Joint Venture Hits Major Construction Milestones on Grand Egyptian Museum

September was full of important milestones for the BESIX and Orascom Construction teams working jointly on the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, just off the plateau of the Pyramids of Giza. First, the JV team took a significant step toward completion by delivering substantial parts of the cultural masterpiece. Second, the JV won the Autodesk Excellence Award 2022 for Best Construction Project for its use of BIM software, which allowed the team to smoothly coordinate the more than 150 subcontractors on the project. Finally, the project team also celebrated 20 million man-hours without any severe incident.

The delivery of additional parts of the Grand Egyptian Museum means the client will soon be ready to welcome visitors to the museum. The completion rate of the main building and overall site is at 99.8%, while that of the security systems is at 97%. BESIX and Orascom Construction are also finalizing a number of exhibition areas awarded to them last year.

The JV is building the Grand Egyptian Museum for the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities. Upon its inauguration, it will be the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single civilization and one of the largest structures in Egypt since the pyramids. Besides thousands of objects documenting the Ancient Egyptian civilization, Pharaoh King Tutankhamun’s treasure is also part of the collection. About 5,300 objects from that treasure will be on display for the first time since their discovery in 1922.

The Grand Egyptian Museum is a building of rare complexity built on the Giza Plateau in perfect line, while respecting the angles formed by the three pyramids. With a total surface area of 490,000 square meters, the building required unprecedented technical feats in contemporary construction. For instance, ceilings as high as 32 meters in several places are made of white concrete or steel structure, and include architectural lines running throughout the building. In addition, some areas present magnificent cantilevers of up to 26 meters long, as well as iconic stilettos, i.e., steel structures of up to 26 meters high, clad in marble that end on the floor in a single point, making them look like inverted pyramids.

Besides building the complex, BESIX and Orascom Construction also engineered more than 30 demanding MEP and ICT systems in line with the size and needs of the building. In addition, the client also entrusted them with the delivery of exhibition galleries, a conference center, educational facilities and a dedicated museum area for King Khufu’s renowned wooden boat.