Qatar’s Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has invited firms to bid by 18 June for a contract to provide design, advisory and special technical services in the construction of temporary roads and drainage, including the conversion of existing roundabouts, across the country.

The contract aims to minimise traffic and congestion as the construction activities for roads, rail, stadiums, hotels and other infrastructure related to the 2022 Fifa World Cup intensify.

The contract will be on a call off basis and is expected to last for 1,095 calendar days starting in the third quarter of 2017, when it is expected to be awarded.

The scope of the contract includes:

• Roads and drainage studies
• Roads and structures design (urban and rural)
• Roads and structures design review
• Off-street parking design
• Drainage design effort and review
• Roads and drainage tender and award-related services
• Roads and drainage-related special technical services

The Local Roads and Drainage Programme (LRDP) is one of the largest building programmes currently underway in Qatar. It includes more than 200 road and drainage schemes worth an estimated QR53.2bn ($14.6bn).

However, lower government revenues due to the decline in oil and gas prices have prompted Qatar to reprioritise project awards in 2015 and 2016. Sources say the government has only been awarding road contracts that are crucial in delivering the required infrastructure for the 2022 Fifa World Cup.

Such approach is seen to have contributed to the widely reported incidents of flooding in several parts of the country during a brief rainy period in November 2015 and again in November last year.

“The design assumes that all the road and drainage schemes are completed systematically,” a source familiar with the road projects tells MEED. “The decision to prioritise certain sections of the entire scheme to award and complete over others has indirectly resulted in the recent flooding issues in Qatar.”

Another consultant had earlier told MEED that the roads in Qatar should replace the ditch channel with storm water drainage system that relies on concrete culverts in order to avoid flooding that results from the accumulation of dune sand.