Contract for interchanges linking Muscat Expressway and Sultan Qaboos Street
MUSCAT -- A partnership of the Sultanate's Oman United Engineering Services (OUES) and Portugal's Sociedade de Construções Soares da Costa has won a contract to build road infrastructure linking the Muscat Expressway with the new Muscat International Airport.
The project, valued at around $62 million, is part of a series of initiatives launched by Muscat Municipality to improve road networks across the capital city with a view to streamlining traffic flows, easing congestion and enhancing connectivity. More importantly, it will also cater to burgeoning traffic growth across the city.
The OUES-Soares da Costa joint venture led a field of several contenders for Muscat Municipality's prestigious contract to design and construct a network of interchanges, bridges and roads spanning the zone between the Muscat Expressway and Sultan Qaboos Street at the airport end.
According to officials, the project will not only enhance connectivity between the Expressway and the city's main carriageway, but also open up access to new swaths of pristine and potentially valuable real estate for commercial development.
Also as a result of the project, access will be significantly strengthened to Ghala Industrial Area, a zone tipped for a major makeover into an upscale commercial and residential district as an extension to the new leisure and entertainment enclave coming up at Airport Heights.
At least two major interchanges will be built as part of the road infrastructure project linking the Expressway with the expanded and modernised airport. One interchange is proposed to come up on Al Jamaa Al Akbar Street, and the other on the Ghala Industrial Area road north of the Al Ansab interchange of Muscat Expressway.
The Al Jamaa Al Akbar Street Interchange will link up with a flyover currently under construction across Al Maaridh Street as part of the Muscat International Airport development project. At least three bridges are envisaged as part of this interchange, along with a grade signalised intersection planned at the junction of Al Jamaa Al Akbar Street and Ghala Industrial Area road.
The second interchange planned across Ghala Industrial Area road will also include a bridge structure, as well as a signalised intersection.
on the road from Ghala Industrial Area leading to Al Ansab STP.
Muscat Municipality has stipulated a 22-month timeframe for the completion of the project, which coincides broadly with the timeline for the proposed launch of Phase 1 of the expanded Muscat International Airport. Well-known engineering consultant Parsons Oman has been retained by the Municipality to provide construction supervision services linked to the project.
Significantly, the contract marks the first major foray by a Portuguese firm into Oman's lucrative road construction and infrastructure sector. Sociedade de Construções
Soares da Costa, which has a 70 per cent stake in the JV, is a subsidiary of Grupo Saores da Costa, one of the largest players in Portugal's civil construction and public works sector.
Ranked among the world's 100 biggest contractors, Soares da Costa is currently undertaking projects in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Costa Rica, Romania and Sao Tome, among other countries. Revenues grossed $800 million in 2009.
© Oman Daily Observer 2012
