Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Advanced Construction Technology Services (ACTS), a consulting organisation in the field of construction materials and geotechnical engineering, has announced that it has already allocated its geotechnical engineering experts to oversee the drilling and logging works, and to conduct testing and analysis, along two of the six metro lines being constructed in Riyadh. In addition, six drilling rigs and a range of state-of-the art geotechnical and geophysical equipment have also been mobilized for the project, with a total of 65 persons already deployed by ACTS.

ACTS was awarded one of the subcontract packages to carry out geotechnical and geophysical works on Riyadh Metro Lines 1 and 2 in support of the BACS (Saudi Arabian Bechtel, Almabani General Contractors and Consolidated Contractors Company WLL and Siemens Aktiengesellschaft) Consortium. BACS was awarded the contract by Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA), the executive branch of the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh. Currently ACTS is working on the north of Line 1, with the work encompassing drilling of boreholes, logging them using optical and acoustic tele-viewers and other advanced techniques, as well as assessing the subsurface ground layers. A scientific testing program is being carried out simultaneously on the extracted cores to assess soil properties.

ACTS – with its experience and technical expertise in the field – is fully geared to provide reliable geo-engineering data to the BACS Consortium through extensive geotechnical and geophysical work, and in line with this they have deployed all the necessary resources.

Mike Hann, Engineering Director, BACS, said, “ACTS was selected because of their demonstrated ability to perform to the project’s technical and schedule requirements. We are satisfied with their contribution to this critical project which demands outstanding performance from all the engineering parties and subcontractors.”
Engr. Khaled Awad, Chairman of ACTS, said, “These are exciting times for ACTS. The region is undergoing a massive infrastructure boom and ACTS has become the preferred choice in inspection, testing and geo-engineering works in critical and large-scale projects. Our involvement in the geotechnical engineering works of Riyadh Metro reinforces our commitment to excellence in all our services and our strategy of partnership with our clients for a successful completion of their projects.”

In parallel to the Riyadh Metro project, ACTS is undertaking quality control work for other megaprojects in the Middle East, including the King Abdulaziz International Airport and the Kingdom Tower, the world’s first kilometre-high skyscraper currently under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The company has recently become one of the largest drilling entities in the region after the recent expansion of its fleet of drilling rigs.

Since its establishment in 1996, ACTS has become a regional reference in construction consultancy services and a pioneer in achieving technological advancements in the materials and geo-engineering fields. The company is also the local sponsoring group of the American Concrete Institute (ACI), the world's leading authority on concrete construction and production, for its certification programmes in the Middle East.