Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry has invited contractors to submit expressions of interest for the main construction package on a major hospital expansion project in Jeddah.

The ministry is expected to issue tender documents for the project to expand the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah in early August.

The main component of the expansion project will involve the construction of two patient towers, 15 and 18 stories high, and a 24-storey research and academic affairs centre. The new structures will contain 30 operating theatres, 150 intensive care units, a cardiology clinic, neurology clinic, outpatient clinics and emergency treatment facilities.

The scheme will also involve the construction of a 25,000-square metre Oncology Centre and a 25,000-sq m medical support facilities building. The project will also involve the construction of car parking facilities for more than 1,000 cars.

The expansion scheme was designed by the local Care RTKL and Saudi Diyar Consultants. The project manager for the construction programme is US-based Vanir Construction Management.

The project is one of a number of medical schemes that is planned in Saudi Arabia as the kingdom seeks to extend its healthcare infrastructure to cope with its rising population.

Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry has set a deadline of 7 August for the contract to build its estimated SR25bn ($6.6bn) Security Forces Medical Cities in Riyadh and Jeddah.

The scope of the work will include construction and fit-out of the medical complexes, one will be located in Riyadh and one in Jeddah, which will each have a total built-up area of 1.3 million sq m.

The two medical cities will have the same design and will both include three hospitals and all related medical and residential facilities. The medical facilities will have a total built-up area of about 400,000 sq m.

Each complex will also contain academic and clinical centres and a research centre.  The residential villas and apartments will have a total built-up area of about 500,000 sq m. The developments are also planned to have office buildings and service stations. The medical complexes will have about 200,000 sq m of car parking.

The consultant for the project is the local office of Lebanon’s Dar al-Handasah (MEED 18:5:11).