Abu Dhabi’s Department of Transport (DoT) has revived plans for the construction of a series of major new road bridges in the emirate.

The Umm Lafina link road scheme involves building five bridges across a series of islands connecting Reem Island to Abu Dhabi Island. The project is split into two contracts.

Companies have already submitted prequalification documents for contract 2, which covers the design and build of two bridges connecting Abu Dhabi Island with the southern Umm Lafina Island. One of the bridges will be an iconic bridge.

Contract 1 will be a traditional construction package and involves building three bridges between the southern and northern Umm Lafina Islands, an unidentified island and Reem Island. The DoT has yet to invite companies to prequalify for this package.

The consultant for the project is the Abu Dhabi office of Aurecon.

The Umm Lafina bridges project has been tendered before. The DoT tendered the project in 2010 and cancelled the tender in 2011.

Development plans have been prepared for the Umm Lafina Islands. The local Tasameem Real Estate was planning to build property on the islands in 2007.

Tasameem is a major Abu Dhabi investment vehicle and has huge stakes in construction companies. It holds shares in National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC) and is a shareholder in the Arabtec Samsung Engineering joint venture company formed by the local Arabtec Construction and South Korea’s Samsung Engineering in 2013.

Abu Dhabi restarted construction work on other bridges that were put on hold earlier this year, when the local/Belgian Six Construct Abu Dhabi was awarded a AED330m ($90m) contract to build four new bridges connecting Al-Maryah Island (formerly known as Sowwah Island) and Abu Dhabi Island.

Government-controlled investment vehicle Mubadala Development Company is the client for that project. Like the Umm Lafina crossing, the bridges were previously tendered as iconic bridges, but were put on hold in 2009.