Amsterdam-based Arcadis has been awarded a €20m ($22m) design consultancy contract for the Doha Metro’s Gold Line.

The contract entails the provision of architectural, branding, design and construction consultancy services to an international consortium of contractors that won the QR12bn ($3.3bn) civils contracts for the Gold Line in April 2014.  

Qatar Railways Company (Qatar Rail) awarded the civils deal for the underground sections of the Gold Line to a consortium of Greece’s Aktor, India’s Larsen & Toubro, Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi and STFA, and the local Aljaber Engineering. The consortium is now being referred to as ALYSJ, which stands for the first letters of the members’ names.

The civils contract includes 32 kilometres of bored tunnel and 13 underground stations fitted out with high-end architectural finishes and the latest mechanical, engineering and plumbing (MEP) systems, as well as services building, tunnels and entrances, landscaping, traffic and utilities works.

The scope of work assigned to Arcadis based on the $22m consultancy contract involves detailed design and coordination of architectural finishes for 10 of the 13 underground stations, as well as associated MEP, structural and landscape design, construction support and consultancy services.

According to Arcadis, the design work for the remaining three stations has been priced separately and may be awarded to them later. The design phase, which started in June, is expected to take 12 months, while the construction support will take an additional 24 months.

The Gold Line is the largest construction contract to be tendered for the Doha Metro. The Red Line South underground sections construction package, valued at an estimated QR8bn, was awarded in 2013 to a consortium of the local/French Qatari Diar Vinci Construction (QDVC), South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction and the local Darwish Engineering. A similar-sized contract for the construction of the underground sections of the Green Line was awarded also in 2013 to a team comprising Austria’s Porr, Saudi Binladin Group and the local HBK Contracting.

Arcadis has previously won a similar package for the scheme’s Red Line South. The UK’s Atkins is the lead designer for both the Gold Line and Red Line South.