Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac) has extended the tender closing date by two months for the contract to build the Midfield terminal at Abu Dhabi International airport to 11 September.

The extension will give bidders more time to prepare and restructure their consortiums. At least three major international contractors have now decided not to participate in the project. France’s Bouygues, Australia’s Multiplex and Japan’s Taisei Corporation have all left their respective teams.

Bouygues was with the local/Lebanese Arabian Construction Company (ACC), South Korea’s Samsung C&T and the local/Belgian Six Construct Abu Dhabi. Multiplex was with India’s Larsen & Toubro and the local National Projects Construction. Taisei was with China State Construction Engineering Corporation and the local Al-Naboodah Contracting. China State and Al-Naboodah have now joined the South Korean team comprising Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Kumho Engineering & Construction.

The other prequalifiers are:

• Al-Habtoor Leighton (local/Australia)/Murray & Roberts Contractors (Middle East) (South Africa)/Hochtief (Germany)
• Bechtel Corporation (US)/Al-Jaber Group (local)/Enka (Turkey)
• TAV (Turkey)/Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) (Athens-based)/Arabtec Construction (local)

The tender has been delayed for some time and the terminal was originally due for completion in 2010. Adac now says it aims to award the contract by the end of the year (MEED 4:3:11).

The midfield terminal will be built between the two existing runways at Abu Dhabi International airport. The total built-up area will be 630,000 square metres and it will also include a multi-storey car park. The terminal will include 27,000 sq m of retail and food and beverage outlets. It will also consist of 65 contact gates that will be able to accommodate Airbus A380 aircraft.

US-based Kohn Pederson Fox Associates designed the terminal building. The expected capacity for the new terminal will be between 27 million and 30 million passengers each year.

The current capacity at Abu Dhabi International airport is about 12 million passengers a year. With passenger traffic forecast to increase to 20 million passengers a year at the airport, the need for the midfield terminal is clear.

In January, a joint venture of TAV and CCC won the $57m pile caps and foundations package for the midfield terminal. The local NSCC won the foundations package for the terminal project in February 2009.