Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport has extended the tender closing date for the contract to build the first section of Emirates road in Abu Dhabi emirate to 1 April.

The previous closing date was 26 February. The new section of highway will run for 33 kilometres from the Dubai border towards Abu Dhabi city. It will be dual carriageway with four lanes in each direction.

The contract also involves building three new interchanges. The first will be built on the border in the Seih Sedeira area and will be grade separated. The second will be at grade and will be built in the Maha Forest area. The third interchange will be grade separated and will be built in Al-Samha area and will connect to the existing Sheikh Maktoum bin Saeed al-Maktoum highway near to Taweelah and the new Khalifa port.

The construction work is expected to involve more than 10 million cubic metres of excavation, 10 million cubic metres of backfilling, 1.2 million tonnes of asphalt and about 30,000 tonnes of steel reinforcing bars (rebar).

The consultant for the project is Abu Dhabi office of Aurecon with Australia’s SMEC. The client is Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport.