Durrat Khaleej Al Bahrain (DKAB) has awarded Nass Murray & Roberts joint venture a BD20 million ($54.6 million) contract to build 13 bridges in the upcoming Durrat Al Bahrain.

The Nass-Murray joint venture was one of the six contractors that were invited to bid.
Durrat Al Bahrain is situated in the southeast of the country and is a 35-minute drive from central Manama along the newly constructed highway.
The contract comprises 13 precast architectural bridges with a total length of 3.5 km. Six bridges will connect the petal shaped islands with the main Crescent, and six others will connect the ‘Petals’ with the ‘Atolls’. One bridge will connect with the hotel island. The project is believed to be the biggest bridge construction of its kind within Bahrain.
The design life of the bridges is 75 years. The longest bridge measures 520 m, while the shortest will stand at 162 m and the bridge to the hotel will stretch to 373 m.
The 14.5-m wide bridges with a span of 16.2 m will rest on piles of 1.2 m diametre each.
International consultant W S Atkins & Partners Overseas has designed the bridges.
Construction work is to start later this month. It is anticipated that the first bridges will be handed over for public use in early 2007. These will form one of the Bahrain’s greatest tourism landmarks, owing to their magnificent architecture, as they link all islands in a single network.
Durrat is co-owned by Kuwait Finance House (KFH) and the Bahrain government.