The Ribbon retail project being developed by Union Properties in Dubai is set to complete by the end of October. The retail complex, which is situated at Dubai Motor City, encountered early difficulties related to existing infrastructure services. However, Union Properties and its main contractor, Fujairah National Construction (FNC), told Construction Week that The Ribbon would now be handed over either during the third or fourth quarter of this year. Commenting on the initial delays, Marwan Hatahet, UP’s senior manager – projects, said: “We [arrived at] the project in April 2014.We had a few surprises at the beginning. There was a Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) high-voltage cable passing underneath the spot where we intended to install The Ribbon’s substation. Because of this, we had to relocate the HV cables, and also, the chamber that provides chilled-water supply.”
The infrastructure-related difficulty arose due to deviations between site plans. Luai Alrantisi, FNC’s construction manager at The Ribbon, said that these discrepancies resulted in a number of fixable but frustrating challenges.“We had to make a number of special changes at the site,” he said. “A number of services had already been installed for the area before we arrived, like irrigation pipes, power cables, and water pipes. In July, there was a big explosion of a water pipe here. A big explosion; it was a six-inch pipe. It lasted for three hours, and a lot of water came out. This stopped work here for some time.” Hatahet added: “You could say that we really started work from September 2014. It took a few months to set up, but now hopefully, handover will take place by the end of September or October during the final quarter of 2015 for sure.’’
