Construction work on four new bridges connecting Abu Dhabi’s new financial district on Al Maryah Island with Reem Island and the former Tourist Club area on Abu Dhabi island is set to start this spring.
Belgian contractor Six Construct, one of the companies building the Cleveland Clinic on Al Maryah Island, is to start work on a Dh330 million contract to build four new bridges before the end of June, Mubadala Development company, said yesterday.
Work on the new bridges – 3, 4, 10 and 11 – which will link Al Maryah Island with Hamdan Street and Electra Street on Abu Dhabi island to the west and with Reem Island to the east will take two years, with construction expected to be completed in 2016, Mubadala said.
According to masterplan documents, two of the new bridges, 10 and 4, will eventually carry Abu Dhabi’s planned light railway system.
Mubadala added that the contractors have been instructed to use a special marine construction method to preserve marine life, water quality and ecosystems surrounding Al Maryah Island.
Architect Broadway Malyan’s plans for the island – drawn up before the global financial crisis – show that eventually the new financial centre will be linked to the rest of the capital via 13 bridges connecting the island with Abu Dhabi island and Reem island via a series of thoroughfares.
Currently, Al Maryah is connected to the rest of Abu Dhabi by three bridges. One lies next to Abu Dhabi Mall, a second links with Reem Island, and the third is a service bridge that is now closed to ordinary traffic.
Six Construct announced that it had been awarded the contract to build the bridges in January but gave no details of when the project would get underway.
An official tender to build three of the bridges – 4, 10 and 11 – was put out by Mubadala in June 2013.
However, since then the tender has been expanded to include Bridge 3, which had been designed to go through Abu Dhabi’s historic Le Meridien hotel. After talks between the hotel’s owner, Abu Dhabi National Hotels, and the Urban Planning Council the bridge has been re-designed to run through the marina precinct next to the hotel giving the property a reprieve.
Mubadala also confirmed that Al Futtaim Carillion had started construction work on Al Maryah island’s second hotel, the Four Seasons, after it awarded the company a Dh730m contract to build it in June 2013. The hotel is scheduled to open in 2016.
The 144-metre tall, 34-storey 100,000-square metre five-star property will comprise 190 guest rooms and 125 apartments.
The news marks the next significant phase of Mubadala’s Dh4 billion Sowwah Square project on Al Maryah that the state-owned strategic investment company has been developing for the past six years.
“The four new bridges form a central part of Al Maryah Island’s sustainable transport network designed to rigorous international standards, with plans for light rail, metro and water taxis,” said Ali Eid AlMheiri, the executive director of Real Estate & Infrastructure at Mubadala.
Mubadala first tendered the bridge projects back in 2009 as architectural icons for the city. However, the scheme was hit by the global financial downturn and the tenders were subsequently cancelled.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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