International and local contractors are preparing to bid for the contract to build the first section of Emirates road in Abu Dhabi emirate.

The companies considering bidding include:

• Al-Futtaim Carillion (local/UK)
• Al-Geemi & Partners (local)
• Al-Habtoor Leighton Group (local/Australia)
• Al-Jaber Group (local)
• Al-Naboodah Contracting (local)
• Bin Hafeez General Contracting (local)
• Cebarco/WCT (Bahrain/Malaysia)
• China State Construction Engineering Corporation (China)
• Dodsal (India)
• Dutco Balfour Beatty (local/UK)
• Ghantoot Transport & General Contracting (local)
• Joannou & Paraskevaides (Cyprus)
• Mohammed Abdul Mohsin al-Kharafi & Sons (Kuwait)
• Nurol (Turkey)
• Saif bin Darwish (local)
• Salini (Italy)
• Tristar (local)

The closing date for the tender is 26 February. The new section of highway will run for 33 kilometres from the Dubai border towards Abu Dhabi city. It will be dual carriageway with four lanes in each direction.

The contract involves building three new interchanges. The first will be built on the border in the Seih Sedeira area and will be grade separated. The second will be at grade and will be built in the Maha Forest area. The third interchange will be grade separated and will be built in Al-Samha area and will connect to the existing Sheikh Maktoum bin Saeed highway near to Taweelah and the new Khalifa port.

The construction work is expected to involve more than 10 million cubic metres of excavation, 10 million cubic metres backfilling, 1.2 million tonnes of asphalt and about 30,000 tonnes of steel reinforcing bars (rebar).

The consultant for the project is Abu Dhabi office of Aurecon with Australia’s SMEC. The client is Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport.