Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development & Investment Corporation (TDIC) has sent letters to contractors informing them that the estimated $1bn Louvre Abu Dhabi museum on Saadiyat Island will now be tendered as a fixed price lump sum construction contract.

The Louvre was originally going to be tendered as a deisgn and build contract. TDIC informed prequalified contractors in October tender documents for a pre-construction and construction contract would be issued in October. The developer will now complete the designs before issuing tender documents for the main construction contract. TDIC did not say when that would happen.

The change in contracting strategy does not mean that the project will be delayed and TDIC will continue to tender early works packages on the project. It plans to invite companies to express interest in a sub-structure package shortly.

It is not clear if TDIC will carry out a new prequalification exercise for the main construction contract or use the same consortiums that it prequalified in October for the pre-construction and construction contract.

They included the local/UK Aldar Laing O’Rourke; the local/Australian Al-Habtoor Leighton Group in joint venture with South Africa’s Murray & Roberts Contractors (Middle East); a French joint venture of Bouygues and Vinci Grand Projets; Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC); Germany’s Ed Zueblin; Australia’s Multiplex with the UK/local Mivan Depa; Brazil’s Odebrecht; Oger Abu Dhabi, the local affiliate of Saudi Oger; South Korea’s Samsung Corporation; the local/Belgian Six Construct Abu Dhabi; a South Korean group of Ssangyong Corporation, Daewoo Engineering & Construction, Posco Engineering & Construction, and Hanmi Parsons; and Japan’s Taisei Corporation (MEED 3:12:09).

The UK’s Buro Happold is the engineer, France’s Jean Nouvel is the architect and US-based Aecom is the programme manager.

The governments of Abu Dhabi and France signed a 30-year cultural accord in 2007 that included building the Louvre. The Louvre is one of five cultural institutions planned for Saadiyat Island’s cultural district. The others are the Sheikh Zayed National Museum, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum, a performing arts centre and a maritime museum.