State oil company Saudi Aramco has awarded a construction contract to the local Abdullah Ali al-Ajmi to build a bridge at Fadhili in the Eastern Province of the kingdom.

The deal will involve building a new bridge, an interchange, four ramps, two roundabouts and access roads. The duration of the scheme will be about 24 months.

Aramco had received bids from 16 contractors on 14 December last year.

The consultant for the scheme is US-based Foster Wheeler.

The bridge and related infrastructure will help support several major gas and power projects that are planned and under way at the Fadhili site.

Aramco is developing the Fadhili gas plant scheme, which will have a capacity of about 2.5 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d), and also a major power and steam plant at the Fadhili site.

MEED reported in March that Aramco and state utility Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) was in negotiations with the UK/French Engie for the contract to develop the contract to develop the Fadhili independent power project (IPP).

The award of the Fadhili bridge project will be welcomed by the kingdom’s construction sector, which has seen very little activity in the past year due to the fall in oil prices.