Constructing a $4.2-billion aluminum smelter, said to be the world's largest greenfield project of its kind, required intense planning and coordination to bring in the large amounts of labor, equipment and materials to a remote site in Saudi Arabia.
During procurement, Bechtel Corp. and its vendors imported material via road, air and water, often needing the help of specialized carriers and riggers to haul bulky plant equipment and other items to the isolated site near the Persian Gulf. The 287-acre project, which included 720 smelting furnaces arranged in four pot rooms of 180 pots each, consumed 228,000 cu meters of concrete and 48,000 tonnes of structural steel using a workforce of 14,000 people and 78-million job hours.