Question

Hamad International Airport was built on artificial land that was reclaimed from the gulf waters. This project reclaimed more than 60 million m³ sand in less than 2 years. This project is one of the most innovative land reclamation projects in Middle East.

Based on your knowledge; answer the following questions:                                                                                   

1. What type of dredger(s) can be used in the presence of sand material?   

2. What type(s) of dredging methods can be used? why?                                                                       

3. Identify five different type of risk categories with its examples that might be involved in this project using the table below;

Answer 1

1.>

Type of dredgers that can be used in presence of sand materials are:

(i) Suction Dredgers:

These are generally employed to remove sand or silt deposits from the seabed. They have a vertical suction pipe, which is pushed vertically inside the sand deposit and dredged material is sucked with or without water jet. The dredged material is laden into barges or can directly to the reclamation area.

These suction dredgers can be of two types viz. profile or plain suction Dredgers and Cutting Suction Dredgers. Rest of the working and design of cutter suction dredger is similar to the plain suction dredger but has the only difference that cutter suction dredger is equipped with a cutting tool which may be swinging arc.

(ii) Water Injection Dredger:

It is a self-driven dredger which excavates sediments with strong water jets. Strong water jet converts the sediments into suspension, as this suspension is heavier than water, it is carried away by water currents and gravity and disposed-off at a specific site. This type of dredger is generally used to dredge mud or fine sand bottoms and are more commonly used for harbour maintenance.

2.>

The are basically two approaches to dredging, mechanical and hydraulic. Mechanical dredging involves removing sediment with machinery usually with a bucket of some type. The most common types are an excavator or clamshell bucket. Hydraulic dredging includes the use of a pump, usually barge mounted, to move material in a slurry via a pipeline. Both can be very practical and efficient depending on the material type, depth, and location of its destination.

Hydraulic dredging is very cost effective if the sediment is being placed nearby (within a few thousand feet) and there is an area large enough to dewater the slurry and return the clean water. Dewatering technology has improved with the use of dewatering systems or geotextile tubes but the amount of water demands some area to work within.

Mechanical dredging is quick and accurate but is often limited to reach from the shoreline or barge. Long reach excavators can reach from 50-70 feet and draglines a little further but less accurately. Barge mounted machinery must load material into a hopper barge for transport to land.

3>.

Different types of risk categories that might be involved in this project are:

1. Operational Risk: Risks of loss due to improper process implementation, failed system or some external events risks. Examples can be Failure to address priority conflicts, Insufficient resources or No proper subject training etc.

2. Schedule Risk: Project schedule get slip when project tasks and schedule release risks are not addressed properly. Schedule risks mainly affect on project and finally on company economy and may lead to project failure

3. Budget Risk: Wrong budget estimation or Project scope expansion leads to Budget / Cost Risk. This risk may lead to either a delay in the delivery of the project or sometimes even an incomplete closure of the project.

4. Business Risk: Non-availability of contracts or purchase order at the start of the project or delay in receiving proper inputs from the customer or business analyst may lead to business risks.

5. Technical Environment Risk: These are the risks related to the environment under which both the client and the customer work. For example, constantly changing development or production or testing environment can lead to this risk.

6. Infrastructure Risk: Improper planning of infrastructure / resources may lead to risks related to slow network connectivity or complete failure of connectivity at both the client and the customer sites. So, it is important to do proper planning of infrastructure for the efficient development of a project.

7. Quality and Process Risk: This risk occures due to

1. Incorrect application of process tailoring and deviation guidelines
2. New employees allocated to the project not trained in the quality processes and procedures adopted by the organization

8. Resource Risk: This risk depends on factors like Schedule, Staff, Budget and Facilities. Improper management of any of these factors leads to resource risk.

9. Technical and Architectural Risk: These types of risks generally generally leads to failure of functionality and performance. It addresses the hardware and software tools & supporting equipments used in the project. The risk for this category may be due to — Capacity, Suitability, usability, Familiarity, Reliability, System Support and deliverability.

Apart from the above mentioned project risks, there is a common type of risk: Project Management Risk. This risk is related to following attributes:

a.Project Planning

b.Project Organization

c.Management Experience & Program Interfaces

d.Delay in getting approval for some of the work products from the customer or more requirement changes