Danish engineering company to design new district in Mecca for 100,000 people

COWI will pocket a three-digit-million paycheck for the giant project

Lucie Rychla

The Danish engineering and consulting group COWI will design a brand new city district in Mecca, which one day should accommodate some 100,000 people.

It is one of the biggest and most prestigious contracts in the industry, reports Børsen, and COWI will receive a check in the three-digit-million range for the giant project.

The King Abdul Aziz Road district will cover an area twice as big as Ørestad in Copenhagen and include 200 buildings, including hotels, office buildings and a new mosque.

The neighbourhood will stretch from the outskirts of the holy city to the world’s largest mosque, Masjid al-Ḥarām.

Setting infrastructure in place
COWI will be responsible for planning and designing all the infrastructure, from roads and a new metro line, down to water and power supplies.

“The area has to be ready so that developers can start building, and we have to make sure that all the infrastructure is in place and can support the construction work, ” Jotham Vizard, the head of tunnel and underground projects at COWI, told Børsen.

In the past eight years, some 3,600 dilapidated buildings near the centre of Mecca have been demolished to create space for the new pedestrian-friendly area.

Two weeks ago, COWI signed another major contract in Sweden, where the engineering group will design a complete rail network around Stockholm.

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