A joint venture of Louis Berger, a US-based architectural and engineering design firm, has won a $79-million contract from Qatar Railways Company to provide project management consultancy (PMC) services for all elevated and at-grade sections of the Doha Metro project.

The Doha Metro, part of the overall Qatar Integrated Railway programme, is 216 km long spread across four lines (Red, Green, Gold and Blue) with an estimated total construction value of $36 billion. The Louis Berger Egis Rail JV said the newly contracted sections include the Red Line North, Red Line South and Green Line, which have a combined length of 16 km.

These sections will provide a passageway to the Fifa-compliant stadiums that are being developed for the upcoming Qatar World Cup in 2022, it said.

Meanwhile, the Exova Group, the global testing, calibration and advisory services provider, has won three major contracts to conduct materials testing and fire safety engineering for the metro. Worth more than £3.7 million ($5.56 million), the contracts will see Exova deliver a programme of materials testing for key infrastructure, as well as specialist fire strategy and consultancy.

The contracts, which range up to three years in duration, include bespoke laboratory-based and on-site materials testing. A programme of associated soil and environmental chemical analysis will also be undertaken to ensure compliance with environmental regulations.

A specialist in fire safety operation, Exova Warringtonfire has also been contracted to undertake concept design validation, fire strategy and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) modelling.

Hicham Abdallah, managing director of Exova for Middle East, Asia and Asia Pacific said: “These are extensive and technically demanding programmes which Exova is well placed to deliver.”

The new Doha Metro is set to open in 2019.