Saudi Arabia's King Salman International Airport Development Company (KSIADC) is preparing to tender two new infrastructure contracts for King Salman airport in Riyadh after completing the contractor prequalification stage, reported MEED.
These include the construction of a permanent East-West corridor and landside access roads serving the North and South terminals. The scope of work includes construction of roads, bridges and tunnels.
A mega-hub designed by Foster + Partners, the King Salman International Airport is projected to become the world’s largest such facility integrated with an existing airport site that can accommodate 185 million passengers per annum by 2050 (see Gulf Construction,July 2026 issue).
The airport project spans nearly 57 sq km and will integrate the existing King Khalid International Airport facilities, encompassing six parallel runways, aviation support zones, logistics facilities, retail districts and residential developments.
Nine terminals are planned in total, including a royal terminal, a commercial airline terminal, a dedicated private aviation terminal and a cargo terminal for low-cost carriers. It is set for initial terminal operations in 2029.
The tender move comes following KSIADC's selection of three groups to deliver the Terminal 6 apron, taxiways and other airfield infrastructure at the airport.
KSIADC, a Public Investment Fund (PIF) entity, kicked off work on the project’s third runway with a joint venture of Spain’s FCC Construcción and Saudi contractor Al-Mabani General Contractors handling it.
The King Salman airport project spans nearly 57 sq km.
The runway, 4,200 m in length with multiple access taxiways, has been designed to align with Riyadh’s prevailing wind conditions to improve safety and operational efficiency, and is expected to raise the airport’s hourly movement capacity from 65 to 85 aircraft once operational.
In parallel, construction on a new passenger terminal, which is designed to handle 40 million passengers annually, is set to begin in 2026, marking the first major phase of Riyadh’s strategy to build this mega aviation hub.
“The next phase of the airport project will include new aircraft hangars and key airside infrastructure, with operations targeted to begin in 2029,” remarked its Acting CEO Marco Mejia.
KSIA had recently achieved a major construction milestone with the completion of Phase Zero of its Private Aviation Terminal Apron, thus strengthening its operational readiness.
Green concrete for airport project
In another development, Almabani, a leading Saudi engineering and construction powerhouse, backed by sovereign wealth fund PIF, has along with its consortium partners – CarbonCure, a Canadian clean technology company, and Spanish builder FCC Construcción – secured a major contract to supply lower carbon concrete for the KSIA project.
Announcing the contract win, Almabani said the ‘green concrete’ will be produced with the Canadian group's carbon mineralisation technologies.
The Saudi builder will leverage its specialised concrete production plants to deliver mega-scale aviation, infrastructure and civil engineering projects across the Middle East.
On the key project, CarbonCure said the sustainability targets embedded in the KSIA masterplan are among the most ambitious in the airport industry.
“KSIA is targeting LEED Platinum certification, incorporating cutting-edge green initiatives that take into account both embodied and operational carbon, prioritising both renewable energy and lower carbon building materials,” remarked Dean Forgeron, the Chief Technology Officer at CarbonCure.
“Across the global concrete industry, CarbonCure is scaling an integrated, drop-in solution, offering concrete producers a suite of hardware, software and services to increase the cement efficiency of their concrete products, reduce their production costs and meet demand for green building materials without compromising performance,” he added.