Skip to main content

Volvo CE machines in the heat of Qatar

Construction machines from Volvo CE are helping to build a city in the desert in Qatar. The equipment is being used to build the sustainable city of Lusail, located to the north of Doha, Qatar. In temperatures reaching up to 50°C, over 240 Volvo machines have been hard at work, coping with 24-hour days, based on a three-shift cycle building a city designed to support 250,000 residents. Part of Qatar’s Vision 2030, which aims to transform the Middle Eastern state into a society capable of achieving
May 14, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
The Volvo CE machines are coping with Qatar’s tough climate

Construction machines from 359 Volvo CE are helping to build a city in the desert in Qatar

The equipment is being used to build the sustainable city of Lusail, located to the north of Doha, Qatar. In temperatures reaching up to 50°C, over 240 Volvo machines have been hard at work, coping with 24-hour days, based on a three-shift cycle building a city designed to support 250,000 residents. Part of Qatar’s Vision 2030, which aims to transform the Middle Eastern state into a society capable of achieving sustainable development by 2030, Lusail City represents an ambitious vision for the future of Qatar. Turning this vision into a reality, Lusail is being fitted with a district cooling system, featuring 175km of piping. This will be one of the world’s largest central cooling systems.

This will save an estimated 200,000tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, limiting the harmful effects on the ozone layer. Moreover, a 24km waste pipe is being laid underneath the city, as an advanced and efficient way of disposing of human waste to recycling and treatment plants outside of the city.

To encourage residents to adopt a sustainable lifestyle, a light railway, water-taxi system and underground pedestrian tunnels are also being constructed, promoting alternative means of travel. Lusail has been under construction since 2009, and more than 45,000 workers are on site/day. A number of Volvo CE excavators, ADTs, wheeled loaders and soil compactors are on site daily, clearing room for foundations and underground tunnels. Although digging through the porous sandstone is tough work, it is the intense heat that provides the biggest challenge. “All machines must be equipped with air-conditioning units and operators are instructed to take regular breaks to prevent fatigue and heatstroke,” said Hadi Kaii, machine owner and Volvo CE customer at EIB Qatar.

Related Content

  • Vital drainage and geosynthetics works in Mexico
    May 23, 2014
    A vital and novel highway drainage project in Mexico could provide the key to reducing the nation’s water scarcity, as Guy Woodford reports. A rare highway drainage project in downtown Monterrey, Mexico has created a sustainable blueprint for rainwater re-use that could help to tackle the country’s water scarcity problems.
  • Volvo CE’s latest asphalt compactor offers oscillation
    October 2, 2018
    Volvo CE is expanding its offering for the asphalt compaction market with the availability of a new model that features oscillation. The firm says that the DD 105 OSC is first of a new generation of double drum asphalt compactors from the firm that it says have been developed to deliver high compaction performance while offering a low fuel consumption. Offering oscillation type compaction is a major development for Volvo CE, a package that broadens the firm’s road machinery range. The advantage of the osci
  • Volvo CE US$100 million Americas expansion
    March 22, 2013
    Volvo Construction Equipment president Pal Olney stressed the long-term importance to the company of the North American market while formally recognising the industry giant’s US$100 million expansion programme at its Shippensburg, Pennsylvania facility. Olney cut the ribbon to officially open Volvo CE’s new Americas’ headquarters building. The event also saw the unveiling of the first wheeled loader to roll off the Shippensburg site’s cutting edge assembly line. On the significance of the two big landmarks,
  • Uretek delivers voided soils treatment for UK’s M3 Smart Motorway
    February 8, 2018
    Ground engineering specialist Uretek has been treating voided soils as part of maintenance following completion of the UK’s M3 Smart Motorway project. Work is between junctions 2 and 4a where Uretek has provided a non-disruptive alternative to conventional underpinning to solve foundation subsidence problems. The focus for Uretek is an old 900mm corrugated pipe, 73m long. The old pipe has had a new 700mm pipe inserted inside. However, the old pipe is rusting and rapidly deteriorating.