Covering 10,000sq.m - they were built in a row and all featured 7m cantilevered ends for their entrances. One was used as an exhibition hall (showcasing Saudi Aramco's story in historic images, detailed timelines and displays of the company's key operations), the second as a presentation area and the third was the King's Palace.
Under the patronage of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and the leaders of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Saudi Aramco kicked off its 75th Anniversary celebration with government officials, company executives, employees and invited guests gathering to welcome the King and various Gulf leaders from other states at the Structures.
Serious and Atlantic air freighted the 813 tonnes of kit - pulled from over 800 stock lines - needed to build the Structures from the UK via London's Heathrow airport, Amsterdam, Luxemburg and Brussels, utilizing a total of 22 cargo planes. Some were dedicated exclusively to the Serious equipment and others were part loads.
Atlantic's Shane McCarthy, along with Steven Corfield of Serious, project managed and negotiated the whole event direct with Saudi Aramco. John Wilson of Special Projects was appointed the site manager. Over 50 crew were dispatched, and the structures were built over a three-week period in temperatures of up to 45 degrees. Crew chiefs were Jeremy Mosdell and Dave Fletcher. Together with Simon Carr, they all took care of management and logistics once on site in Dhahran.
Serious had to manufacture an additional 2000m of decking and Space Structure to add to its stock at short notice to complete the job. They also designed and fabricated several bits of special kit to accommodate some of the exhibition components. This aspect was covered by Julian Vowles of Serious using 12 separate manufacturers, working double shifts to ensure all the materials were produced to the very tight time schedules.
(Jim Evans)
