Kuwait’s Public Works Ministry has invited consortiums to submit bids for the contract to design and build the estimated $1bn Doha Link bridge, which will link Shuwaikh to the port village of Doha in the Jahra region of Kuwait.

Prequalified consortiums have until 27 November to submit bids for the tender. The proposed Doha Link bridge will be about 16 kilometres long and will link up with the planned $2.6bn Subiya Causeway project. The bridge will contain three traffic lanes and an emergency lane in each direction.

The ministry prequalified 12 local/international consortiums for the tender in July last year.

Prequalified consortiums for the tender are:

• Alamiah Building Company (local)/Strabag (Austria)
• Abdulaziz Abdulmohsin al-Rashed & Sons (local)/Samsung C&T (South Korea)
• Khalid & Khalid Abbas General Trading & Contracting (local)/GS Engineering & Construction Corporation (South Korea)
• Bayan National Trading Company (local)/Salini Costruttori (Italy)
• Green Line General Trading & Contracting (local)/China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCEC)
• Gulf Environment General Trading & Contracting (local)/Daewoo Engineering & Construction Company Limited (South Korea)
• Tarbili Holding Company (local)/Daelim Industrial Company Limited (South Korea)
• Al-Hani Construction & Trading Company (local)/Sinohydro Corporation (China)
• Kuwait Company for Process Plant Construction & Contracting (KCPC) (local)/Pizzarotti (Italy)
• First United General Trading & Contracting Company (local)/Obrascon Huarte Lain (OHL)
• Copri Construction Projects Company (local)/China Major Bridge Engineering Company (CMBE)
• Hamad Mohamed al-Wazzan General Trading & Contracting (local)/Saudi Binladin Group

The Public Works Ministry hopes that the bridge will reduce road congestion in Shuwaikh and along Ghazali Road, as it believes many large trucks exiting from Shuwaikh port would use the new bridge instead.

The contract to build the planned Subiya causeway, which the Doha link bridge will connect to, was approved by Kuwait’s Central Tenders Committee (CTC) in February 2011, but has still not been awarded. CTC approved the $2.6bn low bid from the consortium headed by South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company for the main construction package after receiving bids from contractors in October 2010.

Speaking at MEED’s Arabian World Construction Summit (AWCS) on 22 May, Saad Soud al-Muhaiby, director of master planning department for Kuwait Municipality, said that the project was nearing award stage and that the government was keen to approve the contract award as soon as possible.

The Subiya causeway will cross Kuwait Bay, linking Kuwait City with the Subiya promontory and Bubiyan Island, where various major projects are proposed. The planned causeway will be 37.5 kilometres long and incorporate a bridge spanning 150-200 metres.