Faiz Al-Najdi Saudi Gazette RIYADH — A one-day technical symposium, under the theme “KSA Infrastructure Towards Excellence”, was held at Radisson Blu Hotel, Riyadh, recently with the participation of experts from Germany, Holland and Britain. The event was hosted by IQPC-Middle East and the proceedings were conducted by ECO-Saudi Arabia, a specialist company in construction solutions. IQPC (International Quality Productivity Center) is a global organization that is devoted and dedicated to leveraging a global research base of best practices to produce an unrivaled portfolio of problem-solving conferences. Each year IQPC offers approximately 2,000 worldwide conferences, seminars and related learning programs with a special emphasis on a host of fields and areas of interests, including engineering design and construction. IQPC now has offices in major cities across six continents including Berlin, Dubai, London, New York, Sao Paulo, Singapore, India, Sydney and Toronto. The symposium was attended by a large gathering consisting of professional engineers, architects and experts belonging to a number of local engineering consultants and contractors such as Saudi Oger, Riyadh Geotechnical & Foundations, ECO-KSA, Omrania, Zuhair Fayez, Dar Al-Riyadh and El-Seif. Professionals from Saudi organizations like ADA (Ar-Riyadh Development Authority), Riyadh Metro, Saudi Ministry of Transport, Riyadh Municipality, Saudi Electric Company (SEC) and several other government ministries also attended. Sami Zghonda, manager infrastructure design of ECO-KSA, moderated the proceedings. The symposium focused on modern techniques and solutions in the infrastructure design. Four technical presentations were made. Tim Dennis Tusar of Volkmann & Rossbach GmbH & Co.KG of Germany made the first presentation. His talk focused on the harmonized European Norm (EN 1317) and on the German guidelines “RPS” as decision guidance for Road Resistance Systems. It focused on the European Code of Practice vis-à-vis road and infrastructure safety designs. Raad Hamood of MAURER AG of Germany spoke on “Innovation in the technology of structural bridge bearings and expansion joints”. In a very educating and informative lecture, he touched on new technological improvements in bridge bearings and design. Michael White of EarthTec Middle East FZC, a UK-based international company, presented a paper entitled, “State of Practice of MSE Wall Design for Highway Structures in the Middle East”. He focused on issues related to MSE wall design standards, current international practices, and specification and design recommendations for use in the Middle East. Andre de Graff of Trelleborg Ridderkerk BV of Netherlands made the final presentation. He focused on “multiple building methods of underground transportation”. Andre covered topics such as principal concepts of tunneling, how to keep the tunnel watertight, and movements and settlements between joints. All the presentations were made using state-of-the-art multi-media techniques, including slide shows and videos. At the end of the presentations, the speakers fielded questions from the audience. The symposium concluded with a sumptuous lunch.
