Dubai’s Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) has invited consultants to submit proposals on 3 March for the design of the Shindagah corridor scheme.

The project involves designing a new bridge across the entrance to the Dubai creek, as well as road infrastructure, including a series of interchanges in Deira and Bur Dubai. Two proposals will be required for the bridge: a standard crossing; and an iconic structure.

The prospective bidders, all US-based, include Aecom, CH2M Hill, and Parsons International, and UK-based Hyder.

A new Shindagah crossing has been designed before. In 200, the RTA appointed Canada’s Cansult, now part of Aecom, to design two bridges crossing the creek including one at Shindagah.

The RTA was planning to move forward with the construction of the new Ittihad Bridge that will replace the existing Floating Bridge. It received expressions of interest (EoIs) from contractors last year and was due to hold a pre-bid meeting in January this year, but the meeting was cancelled.

The 2.7-kilometre-long crossing will be 22-52 metres wide and will extend beyond Al-Riyadh Road on the Bur Dubai side of the creek, and up to the Dubai-Sharjah Road on the Deira side. The main creek crossing will be a 420-metre-long span supporting 12 lanes of traffic. The bridge will be built in segments and will have a decorative steel arch. The consultant is Parsons.

In 2013, the RTA appointed US-based Parsons to prepare plans for future road and transport projects in Dubai’s central business district, from the Sharjah border in the north to Port Rashid in the south and inland as far as Ras al-Khor.

Those plans included four new creek crossings. These will comprise the sixth crossing, the Sheraton bridge, an as-yet unnamed permanent structure that will replace the existing floating bridge, and a new crossing in the Shindagha area. The study will also consider introducing new Salik toll gates to ease congestion in the area.