The Civil Engineering Contractor November 2018 | Page 12

CONTRACTORS ON SITE
Skyscraper for Egypt’s new capital city
mall, hotels, and amenities such as schools and hospitals, as
well as providing homes.
China State Construction Engineering Corporation will
develop the 345m-high skyscraper and at the moment,
geologists are surveying the geological conditions of the
construction ground, preparing statistics for architects to
design the tower. Construction work will start in four to
six months’ time after the geological survey. The project is
estimated to be finished within 3.5 years at the most.
The project is classified as a public-private partnership
and bids are invited for pre-qualification. The new city is
being billed as a smart city in the desert, boasting greenery
and luxury housing. The government is set to relocate to the
as-yet-unnamed city in 2019, with the alternative capital
spanning 700km 2 , making it almost as large as Singapore,
and intended to house five million people. Plans show an
expanse of high-rises and residential buildings, as well as a
government district all stationed around a central green river:
a combination of open water and planted greenery twice the
size of New York’s Central Park.
Foreign embassies are also encouraged to relocate, and
businesses will be lured to a central business district of 20
Chinese-built skyscrapers. nn
Construction of a skyscraper is planned for a new capital
city between Cairo and the Suez Canal in Egypt — a project
worth USD3-billion. The new city is meant for low- and
middle-income earners and will include an airport, shopping
Cairo has become claustrophobic as its population growth has
accelerated.
An Ethiopian cargo ship has docked in the Eritrean Port
of Masawa for the first time in about two decades, an
Ethiopian state-linked broadcaster has tweeted. Ethiopia’s
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was in Eritrea at the time for
talks with President Isaias Afwerki, after the two leaders
signed an agreement in July to end the ‘state of war’
between the two countries.
The visit is seen as vital in landlocked Ethiopia’s efforts
to gain access to Eritrea’s ports for the first time since the
1998–2000 border conflict that killed tens of thousands of
people. The ship arrived from Saudi Arabia, according to a
tweet by a privately owned Ethiopian news site. Integration
with the transport system of Eritrea is key to Ethiopia’s
plans to rapidly expand its infrastructure. nn
10 | CEC November 2018
Historic moment as Ethiopian
ship docks in Eritrea
Eritrea has been off limits to Ethiopia commerce for 20 years.
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