EXCLUSIVE: Riyadh and Manama hold causeway tender meeting

15 January 2019
Clients expect to receive bids for the King Hamad Causeway transaction advisory contract on 21 February

The transport ministries of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and the King Fahd Causeway Authority (KFCA) held a clarification meeting in Riyadh in December for the transaction advisory contract for King Hamad Causeway, the second crossing to link Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

According to a source familiar with the scheme, prequalified consultants were sought to obtain further details about the project scope - that was in addition to those provided in the request for proposal (RFP), which KFCA issued in November.

It is understood the clients agreed to provide the consultants, by early January, with a copy of the findings of the due diligence study for the project conducted jointly in 2017 by Canada-based SNC Lavalin and UK-based consultancy PwC.

However, it is understood that the client has yet to share the findings report to the prequalified consultants. KFCA expects those consultants to submit their bids for the contract by 21 February.

The clients will award the advisory contract to a consortium of financial, technical and legal consultants. However, it is understood that consultants are still holding discussions and that no final consortiums or teams have been formally formed so far.

The source tells MEED that no further clarification meetings have been set and they do not expect clients to extend the bids deadline.

More than 200 financial, legal and engineering firms as well as contractors expressed interest in the project in 2017.

King Hamad Causeway will feature a 25-kilometre road and rail causeway in the same alignment as the existing King Fahd Causeway. The railway segment will extend inland by another 21 km into Saudi Arabia and 24 km into Bahrain.

Traffic volumes at the existing King Fahd Causeway, the first bridge to link Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, have convinced authorities to build the second causeway, which will also have a rail component.

In 2016, an average of 30,332 cars per day used the existing causeway, which began operating in 2002.

MEED understands construction work on the scheme, which has a budget between $3bn and $4bn, could start by mid-2021 and take three years.

The operation and maintenance of the King Fahd Causeway is integrated into the planned scheme, which will be implemented as a pubic-private partnership (PPP) project.

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