Dubai Municipality has appointed consultants for its AED1.8bn ($490m) Dubai Conference Centre (Arena) project in the Al-Jaddaf area of Dubai.

The local OBE is the architectural design consultant. The local office of KEO International Consultants is the infrastructure and structural design consultant, and Jordan’s NEA is the cost consultant.

The arena will overlook Dubai Creek and is part of the municipality’s plans for Expo 2020. 

The main elements of the project are a 17,651 square-metre conference hall capable of seating 10,000 people. The 30-metre high hall will be divided into three levels.

There will also be five sub-halls with a total area of 975 sq m, with each able to accommodate up to 1,000 persons.

The development also includes two hotels. One is a three-star property with 33 floors and a built-up area of 23,226 sq m, and the other will be a four-star hotel with 48 floors, and a built-up area of 38,090 sq m. The ground floor of the hotels will be dedicated for commercial use.

There will also be a 36-floor office building with a total built-up area of 28,800 square metres.

The development will have 65,032 square metres of underground parking with enough space for 1,800 cars.

In mid-May, the municipality awarded US-based Parsons the consultancy contract for its AED12.5bn ($3.4bn) Dubai deep sewer tunnels project.

The Dubai Strategic Sewerage Tunnels project will contain two main tunnels with a total length of 75km. The Bur Dubai deep tunnel will have a total length of 50km and the Deira tunnel with have a total length of 25km. The tunnels will be supported by about 140km of link sewers and two major pump stations. The tunnels will reach depths of up to 90m below ground level.

The municipality is also preparing to issue tender documents for its planned waste-to-energy project.

That project will involves the design of the waste-to-energy scheme and other associated utilities, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the plant and commissioning and testing of the facility.