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Two contractors have won contracts totalling nearly $2.5bn for landscaping work on the King Salman Park project in Riyadh.

The King Salman Park Foundation (KSPF) has awarded the larger of the two contracts to the local Nesma & Partners. It is valued at about $2bn.

KSPF awarded the other contract, worth about $330m, to the local Al-Rashid Trading & Contracting Company.

Urban park

Covering an area of 16.9 square kilometres, King Salman Park is located to the south of King Abdullah Road, to the north of Makkah al-Mukkarramah Road and to the west of the Eastern Ring Road. The east of the site has a military airbase with two runways.

Once completed, King Salman Park is expected to become the world's largest urban park. It will have 12 kilometres (km) of green space and over 150 attractions with 10 million square metres (sq m) of built-up area. There will also be 18,000 car parking spaces.

The site will be landscaped to create a complex topography. This requires the moving of 25 million cubic metres of earth, and the planting of 1.1 million trees along with 14 million shrubs and perennials.

The development of the park is split into three phases. Phase one, which covers 7.3 million sq m, is located to the west. Phase two, which is 6 million sq m, is located to the east, while phase three is 3.6 million sq m and is located to the north. Landmark buildings and key assets will be built around a central loop.

The largest building is the Royal Arts Complex, which is a 1.2km-long series of buildings with a gross floor area of 300,000 sq m.

The local Modern Building Leaders was selected to build the estimated SR7.5bn ($2bn) complex in 2022.

Its components include a national theatre with 2,300 seats, a museum of world cultures, an outdoor theatre, mastercraft studios, an art dome, a sculpture pavilion, a library, cinema halls, academies and a multi-purpose theatre.

Other buildings include the visitor pavilion and nursery with 6,000 sq m of gross floor area; the Grand Mosque and Arabian Gardens; and the Museum of the Earth, with 11,300 sq m of gross floor area.

Cooling services

Saudi Tabreed subsidiary, Green Park Cooling, recently awarded Canada-based SNC-Lavalin a district cooling services contract for the King Salman Park masterplanned community. 

SNC-Lavalin will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for King Salman Park's district cooling plant, which is designed to have a total capacity of 60,000 refrigeration tonnes.

The 27-month contract also covers complete design, installation, automation, testing and commissioning of the plant, which has been designed to be executed in three phases without interrupting the plant's operations.