Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC) has received bids for the contract to build the Zayed National Museum on Saadiyat Island.

The bidders include:

• Al-Futtaim Carillion (local/UK)
• Arabian Construction Company (local/Lebanon)/FCC (Spain)
• Arabtec Construction (local)/San Jose (Spain)
• China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China)/OHL (Spain)/Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) (Athens-based)
• Ghantoot (local)/El-Seif Engineering Contracting (Saudi Arabia)
• Six Construct Abu Dhabi (local/Belgium)/Dhabi Contracting (local)

The main construction contract includes the concrete superstructure, structural steelwork and specialist cladding, mechanical, electrical and plumbing, and the interior fit-out. The project has been delayed following a strategic review of future projects by Abu Dhabi government in 2011.

In 2010, TDIC told companies it will now procure contractors for the estimated $1bn project using a series of traditional lumpsum contracts. The developer had originally planned to build the museum using a design and build contract.

Italy’s Swissboring completed the enabling works, the local NSCC completed the piling, and a joint venture of the local/Australian Habtoor Leighton Group and South Africa’s Murray & Roberts Contractors completed the substructure.

Work has already started on the Louvre museum project. In January, TDIC awarded the main construction contract to a joint venture of the local Arabtec, Spain’s Constructora San Jose and Oger Abu Dhabi.

Like the Zayed museum, the award of that contract had been delayed. It had been tendered three times since it was first launched in 2007 as part of a wide-ranging cultural accord signed by Abu Dhabi and France. It was first tendered in 2009 as a design and build scheme, and then tendered again in 2010 as a traditional construction contract. That tender was cancelled after TDIC shortlisted two contractors in early 2011.