Saudi Aramco has appointed a team of firms to project manage the development and construction of the 11 stadiums it plans to build across the kingdom.

The project management firms that have been appointed are:

• WorleyParsons (Australia)
• Jacobs (US)
• SNC Lavalin (Canada)
• Faithful + Gould (UK)
• Khatib & Alami (Lebanon)
• Dar al-Handasah (Lebanon)

The project managers will work with US-based CH2M Hill and UK-based EC Harris that have been appointed as programme managers.

The stadiums are one of the largest building schemes in the region and with estimated costs of $500m for each stadium, the total cost could exceed $5bn.

Contractors are preparing to submit revised offers for the construction contracts on 15 December. Once submitted, awards for the fast-tracked project are expected by the end of December. The stadiums are to be built simultaneously and are scheduled for completion in June 2016.

Aramco had planned to appoint contractors in November, but it is understood the scale and complexity of the scheme, together with updates to the volume of work required, have delayed the signing of deals.

Nine groups were invited to bid for the work. They are:

• Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) (Athens-based) / Strabag (Austria)
• Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) (local) / Eiffage (France)
• Al-Muhaideb Trading & Contracting Establishment (local) / Six Construct (Belgium)
• Nesma & Partners (local) / Salini Impregilo(Italy)
• Nasser al-Hajri (local) / Vinci(France)
• Bouygues (France) / Almabani (local) / Huta (local)
• Samsung C&T (South Korea) / Azmeel Contracting (local)
• Baytur (Turkey) / Clark Construction (US)
• El-Seif Engineering & Contracting (local) / Bam (Netherlands)

The stadiums will be located in Medina, Al-Qassim, the Eastern Province, Asir, Tabuk, Hail, the Northern Borders, Jizan, Najran, Baha and Al-Jouf.

Aramco is building the 45,000-seat stadiums as part of a King Abdullah Programme to improve sports facilities in the kingdom.