Dubai (PlantAndEquipment.com) - Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP) has awarded a contract worth AED 10 billion ($2.7 billion) to a joint venture of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) and Abu Dhabi-based Tristar Engineering & Construction for the West Terminal substructure at Al Maktoum International Airport.

The deal includes the foundation of the proposed seven-level West Terminal, which would span about 800,000 square meters and can handle up to 45 million people per year. It is the second of three terminals planned for Dubai's $35 billion airport expansion projects.

The substructure package is projected to include considerable excavation, earthmoving, piling, reinforced concrete, and foundation construction. Construction operations of this magnitude require large crawler excavators, piling rigs, crawler and mobile cranes, concrete pumps, batching facilities, and heavy-duty dump trucks.

The award moves the airport's first phase into substantial construction, after prior contracts for enabling works, runway development, foundations, and concourse substructures.

DAEP has also granted a separate contract for around $1.5 billion to a joint venture between Mitsubishi Corporation and Larsen & Toubro for an automated people-mover system, which will include four subterranean stations in the first phase. The expanded network is intended to link airport facilities via 14 stations.

Additional development packages are scheduled to include the West Terminal superstructure, a fourth concourse, baggage-handling systems, facades, and roofing work.

The development of Al Maktoum International Airport is one of Dubai's greatest infrastructure projects, resulting in a significant pipeline of civil engineering, structural construction, and specialty airport systems contracts.