Abu Dhabi has cancelled the tender for the structural package on the Guggenheim museum, which is planned for Saadiyat island.

Documents seen by MEED show that the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) informed contractors over the summer it is reviewing its procurement strategy for the project and will not be awarding the contract at this stage and bid bonds will be returned to bidders. The state-owned developer also informed companies participating in the tender that it would return the AED20,000 ($5,444) that they paid for a prequalification questionnaire last year.

Contractors submitted bids for the estimated AED400m package on 20 March this year (MEED 25:3:11).

The bidders included:

• Alec (local)
• Al-Fara’a General Contracting Company (local)
• Al-Futtaim Carillion (local/UK)
• Al-Habtoor Leighton (local/Australia)/Murray & Roberts Contractors (South Africa)
• Arabtec Construction (local)
• Brookfield Multiplex (Canada)
• Orascom Construction Industries (Egypt)
• Samsung C&T (South Korea)
• Saudi Oger (Saudi Arabia)
• Terna Construction (Greece)

The Guggenheim museum will cover a total area of 30,000 square metres and will be larger than the existing Guggenheim museums in New York, Venice, Bilbao, Berlin and Las Vegas.

The museum was designed by US-based architect Frank Gehry and will be built in the 18 square kilometre Saadiyat Island Cultural District, which will also include the Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre Abu Dhabi museum.

For the contract to build the Louvre, TDIC shortlisted Australia’s Multiplex and a joint venture of the local/Australian Al-Habtoor Leighton Group with South Africa’s Murray & Roberts Contractors (Middle East) in March this year. It has yet to make an award.

TDIC received bids from at least five groups for the 24,000 sq m museum in November 2010. The client is still evaluating bids for the substructure package. Piling work on the museum has been completed by Germany’s Bauer (MEED 10:12:10).

TDIC originally planned to build the museum under a design and build contract for the entire scheme, but subsequently decided to issue tenders for a series of lump-sum construction packages, including the substructure, piling, loading bays and the main construction works.

The cultural district on Saadiyat island will also contain the Sheikh Zayed National Museum, a maritime museum and a performing arts centre. The Sheikh Zayed National Museum has been designed by Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid has provided designs for the performing arts centre.

TDIC did not comment on the Guggenheim museum contract.