The UK’s Laing O’Rourke has been awarded two contracts totaling AED670m ($183m) for construction work on the Wasl Plaza and connecting access tunnel at the Dubai Expo 2020 site.

The Wasl Plaza contract involves building a concrete apron and two main buildings. The first is the Leadership Pavilion that will be used by dignitaries visiting the Expo site, while the other main building is the Media Pavilion. The buildings will be used as four star hotels after the Expo event has been held.

A steel structure that was awarded to the local/Italian Cimolai Rimond Middle East General Contracting will be built on top of the concrete apron.

The access tunnel is also known as the hammerhead road and provides vehicular access into the heart of the Expo site.

Laing O’Rourke has been working on other parts of the Expo site. It has provided pre-construction services for Mobility and Sustainability pavilions at the Expo site. Emaar is managing the development of those two projects, and it is evaluating bids from contractors for the construction.

Laing O’Rourke was also selected to build the Project Star retail project that is being developed by Emaar and Dubai World Trade Centre in 2016. The project was later downsized, retendered, and awarded to the local Arabtec Construction.