By Elizabeth Broomhall www.constructionweekonline.com
Two contractors competing for work on the world’s tallest tower in Saudi Arabia will find out which company has won the main construction contract this month, Meed has reported.
The confirmed bidders, which include the local company El Seif Engineering & Contracting with Belgium’s Six Construct, and another local firm Saudi Binladin Group, reportedly had to revise their prices for the project earlier this month because the tower’s designs are now more complete.
The 1km-high Kingdom Tower, first unveiled by Kingdom Holdings Company in 2003, will be the centre-piece of Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom City development in Jeddah and the world’s tallest skyscraper after Dubai’s Burj Khalifa when complete.
Developer Emaar, also responsible for the Dubai project, was selected by Kingdom Holdings Company (KHC) last year to supervise construction of the tower and the city, estimated to cost a massive US$40 billion to build.
According to a statement issued by KHC at the time, Emaar was selected for its “proven experience in the development of mega projects, its knowledge of the area and its social setup”, suggesting that similar qualities may be sought from a contractor.
With more than 200 floors, the tower will stand higher than the Burj Khalifa, which is currently the world’s tallest man-made structure at 828m.
The city itself, part of a larger, multi-billion-dollar project to develop Jeddah, is set to cover an area of 23 million m2 and provide a mixture of luxury homes, hotels and offices.
