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The client behind the £70m scheme to turn the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham into the main venue for the 2022 Commonwealth Games has said it expects to shortlist up to six contractors for the job.

Birmingham city council has unveiled a timetable of when it will award the work with the initial contract notice due to be published in the Official Journal at the end of this month.

Interested firms have until the end of February to return expressions of interest – known as selection questionnaires – with a shortlist drawn up a month later.

The council has said a winner could be chosen by the middle of May, otherwise it will ask two firms to submit final tenders with a winner chosen in November. Work is set to start next January with work due to finish in August 2021.

Firms likely to throw their hats into the ring include Buckingham, the contractor behind the new stand development at Fulham’s Craven Cottage ground, Bam, which has worked on the Lord’s redevelopment, and Sir Robert McAlpine which built the 2012 Olympic Games stadium.

The tenders are set to be evaluated by a team including project manager Mace, Arup, who was chosen to redesign Alexander Stadium last October and Birmingham-based consultant Acivico, who is the QS on the scheme.

The revamp of the stadium, which is already home to governing body UK Athletics, will increase capacity from 12,700 to 40,000 for the duration of the Commonwealth Games.

The back-straight stand, which was built in 2012 with a capacity of 5,000, will remain but the other three stands will be demolished and replaced by the new main stand.

The demolition contract is set to be awarded in April while a contractor to build a nearby 400m outdoor warm-up track will be awarded the same month. Both of these contracts are worth less than £4.5m, the council said.

Local firm DSM Demolition, which help bring down the old White Hart Lane ground for Tottenham Hotspur, has already carried out work to tear down former university buildings on the site of the athletes’ village in the Perry Barr area of the city.

Alexander Stadium will host both the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the athletics events. The games are due to run between 27 July and 7 August 2022. The redevelopment will increase the permanent capacity after the games to 20,000.