Firms recently appointed as transaction advisers to Metro Jeddah Company’s $1bn Obhur Suspension Bridge public-private partnership (PPP) project have officially commenced work on the scheme.

Metro Jeddah Company appointed a consortium of Bahrain–based GIB Capital and US/India’s Synergy Consulting as financial adviser of the project in late April. Global firm Dentons and US-based HDR were appointed as legal and technical adviser, respectively.

The firms will assist Metro Jeddah Company in the procurement process, which is expected to start soon and likely take over a year.

Obhur Suspension bridge will link the north and south banks of Obhur Creek in north Jeddah.

It will extend two kilometres across the creek and will be 74 metres wide with a maximum clearance of 51 metres. The bridge is designed to include four lanes for road traffic in each direction and a segment of the planned Jeddah Metro Orange line.

The bridge was tendered as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract in 2015. MEED understands the joint venture of Spain’s Obrascon Huarte Lain (OHL), Lebanon’s Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) and Japan’s IHI was the frontrunner for the contract.

However, the contract was not awarded and the scheme has since been converted into a PPP.