The main challenges of the installation of sub-sea horizontal directional drillings on Palm Jumeirah specifically, was that there were close spacing between the bores (holes), changing soil conditions along the drilling alignment (fill/rock) and brackish (slightly salty) groundwater. To resolve the second problem, vibrocompaction technologies were used just like in the case with sand in the palm's fronds themselves. (Gahir, et.al)
Besides the scientific challenges to this construction project, another challenge was the pressure to finish the islands in such a limited amount of time - 3 years. In order to keep ahead of schedule, the company constructing the islands, decided to start laying the sand foundation under the sea. Yes, time constraints forced both companies - the one constructing the breakwater crescent, and the one constructing the islands to complete both structures simultaneously. However, eight months into the project, it wanted to bring them above sea level. In April 2002, after 550 m of the breakwater crescent was completed, the company finally brought out the fronds. This decision was based on a study conducted that sought to minimize constructions risks, to be elaborated below. It explains the different sediment transport processes that occurred during construction time.
The islands themselves, the fronds were made out of an obscene amount of sand - 94 million cubic meters of it! That is enough to cover the whole of Manhattan 1 m deep! One would assume that acquiring even that huge amount of sand would not be difficult for a country with sand as their biggest resource (deserts). However, sand from the desert is not the most suitable type for construction of the Palm Islands because it is too fine and "flaky". Instead, sand was obtained from 60 nautical miles out of sea, from the bottom of the Persian Gulf. This is sand was superior because it was coarse, dense and resistant to wave impact. The sand was dredged by the Belgian company Jan De Nul and the Dutch company Van Oord, and was sprayed using dredging ships. Sand placement was guided by Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPS) allowing for an error of less than 0.39 of an inch beyond imagined boundaries (since there are no rigid mold to hold it in place). The way this works is that five men walk around the entire island daily in the hot temperature and high humidity levels, carrying these cumbersome gadgets behind their backs, and receive signals from the Prince's own satellite system, located 676 km up in space. (This technology rivals those of the Russian and US military!) The height and position of the deposited sand is recorded and reveals the coordinates (like on a graph) where precisely, the dredges should make additional deposits. The sand was dredged at very high speeds at 10m/s. It took less than 1 hour to fill an 8 ton tank with sand! This process, known as the rainbowing process, is when a dredging ship propels sand from the ocean floor and forms a high arc in the air, as shown in the picture. After the rainbowing process, the sand rises 4 m above water.