South Korea’s Daewoo Engineering & Construction (E&C) says it has been awarded a $70.35m contract to build entrance roads for the Grand Al-Faw port in the south of Iraq.

The contract covers the construction of a 14.5 kilometre-long road, which is expected to be completed by May 2021.

The project client is the General Company for Ports of Iraq.

In May, the Iraq Port Authority awarded Daewoo E&C a $200m contract to build a 4.5km temporary dyke for the first phase of the Al-Faw container terminal.

Daewoo E&C is already working on the western breakwater at Grand Al-Faw port. That work is scheduled for completion this year.

The Al-Faw peninsula is located in the extreme southeast of Iraq. It adjoins Iraq’s Basra and Iran’s Abadan regions.

The budget for the port’s development is estimated to be up to $8bn.

Daewoo E&C won the project’s western breakwater contract in 2013.

It is understood that the eastern breakwater, awarded to the Netherlands-registered Archirodon, has been completed.

The much-delayed port scheme is expected to have 12 berths and the ability to handle 99 million tonnes of cargo annually when complete.

Last year, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation won the $110m contract to rehabilitate and build berths at Umm Qasr Port in the southern Iraqi region of Basra. Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) is financing that project.