Qatar begins Doha metro tunnel awards
17 Apr 2013
Peter Kenyon, TunnelTalk
- The long-awaited first tunnel contract on the US$21 billion Doha metro project in Qatar is set to be awarded to the Impregilo (Italy)/ SK Engineering (South Korea)/ Galfar Engineering (Oman) joint venture.
- The contract, for TBM excavation of 13.1km of twin running tunnels on the Red Line North of the new metro system between Msheireb in downtown Doha and Al Khor North, is the first of four major tunnel construction packages that comprise Phase 1 of the project.
- No official announcement has been made by Qatari Rail, the project owner, but TunnelTalk confirmed the news with a call to Milan-based Impregilo. A spokesman of the company said: "We are the preferred bidder for Red Line North but no contract has been signed yet. We will see what will be announced in the next day or week."
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Fig 1. Planned construction to 2022
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Fig 2. Planned construction to 2026
- Red Line North also comprises a further 42.6km of elevated and at-grade structures, which will be awarded in a later construction contract round, for a total completed length of 55.7km. Metro connectivity needs to be completed within the city centre and to the new stadia that are being built in Doha in advance of Qatar hosting the 2022 Soccer World Cup. Further extensions to all lines are planned for delivery by the later date of 2026 (Figs 1 and 2 - dotted lines represent underground alignments).
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The Impregilo-led consortium is expected to sign contracts for construction of Doha Metro's Red Line North tunnels in the next few days. In all, seven consortia were prequalified:
• Bouygues (France)/ Obayashi (Japan)/ Al-Jaber Engineering (Qatar)
• QDVC (Qatar/France)/ Al-Darwish Engineering (Qatar)
• Impregilo (Italy)/ SK Construction (South Korea)/Galfar Engineering (Oman)
• Samsung (South Korea)/ OHL (Spain)/ Qatar Building Company (Qatar)
• Habtoor Leighton (UAE/ Australia)/ John Holland (Australia)/ Dragados (Spain)
• Ssangyong Engineering (South Korea)/ Dogus (Turkey)/ Makyo (Turkey)/ Redcol Construction (Qatar)
• Implenia (Switzerland)/ Daewoo Engineering (South Korea)/ Orascom Construction (Egypt)/ Contrack
International (Qatar)
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Fig.3. Doha metro Red Line will link with Lusail Light Rail
- An eventual 18 stations are planned to serve the entire length of Red Line North, which will connect with the Lusail City light rail system that is currently under construction by the Qatari Diar/ Vinci Construction Grands Projets (QDVC) joint venture to serve the population of a new waterfront city 15km north of Doha (Fig 3). The independent four line LRT system in Lusail City, which is being overseen by QRail as part of the so-called Qatari Intergrated Rail System, is already well advanced and when complete in 2016 will run to 28km on a mixture of at-grade, elevated and underground alignments, both single and double track. It includes 25 stations, eight of them underground. A total of approximately 8km, most of it completed but not fitted out, runs underground in cut and cover tunnels.
- Award of three other underground packages on the Red Line South, Gold Line and Green Line) are expected imminently, plus award of the two main central stations as a single package - Msheireb in Downtown Doha that will be the central hub of the new metro network and will act as an interchange for three of the four lines (Red, Green and Gold); and Education City which will link the Green Line with a planned future high speed rail network and existing long distance passenger rail.
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Red Line will connect the new city of Lusail to Doha
- A 17.5km all-underground fourth line, the semi circular Blue Line that will connect the residential and commercial areas of West Bay and Airport City North, is planned for the future.
- The Impregilo led consortium is also prequalified, along with seven other international consortia, for construction of the 13.1km twin-running tunnels on the 30.6km-long Gold Line. This contract, along with the Red Line South and the Green Line tunnels contracts, is expected to be awarded in the next few days.
- Once complete the metro network will extend to a total length of 216km, nearly half of it underground, with approximately 100 stations. Project management for the Red Line was awarded to Jacobs Engineering (USA) in August last year, with Louis Berger (USA)/Egis Rail (France) managing the Gold Line, Hill International (USA) the Green Line and a consortium of Porr (Austria)/ Saudi Binladen Group (Saudi Arabia)/ HBK Contracting (Qatar) awarded a contract for enabling works. Those contracts have a total value of some US$400 million.
| Table 1. Doha metro tunnel and main station construction packages | |||||
| Contract | Contractor | Total length | Tunnel | At grade/ Elevated | Stations |
| Red Line North | Impregilo/ SK/ Galfar JV | 55.7km | 13.1km | 42.6km | 18 |
| Red Line South | TBA | 42.8km | 12.8km | 30.0km | 12 |
| Gold Line | TBA | 30.6km | 13.1km | 17.5km | 20 |
| Green Line | TBA | 65.3km | 37.0km | 28.3km | 31 |
| Msheirab and Education City Stations | Samsung C&T/OHL/Qatar Building Company | n/a | n/a | n/a | 2 |
| Blue Line** | TBA | 17.5km | 17.5km | - | 4 |
| TOTAL | 211.9km | 93.5km | 118.4km | 87 | |
*Source: QRail
**Blue Line has not reached prequalification stage
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8km of Lusail LRT tunnels approaching completion
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Lusail Marina 4 cut-and-cover station
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Impregilo-Salini merger creates new tunnel force - TunnelTalk, April 2013
Doha progresses to metro construction - TunnelTalk, August 2012
Atkins scores another Qatar World Cup contract - TunnelTalk, January 2012
Middle East project pipeline attracts foreign interest - TunnelTalk, January 2012
Qatar drives forward with Doha metro - TunnelTalk, December 2011
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