AECOM wins project management contract for Saudi Arabia’s NEOM
AECOM has been appointed to design transport and utilities backbone infrastructure for NEOM, a new model for urbanisation and sustainability located in the Northwest region of Saudi Arabia. In addition to design services, AECOM’s scope will also include environmental and geotechnical support.
“We are excited to be playing such a pivotal part in delivering one of the world’s largest and most complex infrastructure projects,” said Lara Poloni, AECOM’s president. “As the centerpiece of Saudi Vision 2030, NEOM will become one of the world’s leading destinations to attract talent and investment and drive economic change in the Kingdom. Our global multi-disciplinary team of experts will bring together a diverse set of skills to deliver a sustainable project that will connect communities and create thousands of jobs across Saudi Arabia.”
NEOM will support an economy that is oriented to the future. Providing a new model for urbanisation and sustainability, it will include hyper-connected towns and cities, ports and enterprise zones, entertainment venues and tourist destinations.
Speaking about the agreement, Brett Smythe, Chief Projects Officer of NEOM, said: “NEOM’s next generation cognitive cities will support its cutting-edge urban environments, improving the lives of residents and businesses far beyond the capabilities of today’s smart cities. It will be a beacon for future living. We are pleased to have one of the world’s leaders in AECOM helping to create the primary and base infrastructure to support our ambitious vision.”
Bill Price, program director at AECOM, said: “In order to accelerate the delivery of this transformative project, our global team will be using the latest innovations to deliver a 100% digital design. Digital tools will play a vital role in the collaborative approach and stakeholder engagement, with quickly produced visualisations that are built from live design data that is geospatial accurate, enabling and unlocking the power of a data-driven design.”
Digital will play a key role in delivering the core scope of services within the program requirements, as well as achieving the vision for technological advancement. The delivery team will adopt a data-led process, providing information-rich 3D models and geospatial data. The digital delivery processes will also enable collaboration across global teams and provide them with the tools to efficiently design for construction.
This contract builds on AECOM’s appointment in July 2019 to provide project management consultancy services for phase 1 construction in NEOM.
Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority implements AI-Enabled Building Management System
Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority (DSOA), the regulatory body for Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), announced it has successfully upgraded its existing Integrated Building Management System (IBMS) that looks after 40 buildings within Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) to an Artificial Intelligence enabled IBMS.
The system connects almost 60,000 points of control from all the buildings and plants, including the DSOA headquarters, six office towers, the cedre shopping centre, the operations and facilities centre, light industrial units, two residential complexes, Al Waha Mosque, and Dubai Digital Park project, through a Local Area Network (LAN) and using Tridium’s Niagara Framework to integrate all the digital data streams available across the network. Data is aggregated centrally and analyzed through an artificial intelligence-enabled approach, with algorithms designed to recognize and react to patterns. Every data point in the building portfolio is consolidated into a single system to optimize information management and decision-making.
Leveraging state-of-the-art technology, the IBMS has helped DSOA save approximately AED1mn per month. This number takes into consideration both a reduction in energy usage and reduction in facilities manpower.
More specifically, the benefits of the new system include a significant reduction in energy saving totaling 36% per year and the number of operators required to manage the 40 buildings – from 110, to five. Furthermore, the software is based on a framework that integrates a range of devices, regardless of manufacturer or communication protocol, hence allowing DSOA greater flexibility.
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