Even though just 14 per cent of construction on the Palm-shaped Islands has been completed, the outline is startling to glisten in the Arabian Gulf.<\/p>\n
“What is really coming to light now is that the structure is taking shape and visibly rising,” Jim Boocher, president of project developer Kerzner Development, told the Gulf News. <\/p>\n
“When we open, visitors will be awed by what they see.” <\/p>\n
To illustrate the scale of the operation, Bahamas-based Kerzner has put together a project which would dwarf the building of the Pyramides.<\/p>\n
Around 16 tower cranes are in place, Phase I of the resort’s 2,000 piles and associated foundation works have been completed and the concrete superstructure of the main Royal Tower Hotel and Entert-ainment Village is rising from the sand. <\/p>\n
The massive concrete structure for the Ambassador Tank lagoon has also been finished.<\/p>\n
In the building frenzy, nearly 6,500 labourers will be at work on the site during peak hours, Gulf News revealed.<\/p>\n
The Dubai development is the second Atlantis project launched by Kerzner \uff96 the Paradise Island complex was the first \uff96 and is a 50-50 joint venture with Istithmar PJSC, a subsidiary of Dubai Gover-nment’s Port, Customs and Free Zone Corporation.<\/p>\n
When the Phase I is finished in 2008, it will house 65,000 marine animals and 1,539 hotel guests, according to the Gulf News report. <\/p>\n
It will also feature an underwater maze, 42 acres of water parks and a series of shops and convention facilities.<\/p>\n
Kerzner will then decide the shape and theme of a planned Phase II and Phase III of the project. Early indications suggest condominiums and apartments will be added along with increased hotel space and an expanded water-park.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest chall-enges for Kerzner has been the sheer size of the logistical problems. <\/p>\n
Project Developer, President Boocher, told the Gulf News that the company is using a million cubic metres of imported fill to build up the land to a maximum of 12 metres above sea level on the Palm-shaped islands.<\/p>\n
The Nassau Guardian<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The legendary lost city of Atlantis is starting to take shape in Dubai \uff96 a $1.5 billion mega resort to blow away Kerzner’s Paradise Island playground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}