Gulf Construction Online - $40bn transport projects on track in Qatar

Regional News

$40bn transport projects on track in Qatar

01 October 2015

Qatar is moving ahead with more than $40 billion worth of planned transport projects, said senior officials at a key forum in Doha.

These include the expansion of Hamad International Airport (HIA) and Hamad Port, the Doha Metro and long-distance passenger and freight network, and the expressway programme, they said while addressing delegates at Meed’s fourth annual Qatar Transport Forum, which took place last month in the Qatari capital.

During the three-day event, which witnessed the public unveiling of plans for the estimated $8-billion expansion of HIA, Peter Daley, the project director of New Doha International Airport steering committee, outlined the procurement timeline along with descriptions of the project scope, which includes an expansion of the main terminal building and concourse D and E.

Also revealed for the first time were plans for two additional container terminals at Hamad Port that would increase the QR27-billion ($7.3 billion) project’s handling capacity to 6 million TEUs by 2020.

The first phase of the megaproject, which involved installing more precast blocks than the pyramids, is due to open at the end of 2016, Aecom’s programme director Tim Verdon told the forum’s attendees.

Commenting on the $20-billion-plus integrated transport plan, Qatar Rail’s chief of service delivery Andrew Tailor said: “A record 21 tunnel boring machines are being used on the Doha Metro project, which so far has completed almost 50 km of tunnels. A total of 26,000 workers are working on the project, equating to more than 78 million man hours worked as of end of August.”

About 50 per cent of the 113-km-long tunnelling work for the Doha Metro is reported to have been completed with the help of the TBMs.

Work on the Lusail tram scheme is even more advanced, with four of the five at-grade stations completed, while the tender for the first phase design and build of the long-distance freight and rail network will be issued to contractors early next year, Tailor added.

Nasser Al Kuwari, the manager of Highway Projects department at Ashghal, presented an overview of the QR40-billion ($10.8 billion) expressway programme.

The massive project, which involves 1,000 km of new or upgraded roads, 240 major interchanges and 360 bridges, has already seen 43 major contracts awarded. A total of 15 contracts are either in the market or are being prepared, while a further 23 are in the planning stage.

Ed James, the director of content and analysis at Meed Projects, revealed that the overall pipeline of planned projects in the state was more than $200 billion, adding, transport along with construction were the two largest individual sectors in the pipeline.