For the advisory support contract, at least five international consultants submitted proposals. They include Lebanon's Associated Consultants Engineers (ACE) International, Australia's Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC), the US' Louis Berger, the UK's Hyder Consulting and Gabinete de Estudios Tecnicos Inginieria (Getinsa) of Spain. An award is expected by the end of the second quarter.

Called the Kuwait road administration and advisory support consultancy, the successful consultant will provide consultancy and project management services to MPW for all of its planned road projects. The two-year contract also includes a review of designs advice on tender preparation and evaluation.

Bids have also been invited by late March for the contract to provide MPW with road maintenance management support. Prequalifiers include Atkins and Halcrow, both of the UK, Parsons Brinckerhoff of the US and Denmark's COWI.

Called the Kuwait integrated maintenance management system (KIMMS) evaluation, the 12-month contract involves the evaluation of MPW's infrastructure network requirements, which includes more than 10,000 kilometres of roads, 250 bridges and more than 5,000 kilometres of stormwater drainage.

The project also calls on the consultant to determine the requirements for upgrade and modification of different network application systems, including pavement and bridge management applications, right-of-way features, sanitary and stormwater management systems. The contract also contains a 24-month option to supervise the implementation of the upgrade.

MPW is embarking on a wide-ranging modernisation of its road system. All of Kuwait's seven ring-roads are being upgraded, while MPW is planning to build an eighth orbital to alleviate growing traffic pressure.