South Korea’s Samsung C&T has restarted work on some of the Palm Jebel Ali road bridges in Dubai.

The South Korean contractor was awarded an estimated $350m contract to build bridges on the man-made island in 2007, but work on the project was halted in 2009 following the collapse of Dubai’s real-estate projects and financial problems at the project client Nakheel and its holding company Dubai government-owned Dubai World.

As part of the restarted works, Samsung will complete two bridges on the north of the island. “The work involves one main bridge and one small bridge on the right [north] of the island,” says a source close to the project. “Two small bridges on the outside of the island will be excluded for the moment.”

The original design and build contract involved four of the bridges linking different sections of the crescent. A further two will connect the ends of the crescent with the mainland.

Construction work is increasing on the 9.5 million-square-metre Palm Jebel development, which is part of Dubai Waterfront.

Last year Nakheel restarted work on its Jumeirah Park and International City developments in Dubai (MEED 14:11:10).