Scaling the heights of Dubai

Thomas Barry can remember the days before gleaming glass and steel skyscrapers dotted the Dubai horizon. When he first arrived in the mid-1970s, the city was still trying to shake off its sleepy, backwater image. Now, more than three decades later, the executive director and general manager of Arabtec Holdings has seen Dubai grow into a 21st-century wonderland of architecture design with landmark projects such as the Palm Islands and the world's tallest building, Burj Dubai.

At 160 storeys, the Dh14 billion (US$3.8bn) Burj is one of Arabtec's iconic structures, but then Mr Barry is no stranger to tall buildings. Back in 1976, a fledging Arabtec was involved in building Dubai's tallest building at the time - The Pearl, a Dh24.9m, 17-storey structure. "It's still there," said Mr Barry of The Pearl. "That was before they built the trade centre, which was subsequently higher, but back in 1976 The Pearl was the tallest building in Dubai. So we built the tallest building then, and we're building the tallest one now," he added with a smile.

Initially, Mr Barry was persuaded to leave the UK for the emirate by Riad Kamal, the chairman of Arabtec. From humble beginnings, Arabtec has grown into one of the largest construction companies in the Middle East. The firm went public in 2004, and its projects range from villas to skyscrapers, hotels to exhibition centres and hospitals to airport terminals. With a solid reputation, the company is now able to pick and choose its projects instead of being involved in the bidding process. Even so, in September of last year Arabtec decided to put on hold new projects for the next six months.

The decision was made after the company was awarded the Dh4.6bn contract to build a kilometre-long grandstand and a five-star hotel at the new Meydan Racecourse on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Although the main structural work on the Burj Dubai was nearing completion, the Meydan project was starting to soak up a large proportion of Arabtec's workforce of 52,000. "We have to do our planning very carefully," Mr Barry said. "When we're invited to build a project, we look carefully at when that project is actually going to start so that we can determine if we'll have resources available to start and complete it on time.

"We have a system in the company that identifies where all our staff are, and when they'll be available. We also continue to recruit and are bringing in new people all the time to cater for the demands of our current and future projects." But while Arabtec has stamped its mark on the Dubai skyline, there have been problems on the ground. Last November, the company made headlines when thousands of construction workers on the Burj Dubai staged a walkout over pay. The strike lasted for almost a week and sent Arabtec shares plunging by 7.3 per cent.

Then in April, Arabtec won its largest contract - a Dh10bn deal to build a skyscraper for the Russian energy giant Gazprom in St Petersburg. The company's share price in turn climbed by 1.3 per cent, to Dh15.85. "Essentially, we'll be setting up a completely new team there," Mr Barry said, adding that building work would start on the development next year. "We're looking at forming relationships with companies in St Petersburg and Eastern Europe that will allow us to successfully construct that project - we're not going to mobilise labour from here, although we'll send specialist people that are familiar with high-rise construction."

Arabtec's expansion overseas - it is also working on projects in Jordan, Qatar, Syria and Pakistan - is partly the result of pressure from the boardroom. "From the very onset of going public, our shareholders on the board insisted that the strategy for the company should be to expand geographically," said Mr Barry. "Even though the volume of work available to us in Dubai was of such a magnitude that we could have survived here alone, it was the old philosophy of not having all your eggs in one basket."

In Dubai, the company has suffered delays in key projects such as the Burj. Rising material costs and a shortage of high-quality subcontractors have been the major problems. "Delivery on time is a struggle for many projects - sometimes the schedules are ambitious," added Mr Barry. "But there are many factors that affect the progress of buildings, particularly nowadays. There has been a scarcity of materials, particularly rebar and cement, and of course the cost of those has risen dramatically over the last couple of years, affecting the cost of building here in Dubai.

"The other problem we face is availability of subcontractors who can cope with the magnitude of the projects that are being undertaken in Dubai, or in Abu Dhabi. I don't think subcontractors have expanded to the extent contractors have in terms of their own resources, so they don't have sufficient resources to meet the schedule, which means we struggle on a number of projects when it comes to completion."

@Email:agiuffrida@thenational.ae