Kuwait selects consortium for College of Engineering and Petroleum

27 December 2010

Main construction contract awarded to second lowest bidder

Kuwait University has selected the consortium of the China Metallurgical Construction Corporation and the local Khalid Ali al-Kharafi & Brothers to build the College of Engineering and Petroleum (Coep) at its new $3bn Sabah al-Salem campus.

The partnership submitted the second lowest bid of KD142.1m ($503.5m), which was 4 per cent higher than the low bid of KD136.4m submitted by the consortium of Malaysia’s Pembinaan and the local Al-Sager General Trading & Contracting.

Designed by the local Gulf Consult and US-based Cambridge Seven Associates, the new facility will include eight engineering departments, as well as the university’s department of architecture.

Scheduled for completion in 2014, the college will be divided into two buildings – one for male students, the other for female students.

The two buildings will contain separate laboratories, lecture halls, auditoriums, conference rooms, exhibition space, prayer rooms and faculty offices, while sharing a central library.

The contract was the first tender issued on the Sabah al-Salem campus, which will be located at Shadadiyah, 20km west of Kuwait City (MEED 26:8:10).

The university has also invited prequalified companies to submit bids for the contract to build two other faculty buildings at its new $3bn Sabah al-Salem University campus.

The prequalified contractors have until 20 February to submit bids for the project to build the Faculty for Business and the Faculty for Women.

The approximate built-up floor area (Bufa) of the College of Women is 117,000 square metres and the Bufa of the College of Business is 124,700 sq m.

The 12 prequalified groups are:

  • Local Al-Arabi Trading & Real Estate Centre Company/Italy’s Societa Italiana per Condotte Dacqua
  • First United General Trading & Contracting Company/Spain’s OHL
  • Local Kuwait Company for Process Plant Construction & Contracting (KCPC)/ Italy’s Impressa Pizzarotti
  •  Local Copri Construction Projects Company/South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction
  • Local Al-Aamar Engineering Roads & Bridges Contracting Company/Saudi Binladin Group
  •  Local Combined Group Contracting Company/UAE’s Arabtec Construction
  • Local Al-Hani Construction & Trading Company/China’s Sinohydro Corporation
  • Local Burhan International Construction Company/Egypt’s Orascom Construction Industries
  • Local Boodai Construction Company/Italy’s Rizzani De Eccher
  • Local Syed Hamid Behbehani & Sons Company/South Korea’s Posco Engineering & Construction Company
  • Local Alghanim International Trading & Contracting Company/UAE’s Al-Habtoor Leighton Group
  • Local Khaled Ali al-Kharafi & Brothers Construction Company/Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC)

When completed, the Sabah al-Salem integrated campus will comprise more than 25 faculty buildings. It will include a 600-bed hospital, car parks with space for more than 32,000 vehicles, dormitories, sports facilities and auditoriums.

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