CIVIL & INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS
MAIN STATIONS OF RIYADH, HOFUF, AND DAMMAM  -   SAUDI ARABIA

Client: S.R.O. - Saudi Railway Organization

Services: Preliminary, final and construction design, works supervision

Period: 1982 - 1992

Construction cost: € 34,654,258

The project:

In the context of the new direct  railway line between the capital city of Riyadh and Damman, already under contract to Technital, in 1982 S.R.O. commissioned Technital with the task of designing the three railway stations of Riyadh, Hofuf, and Dammam. The works on the three stations, directed by Technital, were contracted in 1983 and completed in 1992. 

From a technical point of view, the station of Riyadh is decidedly the most important. The complex of railway facilities extends throughout a vast area involving a 4 km. stretch of the railway line from Hofuf.  At the beginning of this last  4 km. stretch from Hofuf, a marshalling yard was foreseen to the left of the main line, in order to permit stops and the composition of freight trains which, according to the original scheme, were to reach Dammam by way of the line for Al Kharj and Haradh leaving the new line principally to passenger trains.  The station plan has a total of 10 tracks.

The layout of the infrastructures was studied in order to give maximum importance to the station building while permitting optimization of the available space, connections with  city access roads to the station, and the location of the parking lot and pedestrian transit.  The parking areas include spaces for passenger use, a taxi zone, a bus zone, and a special parking area for representative  vehicles. The station building is composed of a part which includes the external front portico and a central core which occupies the basement where the passenger facilities are located.  Two wings are connected to the central core, one for offices, and the other for police and representative  services. The vertical support structure has a series of arches placed length-wise on a reticular structure.  All of the building materials were prepared on site in reinforced concrete.  The building is partly covered in coloured marble.  Other prefabricated building elements were also utilized like, for instance, the frame which completes the entire front of the building and the "brise soleil"  screen grids which in some cases close the top part of the arches.

The plant facilities are located in a particular area which is divided into two parts;  an underground part which includes the thermoelectric steam power plant, the air-conditioning unit, and the water supply tanks; and one part on the surface which includes an electricity and water  substation and a tank.  The project had furthermore foreseen all of the plants for the distribution of electricity and water, the sewerage and drainage systems, the tank and the distribution network for G.P.L. liquid gas, the heating plant and air-conditioning.

Furthermore, provisions were made for a system of clocks, a closed circuit television system, a speaker system and last of all, an information system with train arrivals and departures.
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