A Kent-based construction firm has landed a £400million contract for the first phase of a giant container port that will create thousands of jobs.

London Gateway - on the old Shell Haven oil refinery site at Stanford-le-Hope, Essex - will eventually employ around 12,000 people, many of them from the county. There will be many more jobs during construction.

The first phase of the project will be carried out by Laing O’Rourke, which has its head office at Bridge Place, Crossways, Dartford, in a joint venture with Belgian firm Dredging International.

It involves the construction of three berths and a 1.2 kilometre quay for site owner Dubai-based DP World . It is the first major contract to be awarded in the overall £1.5billion project scheduled to be built over the next 10 to 15 years.

London Gateway is the UK’s first deep sea container port for more than 25 years and will handle an estimated 3.5 million containers a year.

It promises to be the most technically advanced container port in the world. The 1,500-acre site also features Europe’s largest logistics park which will offer 9.5 million square feet of warehousing and distribution space.

Simon Moore, chief executive of London Gateway, said: "This contract is a major milestone in constructing the port. London Gateway is vitally important for today's UK economy.

"It will deliver the most efficient and technologically advanced port in the world and much needed deep sea capacity for the UK.

"The port will reduce the need for goods to travel inland, and this will save 2,000 trucks from Britain's highways every day, trucks which normally travel from a port and then return with an empty container to be put back onto a ship."

Laing O'Rourke, led by chairman and chief executive Ray O’Rourke, has grown rapidly since the acquisition of Laing by R.O’Rourke & Son Ltd in 2001.

It is the largest privately owned construction firm in the UK with overseas offices in Germany, India, Australia and United Arab Emirates and more than 31,000 employees worldwide.

Construction jobs in the joint venture are expected to last for five years, with the overall London Gateway project due to be completed in the next ten to 15 years.

The first phase of London Gateway is due to open in 2010, with the first ships arriving in early 2011.

DP World is part of the Dubai Government’s Dubai Holding and one of the world’s largest marine terminal operators.

Founded in 1999 as DP Terminals, it was later renamed DP World after a merger with Dubai Ports Authority. In March 2006, it bought P&O, then the fourth largest ports operator in the world.