South African construction firm Murray & Roberts (M&R) and its joint venture partners have won a $1 billion airport contract from the Dubai government.

“The department of civil aviation of the government of Dubai has issued a letter of intent to award the contract for completion of terminal 3, concourse 2 and car park at Dubai International Airport,” the company said in a statement.
The JV consists of M&R and Japanese construction firm Takenaka which specialises in airport projects. M&R, which is the project leader and has a 40 per cent share in the project, will lead the 28-month-long construction that started last month.
The Dubai-based Al Habtoor Engineering is also part of the joint venture.
The 532,000 sq m Terminal 3 is a wholly underground structure, composed of two major levels, in addition to three other service and administrative levels. It is connected on the landside to the car park by two separate levels, each 300-m long.
Concourse 2 is partially a continuation of the Terminal 3 underground structure that extends above ground under a metal shell to accommodate 27 aircraft stands. Of these, five are for A380s and 14 are remote stands. It will be positioned in line with the present Concourse 1 and connected to Terminal 3 by a vertical transportation system.
The building shell, being tendered under a different package, has an elliptical profile with tapering ends. Its footprint is 90.8 m wide and 924 m long. The built-up area is about 670,000 sq m.
In addition to the arrival and departure floors, there is a dedicated area for first and business class passengers, and a hospitality complex divided into four- and five-star hotels.