POLYGROUP’s presence at the Haramain High Speed Rail project in Saudi Arabia

POLYGROUP’s presence at the Haramain High Speed Rail project in Saudi Arabia POLYGROUP is proud to have been part of one of the most ambitious and complex engineering works carried out in recent years: the Haramain High Speed Rail, a 12.000m2 project from 2010, which connects the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia with its most important city located in the west, Jeddah.

Designed by FOSTER&PARTNERS, this project was supervised by the team of engineers and architects DAR Al-Handasah, the most relevant in the Middle East, who chose POLYGROUP from professionals between North America and Europe. They have also subsequently taken care of the Mecca expansion, and we were chosen again by them to provide our raised access floor systems for the Jeddah Station restoration after the fire of September 2019.

Haramain High Speed Rail

The 450 kilometres of the Haramain High Speed Rail, of about 2 hours and 20 minutes, are defined by 4 major stations: Mecca, Medina, KAEC (King Abdullah Economic City) and Jeddah, interconnected with each other in the middle of the desert. POLYGROUP has participated in this project with our high quality technical floors in the 4 passenger terminals of this high speed line.

The uniqueness of this project lies in the fact that it is the first high-speed (electric) train travelling through the desert, and that we had to provide special raised access floor systems due to the requirements of the project.

(GAMAFLOR PAC solutions offer different kinds of finishes, according to the needs of the design and the environment. Images by POLYGROUP©)

Systems of POLYGROUP

Two systems of POLYGROUP raised access floors were used:

• GAMAFLOR PAC 30/05/05 with rubber covering for both technical and control rooms.
• GAMAFLOR PAC 35/05/05 with special measures of 750x750mm (for greater accessibility and wiring storage capacity), with a 30mm thick granite tile of more than 250kg each.

A versatile, efficient floor

This special raised access floor allows more access space between pedestals to house more wires and installations that remain hidden, respecting the design of this project.

The distinctive feature of these solutions lies in the fact the granite tiles were different in size, specifically 1500x750mm, which means that the system did not leave the factory with the tiles on; they were sent separately to be installed on site.

This is because the project was designed for the possibility of a redistribution in the installations, requiring modular and easier accessible solutions.

(Sketch of the GAMAFLOR PAC 35/05/05 system of 750x750mm with 1500x750mm granite tiles. Images by POLYGROUP©)

José Luis Sancho, our Middle East Operations Manager, says: “The key of the project for us is that we had to include our accessible raised access floor systems, not only in the technical rooms, but also in the transit areas for people and machinery. Therefore, and for a single project, we have solved both engineering and IT needs as well as aesthetic and functional aspects of the commercial side of the project”.

The GAMAFLOR raised access floor systems performance makes them the perfect solution for spaces where intense machinery and people transit are a must, such as the Haramain High Speed Rail stations, as they are lightweight, easy to install and have high levels of performance and resistance to static and dynamic loads.