A consortium made up of US-based HOK and the UK’s Arup has been appointed to develop the next phase of the masterplan for the Dubai Expo 2020 site.

The venue, Dubai Trade Centre-Jebel Ali, is a 4.4-square-kilometre site that includes a 1.5 sq km Dubai Expo 2020 area and an additional surrounding residential, hospitality and logistics zone.

At its peak, the Dubai Expo 2020 exhibition site at Dubai Trade Centre-Jebel Ali will be designed to accommodate up to 300,000 visitors, with average week-day attendance expected at 153,000.

The masterplan phase will run until November 2015 when Dubai must submit its masterplan for approval with the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE), the governing body of the World Expo.

Construction work onsite is then expected to start once the masterplan has been approved.

HOK and Arup both worked on the concept masterplan for the site during the bid successful bid phase in 2013.

Infrastructure connecting to the site is being developed by other agencies. In July Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority appointed a joint venture of US’ Parsons International and France’s Systra has won the contract to complete the preliminary engineering for the new metro line that will serve the Dubai Expo 2020 site and Al-Maktoum International airport.