Four companies submitted bids on 29 April for ground improvement works on the Palm Jebel Ali. The bidders include: Germany's Bauer; Keller Grundbau, also of Germany; the UK's Pennine; and Vibro Foundation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of France's Soletanche Bachy.

The scope includes testing and ground improvements for the entire island. Nakheel has the option to award the work to more than one contractor.

Similar ground improvement work was carried out on the more advanced Palm Jumeirah. Although Belgium's Jan de Nul has completed the majority of the reclamation works on the Palm Jebel Ali, a variation order was issued in February covering the addition of another 30 million cubic metres of sand that will mean overall reclamation works will now be completed in May 2007 instead of March 2006, as was originally planned.

On the Palm Jebel Ali, Nakheel has also entered into a pre-construction agreement with Brazil's Odebrecht for the water homes component of the project. About 1,900 homes are planned (MEED 24:2:06).

On Palm Jumeirah, Nakheel has received bids for the main piling package on the estimated AED 2,000 million ($544 million) Marina Residences project, located at the end of the trunk. The local/UK Al-Naboodah Laing O'Rourke has completed a pre-construction service agreement with Nakheel for the project.