Medinah Station, KSA

Flood Prevention

SDS stormwater attenuation scheme facilitates safe rail travel from Islam’s holy city of Medinah to Mecca.

Overview

The 460km long Haramain High Speed Rail link represents one of the most important transport projects in the expansion programme of the Saudi railway network.

The main objective of the circa US$11 billion programme is to enable holy pilgrimages and local Saudi tourists to travel with ease between the country’s primary destinations and conurbations, relieving pressure on busy roads connecting Mecca and Medinah.

UK involvement in the project includes the design of the stations by British architects in a joint-venture between Foster & Partners and Buro Happold.

Commissioned by Saudi Bin Ladin Group, in consortium with Yapi Merkezi and on behalf of Saudi Railways Organisation, our brief was to supply and install surface water and sustainable drainage systems. Construction took place from 2009 to 2013 and the railway begins operations in 2014.

Medinah Station, together with four other ultra-modern stations, will be capable of handling around 60 million passengers per year currently and circa 135 million by 2042.

What we did

SDS was required to provide a solution to sudden and dramatic rainfall that generates substantial volumes of surface water in a small amount of time.

Having challenged the client’s original intention to install one large concrete tank, both expensive to build and complex to install, SDS demonstrated that its geocellular tanks could exceed the engineering expectations of the system, while delivering substantial cost savings. Approvals were awarded by the multiple contracting organisations.

Three bespoke GEOlight® attenuation tanks, providing 3,000m³ combined capacity of surface and roof water runoff, were installed.

Results

In fulfilling the advantages of its “turnkey” service, SDS project managers worked alongside local labourers in high ambient temperatures to ensure the tanks were installed to the timescales required by the contract.

This project has led to further opportunities in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for similar large-scale transportation projects, including the extension of the High-Speed Railway into Turkey as it expands its route westwards across Europe.