Kuwait’s Ministry of Public Works has invited six consultants to bid for work on the Mubarak al-Kabeer port project on Bubiyan Island.

The contract, which is for stages 3B and 3C of phase one of the scheme, covers the design of roads, main buildings, a container yard and handling equipment.

The consultants that have been invited to bid are:

• Aecom (US)
• URS (US)
• WorleyParsons (Australia)
• Arcadis (Netherlands)
• Artelia International (France)
• Mott MacDonald (UK)

The deadline for the submission of financial and technical bids is 29 June.

In July 2013, Aecom was awarded a feasibility study and design contract for a deep-water navigation channel at the port. The deal covered the design of a 40-kilometre access channel and berthing basin for the port development. Aecom will oversee plans for the dredging work, disposal of dredged material and land reclamation. The local consultant SQC International will provide the US firm with technical assistance.

In October 2012, seven companies were prequalified for the dredging work. The dredging work forms part of phase two of the port project. Phase one covered infrastructure works, such as the construction of roads and bridges.

The port was originally scheduled to open in 2010, after a local/Chinese consortium of Gulf Dredging & Contracting, Shaheen al-Ghanim Roads & Bridges and China Harbour Engineering Company started work on the first-phase construction contract in 2006.

However, the scheme fell behind schedule after three years of limited progress. The Ministry of Public Works began retendering packages on the port in October 2009. It is now scheduled to start operating in 2016, with a container-handling capacity of 2 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs).