· Engr. Mateen Ul Hassan · Project Controls · 1 min read
MEP Baseline Programme & Controls: The AED 128.7M DAMAC Hills 2 Community
Managing a 25-month, 252-activity MEP standalone baseline schedule for villas and townhouses in Dubai, featuring 94 shop drawing cycles and resource leveling.
The DAMAC Hills 2 residential community in Dubai required a specialized MEP-only baseline program (BL R00) valued at AED 128,700,000 over 25 months of execution.
Developed in Oracle Primavera P6 (Project ID: P106-439), the program bridged architectural shell completion with final utility energization and Building Completion Certificates (BCC).
Shop Drawing Submittals & Repetitive Unit Flow
A recurring failure in residential MEP projects is shop-drawing gridlock. To prevent approval bottlenecks across mid-unit and end-unit villa typologies:
- 94 engineering activities were grouped by house type and discipline (underground services, above-ground plumbing, HVAC schematics, electrical containment, builders work drawings).
- Repetitive unit installation was logic-linked and leveled so that specialized subcontractor crews (electricians, pipefitters, duct erectors) flowed seamlessly between villa clusters without downtime or stacking.
Cost S-Curve and Manpower Optimization
Budget distribution across 6 cost accounts:
- Preliminaries & Running Costs: AED 11,583,000 (9%)
- Engineering & Shop Drawings: AED 6,435,000 (5%)
- Procurement of MEP Equipment & Materials: AED 52,767,000 (41%)
- Installation (Plumbing, HVAC, Electrical): AED 42,471,000 (33%)
- External Utility Connections (DEWA): AED 6,435,000 (5%)
- Testing, Commissioning & Handover: AED 9,009,000 (7%)
Resource assignment encompassed 12 labor trades and specialized lifting equipment, peaking at 365 personnel and total effort of 140,452 man-days. Peak monthly burn was AED 8,067,575, tracked through physical percent-complete S-curves and look-ahead variance logs.
