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Yes, it’s ostentatious. Yes, it’s unsustainable. And yes, it’s teetering under billions of dollars of debt that it can’t pay back. But as much as we’ve secretly taken pleasure in its fall, we can’t deny that Dubai is an impressive example of large-scale infrastructure projects executed in a relatively small amount of time. Here’s a recap of some of the biggest feats this temple of opulence managed to get finished before the curtain started tumbling down.
Besides fixed-line, internet and mobile networks, and a desalination system for the 3.2 billion cubic meters of water used in the city annually, there was the uber-massive international airport:
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Jebel Ali Port (the eighth largest in the world):
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And let’s not forget that infamous metro:
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Not to mention the world’s tallest hotel, the world’s largest mall, the world’s tallest building, and on and on.
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December 1st, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Is it sustainable if it cannot maintain itself? I’m not saying that the US infrastructure is a model example of sustainability. I am saying - what happens if this becomes an “instant ghost town” as quickly as it became an “instant city?”
December 1st, 2009 at 4:29 pm
That Metro looks A LOT like Line 14 of the Paris Metro (and Madeleine station in particular)… any connection there or just coincidence?
December 1st, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Dubai could do this so quickly because of course it mostly uses near-slave labor. Which is also how the burst of infrastructure projects in the US in the first half of the 20th century got built, of coruse. Did you know that a substantial majority of the current New York Subway was complete by the 1940s? It was easy when you had unlimited Irish to throw at the problem.
December 1st, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Yea the growth was astounding, I wonder if the fall will be quicker. That whole area has seen some sort of explosion in infrastructure. Might they know something about the quantity of oil left that we don’t?
December 1st, 2009 at 5:26 pm
I find Dubai bemusing. I’ll be sad if it disappears.
It reminds me of “Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny”
December 1st, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Jfruh, the sandhogs who built the New York City subway were paid and could leave if they wanted. So are the people who built the Tokyo subway and Mexico City and Madrid Metros in the postwar decades, and the people who are building the Shanghai and Beijing subways right now. It’s just Dubai that thinks slavery is in vogue.
December 1st, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Some of the same arguments can be made about Las Vegas. In fact, they just opened up a 8.5M$$ white elephant out there. And DW is one of the major partners.
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Are you seriously promoting the obnoxious cancerous growth of Dubai as some sort of ideal? Infrastructure is only good in so much that it is sustainable, manageable, and has a funding source. It also needs a place in the community to serve the needs of the community. Dubai does none of these things. It was an unsustainable exercise in futility and you’re praising it.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:56 pm
Dubai appeared to attempt to position itself as the 21st Century finance and economic hub strategically positioned between Europe, Asia and the money of teh Mid East, to hopefully supplant New York City. The problem is the city has no strategic distance that allows investment and money to flow freely like NYC and London before it had from regional and international flash points. Between Iran and Islamic Fundementalism only someone willing to take huge losses would invest in anything in the area. I feel that the security concerns are behind the apparent collapse of Dubai. Watch, Shanghai has none of those concerns and by mid-century (if not before) we will probably see that as the center of the 21st Century economy.