Abu Dhabi Airports Company (Adac) is inviting prequalified consortiums to submit bids by 10 July for the construction contract for the midfield terminal at Abu Dhabi International airport.

Adac has prequalified at least seven groups to submit bids.

The prequalifiers include:  

• Al-Habtoor Leighton (local/Australia)/Murray & Roberts Contractors (Middle East) (South Africa)/Hochtief (Germany)
• Bouygues (France)/Arabian Construction Company (ACC) (local/Lebanon)/Samsung C&T (South Korea)/Six Construct Abu Dhabi (local/Belgium)
• Bechtel Corporation (US)/Al-Jaber Group (local)/Enka (Turkey)
• Hyundai Engineering & Construction (South Korea)/Kumho Engineering & Construction (South Korea)
• Multiplex (Australia)/Larsen & Toubro (India)/National Projects Construction (local)
• Taisei Corporation (Japan)/China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China)/Al-Naboodah Contracting (local)
• 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.

Jim Bennett, chief executive of Adac, has said previously that the midfield project will take five years to complete from the time the tender is finalised (MEED 20:10:10). This means that the midfield terminal could be completed by March 2016.

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 square metres 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.