Dubai plans to award more than $1bn of construction contracts for major upgrades at its ports and airports this year as the emirate seeks to maintain its position as the region’s leading transport and logistics hub.

The emirate is home to the region’s busiest port (Jebel Ali) and airport (Dubai International), and faces growing competition from other hubs as its GCC neighbours plan and complete new infrastructure. Qatar’s New Doha International airport is nearing completion, while Abu Dhabi International airport has the midfield terminal complex in the early stages of construction. Similarly, Jebel Ali port will soon be competing with Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa port at Taweelah and in the long term will also compete for traffic with other port projects across the region.

To stay ahead of the competition, DP World plans to award two major construction contracts at Jebel Ali Port and the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) expects to award the deal for concourse 4 at Dubai International airport.

On 12 January, DP World received bids from seven contractors for the contract to build the Terminal 2 port expansion and is preparing to issue tender documents for a much larger deal covering the construction of Terminal 3.

The Terminal 2 expansion work involves the construction of 400 metres of new quay wall that will increase the capacity of terminal 2 by about 1 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).

The bidders are: India’s Afcons; Geneva-registered Archirodon Construction; Beijing-based China Harbour Engineering Corporation; South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction; Brazil’s Odebrecht; Turkey’s STFA; and Japan’s Toa Corporation.

The opening of Terminal 2 in 2008 was the last major expansion at the port. It has a capacity of 5 million TEUs and is equipped with 29 Super Post Panamax gantry cranes and 60 rail-mounted gantries (RMG). Hyundai completed the construction work and Belgium’s Jan de Nul completed the dredging works for the terminal.

DP world is also preparing to issue tender documents for the construction of the new Terminal 3. That contract involves the construction of 1,600 metres of new quay wall on an artificial island offshore from Terminal 2. Contractors in Dubai expect the estimated $500m contract to be awarded in 2012 along with the Terminal 2 deal.

The Terminal 3 work has been tendered before. DP World received bids for two construction packages for the Terminal 3 project at Jebel Ali Port in 2008. The bidders then included the local/ Belgian Bel Hasa Six Construct, Hyundai and Odebrecht. The tender was later cancelled as Dubai struggled with ongoing debt issues.

The current capacity at Jebel Ali port, the busiest in the region, is 15 million TEUs a year. Terminal 1 can handle 10 million TEUs and Terminal 2 can handle 5 million.

For the airport, the DCA received bids on 21 December 2011 for the contract to build concourse 4 at Dubai International airport (MEED 21:12:11).

The successful bidder will manage sub contractors appointed by DCA to complete a series of separate packages on the concourse that will be connected to the airport’s existing terminal 1 building and will serve international airlines.

The construction work on the project includes: enabling works; building the substructure and an automated people-mover station; completing the super structure, architectural finishes and mechanical, electrical and plumbing works; and installing lifts, escalators, travelators, and passenger loading bridges.

The concourse will be located to the west of the existing concourse 1 near to the cargo terminal and will be connected to terminal 1 by an elevated bus road. The site area covers about 225,000 square metres, and the total built-up area is expected to be about 135,000 sq m.

Lebanon’s Dar al-Handasah has prepared the initial design and tender documents.

Construction work has continued at the airport over the past three years despite the slowdown in construction activity in Dubai. The most significant project is the construction of Concourse 3, awarded to the local Alec in early 2009 and due for completion at the end of 2012. More recently, the local Arabtec Construction said on January 4 this year that it had won the AED561m ($153m) contract to expand and refurbish Terminal 2 at Dubai International airport.

The airport is the busiest in the region and handled more than 46 million passengers in 2011.