At a cost of $816 million, ampoule it will take four years to complete at 1, diagnosis 600 meters long and an arch 205 meters high and 667 meters long. At 64 meters wide, the bridge will accommodate 12 lanes of traffic – per hour, in each direction – and a metro line running down its center. The bridge will also include a metro station, an abra station and the man-made island on which an Opera theater will be constructed. [1][2]
Usually, I’d say that’s a lot of money. But the bridge seems to become really nice, a fine piece of architecture as far as I can judge it. Also, yesterday I read about that stealth bomber which crashed near Guam, being worth 1,2 billion Dollars. I think, it’s better to build bridges than bombers.
I really like it. But let’s be honest, it doesn’t compare to the bridge between Abdoun and 4th Circle 😉
Throw a toll up there, and they will get their money back in no time..
There will be a toll, for sure/ Dhs 4 per pass..
Those cites are going to vanish like salt when is dissolved, once the oil is gone, what a wast of money and resources.
It looks like the Loch Ness monster to me.
What can i say! When you think they had enough they do bigger stuff!
and don’t you guys see the similarity of this project with SYDNEY ? , It’s the habit of dubai officials
to look at what others have and do better then it , And what is helping them is money
without money UAE is nothing! , Love it though it looks awesome.
SIMPLY wow
Awesome. I’m impressed.
Imagine what all this wasted money can do for Islam. Here is a sample of what we face in the USA!
http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/
This movie is sweeping every American town!
I want to be excited about this. I really do. But Dubai scares the hell out of me like that. It just feels so overwhelmingly sublime – with a negative connotation, you know?
*vomits* i think this is distasteful and offensive. also kitschy. trying to be beautiful by putting too much makeup. ugh.
ali up there said ” without money UAE is nothing” yeah ..without money USA is nothing, I dont buy the culture and history arguments, plenty of places on earth are rich in culture, poor in finances and for that they rot in neglect…..look at the Afghan culture……what a shame……we are in the age of the $.
I wonder why so many people are negative towards the “Dubai”. This is an honest question, I want to know why so many people are scared of or hate Dubai. Why cant we look at it as a sucess story to some extent? The thing is no one in Dubai claims that it is the capital of intellectual progress or the crucible of civilization. They did attempt to compare Duabi with the greatest cities in the world but that quickly died out for the absurdity of the concept….but as a witness and a participant…i have to admit i had the negative attitude when i first got here and as you live here and struggle with all the negatives, and believe me there are many, you cant help but get the feeling of being part of something positive, or at the very least different in this region, I dont think any unbiased observer can deny that.
btw, to begin with, Amman has an identity Dubai does not, so Dubai has nothing to lose and everything to gain by building, building and building its their only way out of this dilemma. If you lived in the UAE in the 80s and 90s you would understand what it means to live in a desert city where the concept of a large crowd is unheard of. Some of us who have been here for a while actually welcome the crowds.
Holy crap.
I GOTTA MOVE TO DUBAI I GOTTA MOVE TO DUBAI.
Markus,,There is no comparison what so ever between Dubai and the State:having said that,US is one of the most richest countries in this world ,San Joaquin valley in California is one the most fertile land in the world ,this is just small example ,what does Dubai has ,nothing whatsoever ,except few years of oil reserve.
actually, dubai imports refined petroleum just as everyone else does. crude oil export revenues account for only 4% of the GDP with the rest being from tourism and other activities.
dubai cultivates barren land and makes it interesting for the wealthy populous and generates revenue that way. other “rich” countries cultivate their land in different ways and no one is wrong.
i hate it it when people bash Dubai like it somehow murdered their mother. it emanates jealousy and unreasonable doubt. just because you can’t afford it doesn’t mean it’s bad.
Markus, I’ve lived here all my life. My entire life. And I can say, with all honesty, that Dubai was a much better place 5 years back. Unless you happen to hold a local or foreign passport, then it’s alright for you even now. All these developments come with repercussions that affect the bulk of people who live in the UAE. A large percentage of people live from paycheck to paycheck, the quality of life in Dubai that is so heavily advertised is only targeting a small audience of those who have.
I don’t see Dubai for the changes it could make and in fact makes, but for the changes it should make. When both the health and educational sectors remain far behind the mark that made any great city great, you know Dubai has a problem (especially when it tries so hard to emulate great cities). That’s the Dubai that scares me. The one that wants to aggressively place itself on the top list of classy cities, when it has so many fundamental issues that need to be addressed. You see, that’s what gets me. Dubai builds itself for the world to love it. When in reality, many who live in it and who fall in a certain class will surely say otherwise. People who’ve lived here for a very long time feel that Dubai’s sudden shift of interest is directed outwards, and this translates itself inwards as road tolls, insane house rents, and 25% increase on foodstuff prices as a latest example. Majority of people have to bear the brunt of Dubai’s Attention-Craving Syndrome. And it’s not fair.
And please, don’t sing me the ‘if you don’t like it then leave’ tune. I’ve heard enough of those in my short lifetime.
Just to clarify, that last line was not directed to you Markus 🙂
ok al., what makes you think the education and health sector are not among action list of things to address? have you seen dubai health village/city or whatever it’s called? stuff are in the works. and education too; new colleges, universities, et cetera.
inflation and ridiculous prices are a staple of every power economy. all those fancy cities you all admire such as paris or tokyo, they all suffer from the same tough financial living conditions. hell, there’s a very well-documented phenomenon in japan called Karoshi where people die from overworking. yet, japan is an extremely impressive country, but they’re not relaxed. people all over the world work to live while trying to save some too. it’s a global phenomena that’s not exclusively particular to dubai.
*power economy that supports a healthy 1st-world country infrastucture
WOW! Beautiful!
I gotta move to dubai as well!!!
Rhombus ajility, yes I don’t deny that there are initiatives to improve those two particular sectors. But compared to the size of investments in other, rather redundant mega-projects, they’re close to peanuts. So there’s a Health City – let’s make it more gated to filter the masses into, again, the haves and the have nots. Same goes for education. I’m not saying there aren’t good sides to living in Dubai. There is so much I love about this place. But I think Dubai’s case is unique if only because it has changed almost overnight. People can’t cope anymore.
in that regard then, i completely agree with you. relatively speaking, the investments in education and health are minuscule compared to the malls we’re already fed up with and endless towers with uninspired names. i’ve heard cases of people leaving dubai already because of the high prices, something we all can’t deny. soon enough gasoline will be on par with european prices, and that scares me more than anything because everything else correlates with gas.
rhombus ajility,,I you pay me to live there I would not take it, Dubai is built on slave labour and exploitation of others
Is the bridge really a priority/necessity? I suggest they finish working on the 300 other projects they already have on hand and then move to other projects that mainly serve as a means to glorify Dubai for tourists! Man it is becoming too artificial. I am afraid Amman is slowly following Dubai’s growth, only it is taking baby steps.
Al Urdunni Al hurr,
I know California like the back of my hand, lived there for most of my adult life, I worked in San jose and in Mira Mesa right by Camp Pendelton,worked in Los Angeles at HSS in EL Segundo, I know every street corner from Tijuana all the way up to weed, have you ever been to weed and Shasta mountains? I think Cali is heaven on earth…whats your point though? Cali is/was the 4th largest economy in the world, its telling that Dubai to be compared to the hub of innovation, aerospace technology, satellite telecom.
Al Urdunni I agree with alot of your political views but dont kid yourself by saying Dubai has nothing going for it if it wasnt for oil, as a matter of fact Dubai imports itsfuel from Abu Dhabi, thats why the price in Dubai is actually higher and if it wasnt for subsidies it would be redicioulously higher than AD. Dubais GDP contribuition from Oil was 5.1% in 2005 and going down steadily. Did you know that?
My question was, why people cant look at the Dubai experiment in a positive sense, why the negativity bordering on hostility, I mean I hate NY i hate people’s attitudes there etc, but I dont go around saying new york will turn into dust just cuz I hate it.
al on the other hand you bring up some good points, and as i said, there are alot fo negatives there, but the mere fact that people are comparing Dubai with Cali, London Milan etc , and failing miserably is a triumph for that city, Dubai has moved beyond the choices of Muscat Jeddah, Kuwait, Doha Damascus etc….I mean as a long time LA resident I can discuss the negatives, gangs, crime, recession, home owners in LA wish they owned property in Dubai instead nowadays. BTW you touched on how Dubai is marketing itself to the world, I hear it from certain people who are well connected with the authorities in Dubai, they are not banking on that for the long term, they are doing what they can to sustain this for as long as possible, and hopefully start something that can be sustainable, its a super high stakes powker game and its all out, you either win the whole pot or go broke for them, the last drops of oil are the playing chips.
I wish people would do some research about the unseen progress in Dubai, there is a huge drive to develope high level educational institutions in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, , your talking Harvard, MIT UCla caliber expertise, yes its imported, yes its packaged, but it will be made available, while it is merely a dream for others in the middle east.
I have issues with the Health care standard in the UAE, I think Jordanian standards are far superior….so there is a place they need to target…..as far as technology is concerned I like what AD is doing, they are targeting heavy industries and they have the $$ to back it up, steel, aluminum cars aerospace and more. If you think Dubai is causing a stir wait till you see what Abu Dhabi is doing, I mean AD literally (im talking dollar amounts) is pumping in 10 times what Dubai has. I have visited some sites in Reem Island yas etc …what is going there is histroy , it has never been done before in the history of mankind, thats a fact, love it or hate it, it is reality.
Al Urdunni , this is the lamest argument all the jealous brits and russians use …it was built on slave labor, you want to get into history and see what other nations were built on blood, sweat and suffering of its indigenous people? Good ole America was built through slavery and the blood of its original inhabitants, go to a grocery store in cali or a gas station you will see how many illegals work and slave for much less than minimum wage, they are stil making more than what they will if they stayed in Mexico
Why, oh why, must Dubai city planners make the place look like a scene from The Matrix?? I agree with whoever said “kitschy.” The bridge itself is interesting-looking, but a bunch of the buildings around it look really gaudy.
First of all ,let me say this,two wrongs doest make right for any country,including Dubai to become rich on the back and shoulders of others such as the Asian.
Markus,,Sorry I got back to you late,and yes Markus,US was built on slave labor and exploitation of others and Iam not defending US when I brought the example of what The US and Dubai have,I merely wanted to point out that Dubai would not be able just like all Arab countries including Jordan to be viable State in the long run because each and all of those countries would not be able to become viable and let alone independent and sovereign because of numbers of objective reason,first ,such as water,which is one of the most significant factors for any country and second, off course our reliance on the west for protection ie building military bases to protect those corrupt regime such as ours in Amman.Third, we are consumers nations nothing more and nothing less,we are dumbing grounds for the west ,Japan and china ,we imports everything from them from A to Z,and that it is going to spell disaster for us in the near future …
Marcus,,One more thing I forgot to reply to your comment,Who told you that I hat Dubai,I only despise their incompetent government and its practices.
coool 🙂
There is nothing special. In Riga (Latvia) under construction is much smaller and much expensiver one. With 3 lanes of traffic in each direction and bank communications, current estimated costs are more than 1 billion $.
It can’t be comapred to this: in Riga (Latvia) under construction is much smaller and much expensiver one. With 3 lanes of traffic in each direction and bank communications, current estimated costs are more than 1 billion $.
I think it is amazing along with some of the other things that Dubai has from what I’ve seen, like the man-made islands and the mile high building, but that’s just my opinion.