The Palm Jumeirah

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The most amazing construction in the whole history of engineering that I

encountered is probably the Palm Jumeirah located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I am

so amazed on their newly processed construction methods since their project is to create

a new island in a country that is only abundant in oil and sand. Instead of making it as a

disadvantage for the country, it became the inspiration for the crown prince to pursue

the said project. The video that we searched was actually almost 1 hour in duration. It

shows the step by step construction process in three different phases. The reclamation of

land is where the hardest part of the construction of the whole city of Palm Jumeirah.

They were to create an island! Just imagining something like that is really impossible but

they did.

In the Reclamation phase, they needed precise work in every step in

constructing the said island and since the crown prince is somewhat a traditional type of

person, the engineers as well as the workers need to follow his demands and instructions.

The engineers actually want to have boulders as the based part of the island but because

the prince wants it to be sand so they used sand and that sand was not the sand you

usually see in some movies but it was dredged below the sea and applied through the

process of rainbowing. The rainbowing was not that simple since the ships that carries

the machine was calculated and monitored through satellites to be positioned in the exact

location to achieve the symmetrical design of the Palm Jumeirah that was also designed

by the prince. Aside from the construction itself, they also encountered the hindrance of

nature. One of the factor that the construction has a long duration is because of the natural
phenomena like typhoons. Large and strong impact of waves that might destroy the

ongoing construction but actually it was not that damage since they already anticipated

such possibilities in their calculations. After the reclamation process, the second and third

phase is where the building of infrastructures began. As we all know that in constructing

both vertical and horizontal structures need the soil to be compacted. Since the soil that

is used in the Palm Jumeirah is a sandy type, they needed to dig 200,000 holes through

the use of probes in order it to be compacted.

It took almost 6 years to finish the construction of the Palm Jumeirah but it

was really early to their desired date of completion. It is so peculiar that such construction

exists. I really can’t express it in words how amazed I was to the engineers and workers

in Dubai who was involved in the construction of the Palm Jumeirah. I salute them and I

hopefully wants to work with them.