Jordan tenders construction management deal for New Aqaba Port

15 May 2012

Client seeking to appoint international/local joint venture

Jordan’s Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC) has invited firms to bid for a construction and management contract for its Aqaba New Port project in Jordan.

Interested parties have until 24 June to submit bids for the management deal. ADC is planning to appoint a joint venture of an international consultancy and a local consultancy firm to provide construction management services for the port scheme. It will involve programme management, construction monitoring and design review services.

The port project will be tendered in three main packages: the marine works package, which will include dredging and reclamation and creating berth structures; the grain terminal package, which includes all of the structural and electromechanical works of the terminal; and the on-shore package, which will involve building infrastructure, yards and buildings.

The construction of the New Aqaba Port will further boost capacity and trade opportunities in Jordan. The first phase involves building grain silos and ro-ro berths with a capacity of 3 million tonnes a year (t/y). The planned general cargo terminal will have a capacity of 2 million t/y. The long-term plan will see the construction of four more berths that will increase capacity to 5 million t/y for the general cargo terminal and 6 million t/y for the grain silos.

In January, a joint venture comprising the Netherlands-based Bam International and Jordan’s MAG Contracting and Engineering was awarded a JD65m ($91.6m) contract to carry out the marine works at the new Aqaba port.

US-based Aecom carried out the design of the marine works package, which is the first package to be carried out at the new port. The ADC will now start to tender the remaining packages.

The Jordanian government is financing the New Aqaba Port project itself after an initial public-private partnership (PPP) deal with an international consortium broke down in January 2011. A consortium comprising two French companies, Bouygues and Bollore, along with the Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the ADC to design, build, operate and finance the port as a PPP. This agreement is now void.

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