Dubai has always attracted a lot of people for business and lately, for residence too! The largely growing community has a lot to do with the way the city of Dubai is advancing in terms of infrastructure and technology. And all this for a city that is situated in the midst of a dessert!

Envisioned by the New York Architect Firm Fxfowle, the design of this classic Arch Bridge has Sheikh Mohammed’s official stamp of approval and the construction begins from next month. Here are some statistics of this amazing engineering masterpiece:

It'll be one mile long and 670 feet tall.
It will have 12 lanes for traffic.
It will cost 817 million dollars.
The bridge will carry more than 2,000 vehicles per hour in each direction.
A metro line will run across the middle.
Construction begins in March, with a slated completion date of 2012

From a technological standpoint and an architectural one, it is indeed quite impressive to what they are achieving in what is essentially a city in the middle of a desert. However, from an environmental standpoint I can imagine it does put a lot of strain considering the amount of resources needed for such an initiative. Not to mention, imagine the negative environmental impact caused by the indoor ski slopes they have built in this dessert island! Just 2 days back I read an article in Businessweek about the infrastructure developments that Dubai has achieved in a small period of time. And yet, this is one city that has always been floating in controversies about their economy, oil, slave labor and oppressive laws! Whether this proves to be helpful to the country's economy in the long run, or gets lost in the volatile political situation is yet to be seen.

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