That’s It for the Desert Road

The Sweihan Military Road Project, Sweihan, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Last week, we received the final payment of the Abu Dhabi Airport Project which yours truly was in charge of. We’re expecting our client to return our Performance Bond of the Project anytime soon. And that’ll be it, for the ADAC Project.

At the end of last year, we received all the payment for the Sweihan Military Road Project, another Project which yours truly was in charge of closing, which closed the project once and for all.

My two other ‘low-profile’ projects (due to them being executed completely by a partner/ specialist subcontractor), the ITS2020/1B and ITS2020/1C Projects are still running, in the background. But management is getting curious as to why we’re still having these 2 projects, which they know have been completed, umm… 3+ years ago, but are still generating income! That’s the beauty of maintenance projects! (The ITS2020 Projects have a separate construction phase (2 years) and maintenance phase (5 years)). They want them closed. OK, am on it, anyway.

This week, yours truly was transferred from my temporary role in the Dubai Island Bridge Project (building a new bridge across Dubai Creek), to another temporary role (or maybe permanent, which the company doesn’t seem to be able to confirm) in The Island Development Project, a mega-building project, aka the ‘biggest project our company currently has in the Middle East’, the construction of 4 ginormous luxury hotels, villas, spas and entertainment parks on a manmade island near the Burj Al Arab.

So, you could say that I’m in transition. Which I hope will be for the better. Fingers crossed. Pray for me willya? To be in a better position…

Meanwhile, here’s what the godforsaken Sweihan Military Road Project looks like. It’s a road in the middle of the Abu Dhabi desert, far off from all else, long neglected (and conveniently forgotten) by all, except yours truly (because I was entrusted to close it), with no one from the original team remaining (I think there may be some, but they’re all lying low, pretending not to know).


The starting point of the Project, (its western point, connecting to the Dubai-Abu Dhabi Truck Road or E75)


The Sweihan Military Road Project, or more accurately, ‘Internal Roads and Infrastructure for Military in Sweihan Area’ is a road project which started construction in 2013. I inherited the close out of this Project in 2019…


The problem with this Project is that although most of the stretch of this Project lies inside the area of Al Ain Municipality, the Contract was signed with Abu Dhabi Municipality. And it lies in a desolate area which serves only the odd camel farmer or two! As a result, none of the 2 municipalities seemed concerned with this forlorn stretch of road… Who’s gonna clear this sand away??


Oh, here comes some inhabitants! Hi, camels. It’s camels, or speeding cars (who come here to try out their drifting skills and stunts like that…) Yup, you guessed it, no police cameras!


And this WAS the ‘borrow area’ we ‘borrowed’ material from, for filling any low-lying areas to bring it up to the level needed for the road construction. I don’t know why we, construction people, call them ‘borrow pits’ as we never, ever return the materials. What? Dig it back out? They basically form the friggin base of the roads, OK?! I had to search for this friggin ‘borrow pit’ in the desert, 8 years after we were supposed to close them, and get our security bond back from the municipality. Yeah, we (my predecessors) forgot all about it, until our Finance Team asked about it! Somewhere in Al Ajban, 2021. I had to take photos for proof that we’ve tidied it all up! That’s why I was there!


Closing out this project sometimes felt like a scavenger hunt, in the vast Abu Dhabi desert. It brought me to places like Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Ajban (see photo above), Sweihan and Al Hiyar (which I found out, was the municipality in charge of the borrow area). The road between Al Hiyar and Sweihan, 2020


Oh, what’s that? Ziggurats in the desert??? On the E14, between Seih Al Sedeirah and the E75 Truck Road, Abu Dhabi Emirate, 2021

That’s it for now. Till I find time to post again. Super-busy, due to the multiple roles I’m doing!