Gulf Construction Online - TRSDC awards ‘smart’ deal to MachinesTalk

Saudi Focus

MachinesTalk will provide smart badges for 36,000 construction workers.

TRSDC awards ‘smart’ deal to MachinesTalk

01 April 2021

The Red Sea Development Company (TRSDC), the developer behind the world’s most ambitious regenerative tourism project in Saudi Arabia, said it has awarded a contract to leading national IoT service provider, MachinesTalk, for the provision of smart wearable technology and wireless tagging solutions for its construction workforce and fleet of vehicles at its site on the west coast of Saudi Arabia.

MachinesTalk will be tasked with deploying a LoRaWAN network to cover more than 3,500 sq km, implementing a state-of-the-art IoT platform, and providing smart badges for up to 36,000 construction workers, and wireless tags for up to 3,000 vehicles.

“Delivering a project of this scale against an ambitious timeline while aiming to meet and exceed the highest international standards for health, safety and sustainability, requires innovative solutions,” said CEO John Pagano. “Our partnership with MachinesTalk will play an important role in ensuring the welfare of our workers, given their proven track record providing smart construction technology and alignment with our business goals.”

MachinesTalk CEO Nawaaf Alshalani said: “We are honoured to have won this contract with TRSDC. It shows real forward thinking and care for employees when a company wants to implement these solutions at such scale. Using IoT technologies will keep the workforce safer and support secure and more efficient operations.”

The new technology aims to address four key considerations for TRSDC’s core construction site area: site security, worker safety, access control, and process efficiency.

Ian Williamson, TRSDC’s Chief Projects Delivery Officer, said: “We asked ourselves how we could enhance security on our site and enable an efficient construction process at the same time, while considering upwards of 36,000 workers across 3,500 sq km.

“How could we ensure worker safety in case of health emergencies or prevent workers getting lost in remote locations in the desert or on islands? How could we control access and track the 3,000 vehicles of multiple contractors across the construction site, delivering materials, tools and transporting employees?”

MachinesTalk’s smart badges and tags allow TRSDC to identify workers and vehicles and secure the construction area against unauthorsed individual and vehicle access.

Individual access rights will be granted based on role, responsibility, category and group of workers. In addition, the possibility of identifying vehicles remotely, geo-fencing perimeters and setting up alerts based on worker and vehicle access breaches will further enhance security.