THE RED SEA DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
“ The main challenges are the hyper inflation of commodities and container costs , which are pressurising projects globally ”
10,000 +
workforce onsite +
1,500 +
corporate employees
IAN WILLIAMSON CHIEF PROJECT AND DELIVERY OFFICER , THE RED SEA DEVELOPMENT COMPANY
“ They actually complement each other well , you can see guests coming to the Red Sea and exploring a bunch of alternative holiday destinations – there are exciting opportunities , as we create a ‘ Red Sea Riviera ’.
“ There ’ s so much beautiful coral and mangroves , and it ’ s rare to come across more than 90 islands with no man-made footprint .”
But that is all set to change , and TRSDC is acutely aware of the need to preserve the environment as much as possible .
“ We originally forecasted 50,000 workers on site , and looked at how we can get that down to 30,000 . Clearly the way to do that is manufacture as much as you can off site .
“ We ’ re working closely with Saudi Amana , which make prefinished ‘ boxes ’ and they can be entirely fabricated – from staircases to service ducts and lift shafts . You put all the components together like lego .”
Off-site manufacturing , involving timber , has also been evident with the first of its two hotels opening next year . “ It ’ s all delivered to us flat-packed and you can have a villa up within a week . There is no cutting or adjustments on site . The more we can bring in that ’ s largely completed , and use finishing trades to put together , the more we can reduce the footfall on the islands .”
90 February 2022