Qatar’s Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has invited contractors to submit bids by 23 May for the first package on the estimated $700m Lusail Expressway project.

The road will run from the Arch roundabout to the area surrounding the Ritz Carlton hotel in Doha.

About seven companies have been prequalified for the tender, according to sources in Doha.

The first package will be 5.8 kilometres in length and will have about 16 lanes, some of which will be two or three levels. The expressway will also include three major interchanges, slip roads, underpasses and bicycle lanes. Construction work will take 36 months to complete.

The second package, which has not yet been tendered, will run beside the Lusail mixed-use development and then on to the Pearl real-estate development. The expressway will be about 12km long when completed.

The expressway project has suffered from a number of delays in the tender process. It was originally scheduled to be tendered by the end of August last year.

The Lusail Expressway is part of Qatar’s plans to invest $20bn on new roads and related drainage and infrastructure in the next five years.

In January, Ashghal awarded a joint venture of Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Company and the local Teyseer Contracting company two contracts worth an estimated total of QR1.9bn ($522m) for road projects in Doha.

The first contract is worth an estimated QR1bn and is for the Dukhan Central road project, which is the second phase of Dukhan highway project.

The second contract is worth an estimated QR850m and is for the F-ring road, which is the 12th package of the Doha Expressway. The F-ring road work will be about 8km long and will extend from the intersections of Abu Hamur and Al-Muntazah streets to the New Doha International Airport (MEED 24:1:11).