How The World’s Best Construction Management Software Helped Build Dubai International Airport – Concourse A

When people think of Dubai airport, images of state of the art structures and technology come to mind.  As the world’s largest international airport in passenger terms (over 70 million at the time of the project and over 88 million in 2017), the need for associated projects to be on time and on budget was absolutely essential.  After all, the measure of success for the Air Travel Industry is exactly the same as the construction industry in terms of schedule and budget and they insists on getting the very best from their contractors.
Concourse A was no small project, consisting of 20 gates, 18 of which now cater to the enormous Airbus A380. Adding complication to the project was the fact that it was to be housed entirely within the active airport area (known in the industry as ‘Airside’) which in turn meant it had the potential to severely impact day to day operations and indeed flight safety, if not very tightly (you could say in this case, faultlessly) managed.

The task of completing the project was awarded to ALEC and ALEC FITOUT, who took responsibility for the overall coordination of the project and the various subcontractors and associated works. Having vast experience in major projects, these seasoned Contractors utilised Candy and BuildSmart, the world’s leading estimating and Construction software, to seamlessly link the end-to-end works together and deliver this USD1.2 Billion project within just 29 months.  For those who are in the construction industry, what’s far more important than the simple numbers is knowing that the USD1.2 billion represented ‘on budget’ and that the 29 months duration equated to ‘on time’, the 2 most important and indeed critical elements required to class a build as a success.
The master contractors for this project were acutely aware that such a high-profile project was going to be under the microscope of not only the customer directly, but also the world.  Projects with this high a profile are, of course, extremely desirable but carry considerable risk to both reputation and financial well-being if they are not delivered faultlessly.

As with most modern construction projects, the secret to success was ensuring the entire end-to-end activity was coordinated and managed expertly from initial tender at estimation, right through breaking ground, controlling of variations and final handover.  By choosing RIB CCS’s Candy and BuildSmart, they were able to employ the very best in proven Project Management Software that not only fed the Cost & Enterprise Management Software but worked alongside it through the project to allow early identification and deep drilling into any variations as they were occurring.  This deep drill and integrated facility is one of the key factors that keep the world’s most successful building and construction professionals at the very top of their trade and makes them advocates and promoters of the world’s best construction management software, RIB CCS’s Candy and BuildSmart software applications.