Canadian firm Malone Given Parsons has signed an agreement with Kuwait Municipality to prepare a masterplan that will replace the previous designs for City of Silk and Bubiyan island developments.

Malone Given Parsons will be working with the local Gulf Consult to review and update the previous masterplans for the northern sub-region of Kuwait, which includes the Subiya promontory, the location of the proposed Silk City, and Bubiyan island.

The firms will begin work on the masterplan next week, and have 12 months to complete the designs.

The work will involve using the original Subiya urban development plan, upgraded by Gulf Consult in partnership with other firms in 2004, and the Silk City masterplan, proposed in 2006, to create a suitable new masterplan for the proposed offshore developments.

In 2004, a team of US-based Parsons Brinckerhoff, US-based Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK), UK-based Healy & Baker and the local Gulf Consult signed an agreement to upgrade the original masterplan that was completed by the local Kuwaiti Engineering Group and Beirut-based Dar al-Handasah (Shair & Partners) in the 1980s.

In March 2006, UK-based Eric Kuhne & Associates proposed the $77bn Madinat al-Hareer (City of Silk) development as an alternative masterplan for the Subiya promontory.

In October, a consortium led by South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company submitted the lowest bid for the contract to build the estimated KD738.8m ($2.6bn) Subiya causeway.

The causeway will be 37.5 kilometres long and incorporate a bridge spanning 150-200 metres. The bridge will cross Kuwait Bay, linking Kuwait City with the Subiya promontory and Bubiyan Island (MEED 15:10:10).