History: HOW DUBAI’S PALM ISLAND WAS CONSTRUCTED— with documentaries

                 Dubai’s palm island

In August 2001, Dubai took off on a project to build one of the biggest islands in the world.this Island was built on a sea using only natural resources like sand and rock.the Project manager Robert Berger has been faced with a challenging task—to build an island on sea.

50 years ago, Dubai was a trading ground that survived mainly on their oil reserve over half a century later, it was transformed.


it was believed that by 2016, Dubai would run out of their only source of revenue–oil.
The crowned Prince  set on a 2 billion dollar plan to save his country. he looks forward in turning his Dubai into the number one luxury tourist centre.over the years, he’s plan has been in progress, he has successfully raised luxurious hotels like–

Now, the crowned Prince has an idea of mass tourism. 5 million people visit Dubai annually but now the Prince wants to triple the number of tourists to 15 million. 

But there was a problem, Dubai has no enough land mass to accommodate a large amount of tourists. then he came up with the idea of increasing their coast line and introducing an artificial island. the island has to take the shape of  a palm tree. it has to be made entirely from natural materials.


To achieve this height of innovation, they needed the most skillful engineers in the world, so a world search was made and a Dutch team from Holland was picked for the job.

The Engineers had to guarantee the defense of the island and ensure that the Island when erected would not collapse, so some studying took place. They had to calculate the strength of storms towards that area, the height of the waves and calculate the possible increase of the sea level incase of global warming.











Luckily,the research team worked out that the Arabian gulf is the best place to build this mega structure. the gulf is only 30 mitres deep and 160 kilometres wide that means its too short and too shallow to be disturbed by wave. 


To keep waves out of the Island, a break-water must be introduced and should be at least 3 metres high above the wave and 11 and half kilometres long. 

In 2001 the construction of the break-water commernces.Just With gravels and rocks, the wall had no steel biding the stones together. The wall was made to withstand the full force of the sea. it took the break wall 2 years to be completed.


Inorder to meet up with the scheduled time, the engineers decided to build the wall and create the island simultaneously.

Up view photo of the palm Island

On April 1st 2002, the first visual of the island is seen 3 metres above the sea. inorder to fill in the sea with sand, the needed a better sand for the job. it is  wave resistance to wave instainsity. 

They drained from the sae sea they worked on to fill up the ongoing island–this is cheaper because they spent no time and money transporting sands to the construction site. This is done with drainger and the process is called – ‘Rainbowing’.

At this point, there appears to be a problem, the engineers had to confirm if they are really progressing. they needed to know if the project is really taking the shape of a Palm tree.
676 kilometres up in space, Dubai has access to one of the privately owned satellite   in the world. with this, they were able to see what the ongoing palm island looked like.because the entire design relays on accuracy.


August 2002, there i a breakthrough, 8 kilometres of the break-water construction has gone through and 8 palm fonts of the palm island was visible.
behind schedule, the engineers knew the project should be done by 2006.

Just a year into the project, the walls and the island itself has been created,but the engineers are faced with the hardest tasks of all–making the island strong enough to build on, the palm island is only made of sand and sand is very unstable to build on unless it settles, but this would take a long time, and time here is on the essence.

The island to be safe for building and it has to be able to withstand earthquakes and avoid liquidation, it should be made rock-solid.






                            





















August 2003, the break water is complete and 500 million cubid metres of rock now holds back the force of the sea.
by October, the island filling is finished, 94 million cubid  metres of sand have been pumped into the sea to form a palm shaped island.Phase one of the project is over, now the engineers moved to the next phase– Construction.

A total of 4,500 houses has been estimated to be built on the island, this includes hotels and malls.because the sand on the island is loose and not compacted,the engineers face a serious problem, before construction starts, the engineers must find a way to compress the soil.

By January 2004 the engineers agreed on a method to compress the sand on the island, this process is known as vibro-compaction. with the help of 15 machines,holes were drilled on the ground,vibrating it.with this method, the ground is compacted.

 This method took the team 8 months to actualize.

in March 2004 the Palm island was ready to become a building site.they engineers begin to map out the water pipes, eletricity cables and the road connections. They built an entire city in just two years and the has never been attempted before.

This was a difficult task, because they were working with time.All the materials needed for the construction should arrive just in time to avoid set backs.
The palm Island was initially meant for 60 thousand people. but by 2004, the developers realised people loved the project so they doubled the capacity.

All the houses in the Palm Island was sold in 3 days after the release to the public with the most expensive being 1.2 million dollars.