Bahrain’s Works & Housing Ministry has received bids from contractors to replace South Korea’s Sungwon Corporation on the Isa Town Gate Interchange in northern Bahrain.

The local Nass Contracting Company is the low bidder with a price of BD27.8m ($73.7m). The offer is about 40 per cent cheaper than the BD46.8m bid submitted by the only other bidder, the local Ahmed Mansoor al-A’Ali Company.

The Works Ministry has been forced to look for a contractor to finish the interchange after the original contractor, Sungwon, was unable to fulfil its contractual commitments and complete the project.

Sungwon was awarded the $109m contract in 2007. The 33-month contract involved the construction of a three-level interchange, including a flyover and underpass, on Shaikh Salman road (MEED 21:2:10).

Nass was the low bidder with a price of BD38m when the contract was first tendered in April 2007.

The consultant on the scheme is the UK’s Hyder Consulting.

The interchange will accommodate traffic from the former Bahrain Gas Roundabout area on Shaikh Salman Highway to the Al-Estiqlal Highway. A 588-metre long underpass will be built to accommodate traffic from the Bahrain Gas Roundabout.

“The goal of this huge strategic project is to solve the traffic jams witnessed at the Isa Town Gate Roundabout and all surrounding routes,” says Fahmi al-Jowder, works minister, Bahrain.