Monsoon season in the Arabian Peninsula's Sultanate of Oman goes from early June to mid-September, bringing with it predictably rough weather that can stir up the seas. For workers building a 3-kilometer-long breakwater at a $3.25-billion greenfield port at Dugm, this could hamper their work a bit.
The stormy forecast led Muhammad D. Suleiman El Dawood, the site project manager, to adopt a GPS- and sensor-aided system for underwater placement of the 7.5- and 22-ton Core-Loc precast-concrete armor units for the breakwater. The system is helping El Dawood's team work through foul weather and double their production rates to meet a May 2012 completion for phase one.