Wednesday, November 25, 2009
The Palm Islands are artificial islands in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where commercial and residential infrastructure will be built. The islands are the largest land reclamation project in the world and formed the largest artificial islands in the world. They are being constructed by Nakheel Properties, a property developer in the United Arab Emirates, who hired the Dutch dredging contractor Van Oord, one of the well-known experts in land reclamation. The islands are The Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira.
The islands are created by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is aimed to enhance tourism in Dubai. Each island will be shaped like palm trees, topped with a crescent, and will have a large number of residential, leisure and entertainment centers. The Palm Islands are located off the coast of United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf and will add 250 km of beaches to the city of Dubai.
The first two islands will comprise approximately 100 million cubic meters of rock and sand. Palm Deira about 1 billion cubic meters of rock and sand. All materials come from the UAE. In the three islands there will be more than 100 luxury hotels, exclusive villas and beach apartments, marinas, water theme parks, restaurants, shopping malls, sports facilities and health spas.
Palm Jumeirah began in June 2001. Then, the Palm Jebel Ali was announced and reclamation work began. The Palm Deira, the planned area of 46.35 square meters and building company, Nakheel, claims exceeded the extent of Paris, construction began in 2003. Development will be completed for the next 10-15 years.
The Palm Islands are artificial peninsulas constructed of sand dredged from the bottom of the Persian Gulf by the Belgian company Jan De Nul and the Dutch company Van Oord. The sand is sprayed by the dredging ships, which are guided by DGPS, onto the required area using a process known as rainbowing because its shape when the sand is sprayed. Outer side of each Palm are formed crescent is a large rock breakwater. Breakwater of the Palm Jumeirah has over 7 tons of stone. Each stone is placed by a tackle, guided by a diver and provide GPS coordinates. Jan De Nul Group started work on the Palm Jebel Ali in 2002 and completed in late 2006. Reclamation project Palm Jebel Ali includes the creation of 4 km long peninsula, protected by a breakwater along the width of 200m and 17 km which was built around the island. 135,000,000 m³ of rock, sand and gravel reclaimed (partly originating from dredging Jebel Ali Entrance Channel). There are approximately 5,000,000 m³ of stone breakwater in the valley beneath the sea.