Daewoo Engineering & Construction (047040.KS) has named the former site chief of its port project in Iraq to head construction of Gadeokdo New Airport. The company is putting forward personnel proven on large overseas marine projects while reinforcing its head-office project management and technical support systems, signaling a stronger commitment to the Gadeokdo project.
Daewoo E&C promoted Kim Ki-young, who served as site manager for the first phase of the new port in Iraq, to executive director and appointed him site manager for Gadeokdo New Airport, according to construction industry sources on the 22nd. At the Al-Faw port project in Iraq — regarded as one of Daewoo E&C's flagship overseas marine civil engineering sites — Kim led quay wall construction measuring 1,750 meters long and 40 meters wide with five berths, which began in August 2021 and was completed in 37.5 months without delay. The company says the site closely resembles the Gadeokdo airport work.
The Iraq project required driving 1,736 large steel pipe piles, each about 50 meters long, into thick soft ground. Using a mobile offshore platform carrying two 250-ton cranes to drive piles simultaneously, the team held the average construction margin of error within 47 millimeters. Some deck concrete was precast at an onshore fabrication yard and transported to the site, shortening the schedule. The remaining dredging, landfill and navigation channel dredging work is also set for completion by the end of this year.
In February this year, Daewoo E&C said of the Gadeokdo project that "while there are some concerns about extremely difficult soft ground work, the technical capability and experience the company possesses are more than enough to overcome it," citing its record of controlling differential settlement at the ultra-soft ground landfill site at the Al-Faw port. At Gadeokdo, where the airport site is being created by filling in the sea, managing large-scale manpower and equipment and controlling the construction schedule are also critical. The appointment is seen as an effort to strengthen on-site responsiveness by placing an executive who has led an overseas port project involving dredging and landfill work.
The appointment also dovetails with an organizational overhaul concentrating resources on major projects. This month, Daewoo E&C designated Gadeokdo New Airport and the Dukovany nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic as major projects for intensive management. It will subdivide the project management team within its strategic planning division into building, civil engineering and plant units, strengthening its ability to identify project-specific risk factors in advance.
The company also restructured its technical support organization. Research units that had been scattered across business divisions were consolidated under the technology research institute to respond to technical problems at work sites. A new safety and quality division was also created to manage safety and quality functions on an integrated basis. "Whenever there was difficult construction work in Iraq, Kim is known to have resolved it," a Daewoo E&C official said. "We expect him to pour everything he learned in Iraq into Gadeokdo."