This paper describes the construction, with a Contract period of 400 days, of two rock-rubble mound breakwaters, one two kilometres and the other 1.50 kilometres long. Their purpose is to protect the dredged seawater intake channel to Mirfa Power and Desalination Plant, which is located on a remote part of the coast of Abu Dhabi. The short timescale resulted from an already fast-track programme compounded by delays to the start of construction. Logistical problems arising from this and the planning, ingenuity and effort on the part of the Contractor to overcome them are presented. The authors were respectively Resident Engineer and Project Supervisor for the Public Works Department on the project, which was carried out for the Public Works Department of Abu Dhabi by the French firm, Sainrapt Contracting Company. Tenders were called based on two options; concrete blockwork and rock rubble mound, from which the rock rubble mound on a geotextile membrane emerged as the more economic. The tidal hydraulics and morphology of the coastline are briefly discussed together with both the expected and actually observed changes to the tidal flow and beach plan shape resulting from the presence of the breakwaters. The eventual closing of the gap in the longer breakwater, between the section constructed initially offshore and the part constructed from the shore (according to the Contractor's chosen method) is described, as is the effect of a minor storm during construction.
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