Daniel Gil.
Head of Studies Offers and
Civil Works Contracting
Daniel is the Cost Estimation Manager of
the Civil Works Consortium (CWC) and of
the Consortium. He has been in contact
with Saudi Arabia since August 2012.
What does your work entail as part of
the operations?
The operations have been divided into
several phases. I was the Cost Estima-
tion Manager up to the moment when the
tender bid was submitted on 20 February
2013. Therefore, my responsibility has been
to coordinate the cost estimates in FAST:
the Civil Works Consortium (CWC) and
Rolling Stock and Railway Systems (TSY),
which comprises personnel from four (FCC,
Samsung, Strukton and Alstom).
The work was performed during the
6-month tender bid period which was very
intense due to the limited time available and
the extensions granted by the client.
During this period, we coordinated with
other task groups, such as methodology
and programming, and with the design
group. We obtained local information from
our colleagues in Riyadh, selected the pos-
sible subcontracting and supplier compa-
nies, requested bids and met with some of
these companies. We also estimated the
costs in coordination with the machinery
department, assessed the client’s risk ma-
trix, and finally agreed, jointly with the other
partners, on the costs to be submitted to
the client, ADA (Arriyadh Development
Authority).
During the negotiation phase with the
client, I have been supported by the ne-
gotiating team in Riyadh until the contract
was executed and, finally, I coordinated
the Initial Mobilisation Team (IMT) and the
tasks required to be able to begin the pro-
ject jointly with the partners in Riyadh, such
as looking for an office for the project, the
compound for expatriates, car rentals, in-
terviews the local subcontractors for the
initial works (geotechnical tests, topogra-
phy, and the transfer of affected services),
visiting the metro lines, and the localisation
of the critical points, and the verification of
the capabilities of local suppliers.
What were your first impressions of the
country when you arrived?
Riyadh is a huge city with a population of
five million people and its “pulse” is cu-
rrently affected by construction of projects
underway throughout all parts of the city.
What is it that makes it different from
Spain?
There are many differences and one must
adapt. It is a difficult country where the
Muslim culture is pervasive at all times; for
example, the five calls to prayer, and the
women wearing an abaya. Also, there are
many contrasts; stores, skyscrapers, luxury
cars, together with very modest homes for
the workers and immigrants from South
East Asia.
What do you like the most and the least
about the city?
What I like the most are some of the res-
taurants that serve Arab cuisine, the price
of gasoline, which is very cheap, and the
safety of the city. What I like the least is the
lack of leisure activities and the restrictions
affecting women’s freedom.
What would you highlight about this
contract?
I would highlight the work carried out by
people from many different nationalities
and cultures, such as Koreans, Dutch, the
French, and Spaniards, with different work
teams that must agree in order to execu-
te the contract with the same objective. I
would also stress the magnitude of this pro-
ject in comparison with the normal ones; it
would seem that everything has one more
zero on the right.
What does it mean for FCC to have been
awarded this contract?
I believe it is a great opportunity for deve-
loping FCC’s expertise in metro projects
abroad, particularly in the Middle East, one
of the regions in the world experiencing the
strongest growth and activity.
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