A total of seven companies have been prequalified for the waterway deepening project at the Bubiyan Port in Kuwait.

The contract oversees the construction of an access channel to the Bubiyan Port, officially known as the Mubarak al-Kabeer Port. This will entail creating a channel with a depth of 14.5 metres, deep enough to allow port access to some of the world’s largest container ships.

The following companies have been prequalified for the dredging works:

• Boskalis and Systems (Netherlands)
• China Harbour Engineering Company (China)
• Dredging International (Belgium)
• Great Lakes Dredge and Dock (US)
• Jan De Nul (Belgium)
• Rod Nielsen and National, (Denmark/UAE)
• Van Oord Dredging (Netherlands)

It is the third time companies have been prequalified for the dredging works. In April 2011, 11 companies were prequalified for the contract, while the original prequalification was made in 2005.

In May this year, prequalified consultants were invited to submit bids for the design of the channel.

The dredging works form part of phase two of the Bubiyan port project. Phase one involved infrastructure works, such as the construction of roads and bridges.

Bubiyan 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 project fell behind schedule after three years of limited progress. Kuwait’s Public Works Ministry began retendering packages on the port in October 2009. The port is now scheduled to start operating in 2016 with a capacity to handle 2 million 20-foot equivalent units.