Week of 25 July
1. One façade completed, one to go (Qatar)
The façade panel installation of the first Lusail tower has been successfully completed! The façade of the second Lusail tower is planned to be completed next week. You might recall that this Foster + Partners design is as beautiful as it is technically challenging: the tower façades – clad in marine-grade aluminum – are designed in response to the sun with projecting profiles that wrap around the building, shading the glazing from the harsh sun. The elliptical footprints of the towers morph through 90-degrees as they rise up, gently shifting the viewing axis outward and offering stunning views of the surrounding city and waterfront. The construction of these two towers combined is the largest façade project ever undertaken by the group.
As you can see, works are progressing well. Next milestones are to complete full core and shell works before the World Cup. Congratulations & best of luck for these coming milestones!
2. One patient every 6 minutes: Cairns Hospital Emergency Department ready for major upgrade (Australia)
Cairns Hospital is the largest major referral hospital in Far North Queensland and its Emergency Department is one of the busiest in the State. It cares on average for 233 people per day or one patient every six minutes! BESIX Watpac has been awarded the redevelopment of the Emergency Department. The redevelopment will add 164m² of new facility, upgrade and reconfigure 1,152m² of the existing emergency department. This upgrade is part of the Australian government initiative to increase health services in the region by optimising existing infrastructure. BESIX Watpac’s capabilities in the health sector is well-known, the company has delivered multiple award-winning health, science, and research facilities in the past decade.
3. Commercial contract signed for the Tarkwa Water Supply Project (Ghana)
An important milestone has been reached in the development of the Tarkwa Water Supply Project: last week, BESIX and its partner Denys have signed a commercial agreement with the Ghana Water Company Ltd, the state-owned company responsible for potable water supply to all urban communities in Ghana. The project includes the design and construction of new production facilities at the Tarkwa Bonsa plant, which would provide 200,000 people with drinking water. Congratulations to the many colleagues who have contributed to reaching this milestone. Next on the agenda: securing the financing. Best of luck!
4. Time capsule embedded into foundations of the Rail Baltica Central Station (Latvia)
Last week, all parties involved in the Rail Baltica project (European Commission, representatives of all 3 Baltic States, railway operators and contractors) have buried a time capsule in the foundation of the new station building grounds, to leave a message for future generations. BESIX was represented by Mathieu Dechamps (General Manager BU International), who you can see leaving a note for the time capsule in the pictures below, and by Xavier Debruche, our Project Director. As member of the JV BERERIX, we inserted a copy of the day newspaper and two pieces of artwork from the children's drawing competition we organised in May 2022, visualising today's children's predictions of what the future Rail Baltica train in Riga would look like. BERERIX responsibilities cover the new central station building as well as a major railway bridge on the Daugava River, the railway embankments and track works.
And then this… Presidential praise for BESIX (Montenegro)
Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović paid tribute to the outgoing Belgian Ambassador Konrad Adam, who was based in Belgrade and a non-resident ambassador to Montenegro. In his statement, the President said that in view of the excellent impression BESIX is making in the country, he wishes that the economic relations between the two countries will be strengthened. Mr. Adam was a non-resident ambassador, but every time he came to Montenegro, he took the time to visit our project site, as on these pictures in Lustica Bay. Congrats to our colleagues from Montenegro: it's not every day that we get such presidential praise. And it's because of the excellent work they do!
