U.S. Engineering Firms Land Big Contracts in Qatar

By Aileen Cho

Transportation and other markets in the emirate countries of the Middle East continue to offer lucrative opportunities for U.S. engineering firms. Qatar leaders on April 6 signed contracts with these firms worth billions of dollars during a Manhattan conference that drew top government and business officials.

Parsons Transportation Group will provide design work for two new highways that together are projected to cost more than $1 billion, and is teamed with AECOM on construction management for a $3.5-billion, 30-km light rail network. Jeffrey Squires, Parsons executive vice president, says Qatar's 2022 hosting of the FIFA World Cup is spurring infrastructure development. “This is all part of the FIFA bid and vision,” he says.

Qatar Airways signed an agreement with Boeing Co. for seven aircraft worth $1.3 billion. Qatar investors are working with U.S. firm Hines Group on a $700-million, 2.5-million-sq-ft real estate project in Washington, D.C., called CityCenter DC.

At the New York City forum, Qatar's Prime Minster Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani said he “expects the U.S. will remain our most important partner” as the country plans $27 billion worth of development.

SQUIRES

“We are the single largest investor in Qatar with 120 companies on the ground,” added U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “These are not just big deals but good deals. They will keep Qatar on the path to democratic development and create American jobs.”

There is concern about whether Americans will be willing to relocate to Qatar. But Squires notes that Parsons has had a long-standing presence in the region and focuses on training local talent.

Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive officer at Exxon Mobil Corp., said that “few nations offer a more dynamic business environment. Qatar has sound, stable-market-oriented opportunities.” Exxon Mobil has $16 billion invested in Qatar energy projects.

KEYWORDS: Qatar

Aileen Cho, ENR's deputy editor for infrastructure, is a born-again Angeleno and recovering New Yorker. She studied English and theater at Occidental College, where a reporter teaching the one existing journalism course encouraged her to apply for the LA Times Minority Editing Training Program. Her journalism training led to her first stories about transportation, working as a cub reporter with the Greenwich Time. She has been honored, solo or with ENR colleagues, with several journalism awards. For ENR, she has traveled the world, clambering over bridges, touring airports, and descending into tunnels. She is a regular at transportation conferences, where she finds that airport and mass transit engineers really know how to have fun (bridge engineers aren't far behind). She is always eager to hop on another flight because there are so many interesting projects and people, and she gets tired of throwing her cats off her computer in her home office in Eagle Rock, California. She is a very conflicted Mets/Dodgers fan.

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