DP World has started work on phase one of a new container terminal at the Jebel Ali port in Dubai.

Phase one of the container terminal 4 project will have a capacity of 3.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).

Terminal 4 will be located on a reclaimed island north of the existing Terminal 2, allowing DP World to further expand capacity to a total of 7.8 million TEUs if demand is high.

MEED reported that DP World awarded Bam International of the Netherlands the estimated AED370m ($100m) contract to design and build the access causeway, bridge and quay wall in January 2014.

A dredging contract was tendered in March 2015. The scope of the contract includes the construction of the quay wall. It also includes a 420-metre bridge and a 3,000-metre causeway to link the new terminal being built on an island of reclaimed land to the main port.

It is due for completion in 2018, but the bridge and causeway should be partially open to traffic by the end of 2015.

“The new capacity is a response to feedback from customers expressing the need for more capacity at Jebel Ali due to an expected increase in trade in the run up to Expo 2020,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman of DP World, in a press release. “Shipping lines will be able to bring more of the world’s largest vessels to our terminals, so helping improve the efficiency of the region’s supply chain.”

The new terminal will increase the Jebel Ali port’s total capacity to 22.1 million TEUs. The port will have more than 110 cranes, with a total quay length of about 11,000 metres in 2014.

Jebel Ali and other DP World terminals in the UAE handled 7.9 million TEUs in the first half of 2015, representing a growth of 6 per cent in the first half of 2014.

The Terminal 3 expansion, which will add 2 million TEUs of new capacity, is scheduled to be completed in late 2015.

In phase one, Terminal 4 will have a 1,200-metre long quay with an 18-metre draft, and 13 quay cranes. Thirty-five automated rail mounted gantry cranes (ARMG) will operate in the yard.