The bidders include US-based KBR with UK-based Halcrow, and the UK’s Mott Macdonald.

The successful bidder will oversee the contracting consortium on behalf of the client, the Qatar-Bahrain Causeway Foundation.

The consortium is led by Qatari Diar and France's Vinci Construction Grand Projets and also includes Germany's Hochtief, Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company, Belgium's Dredging International and the local Middle East Dredging Company.

The 45-kilometre causeway is expected to take about four years to build. Unveiled in 1999, it is one of the most ambitious projects planned for the Gulf, and symbolises the growing links between Manama and Doha since they resolved a territorial dispute over the Hawar islands in 2001 (MEED 9:5:08).