Qatar has prequalified at least five companies for the second major construction contract on the New Doha Port project.

The phase two works will involve dredging an access channel leading into the new port.

The prequalifiers include:

• China Harbour Engineering Company (China)
• Jan de Nul (Belgium)
• Boskalis (Netherlands)
• Van Oord (Netherlands)
• Middle East Dredging Company (MEDCO) (local)

The New Doha Port Project Steering Committee is the client for the project. The committee is shortly expected to award the contract for the first phase of construction works.

In April, nine groups submitted bids for phase one of the new port. Beijing-based China Harbour is the frontrunner to win the first major construction contract on the project after submitting the lowest bid of QR3.08bn ($846m).

The local/Australian Al-Habtoor Leighton Group submitted the second lowest bid with a price of QR3.65bn, and the consortium of Van Oord and Bam, both of the Netherlands, and Belgium’s Six Construct submitted the third lowest price of QR3.95bn.

The winning consortium will have to excavate 58 million cubic metres of material covering an area of 3.2 square kilometres and to a depth of 18 metres and build 8 kilometres of quay wall, and a 5km-long rubble breakwater.

The first phase will have a capacity of 2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), a 15-metre-deep approach channel, an 8- to 13.5-metre-deep harbour basin and berths for general cargo, including vessels from the Qatari and visiting navies.

The client is aiming to finish the first phase of the project in 2014.

Australia’s WorleyParsons is the engineering consultant on the project and US-based Aecom is the programme manager of the scheme.

The New Doha Port will be built at Mesaieed, south of Doha, and will replace the existing Doha port on the city’s Corniche. The new port will support industrial development in the area (MEED 1:7:10).