runs up the centre of the fronds from the trunk) to the crescent, the masterplan called for a 1.4 kilometre long, 38 metre wide underwater tunnel to be built. The underwater vehicular tunnel will consist of three cells, the outer cells each accommodating three lanes of traffic and two pedestrian walkways, whilst the intermediate cell will be used for the accommodation of services and as an emergency evacuation route.
Akihiko Mochizuki, Project Manager for Taisei, the Japanese company contracted to build the tunnel, comments: “The first stage of constructing the tunnel was dredging a channel, building dam walls, and construction of sheet pile walls to create a cofferdam. The tunnel would then be constructed within the cofferdam.”

With the cofferdam almost complete and work due to commence on the construction of the tunnel the fragile ecosystem that had developed within the confines of the dam was in jeopardy. ´The method of tunnel construction required draining all the water from the area” says Najdat Othman, Resident Engineer for Parsons de Leuw Cather, Supervising Consultants on the project. “It was estimated that in the vicinity of five and a half million cubic metres of water would need to be discharged in just 45 days to enable the tunnel construction to commence” adds Mochizuki.

It was recognised at the outset that when the cofferdam was complete, marine life would be trapped within the dam’s walls. When discharging commenced, such life would perish.

Can't guess how this story ends? Click here for Chapter 2: The rest of the press release.