Foster & Partners and Wilkinson Eyre head the five strong shortlist bidding for a £77m infrastructure project backed by George Osborne in his last budget as chancellor.

The Orwell Crossings Project will ease traffic congestion in Ipswich by providing a major new bridge over the River Orwell, connecting the waterfront to the town centre, improving journey times and acting as a catalyst for further regeneration.

Foster’s and Wilkinson Eyre are joined by Knight Architects, which recently won planning for Finland’s longest bridge, a team featuring Canadian practice Adamson Associates, the executive architect on the Shard, and William Matthews – the man who helped design the tower while at Renzo Piano – and a lone bid by French practice Marc Mimram which is based in Paris and has recently carried out extensive work in China.

The winning architect will join an existing project team led by WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff which is responsible for structural and civil engineering. Work is scheduled to start on site by 2020.

All five architects, who receive an honorarium of £10,000, will present their proposals to a judging panel chaired by Michael Hopkins in December with a winner due early next year.

The RIBA competition is being organised for Suffolk County Council.

The aim is also to unlock the development potential of the man-made peninsular island which separates the Wet Dock from the New-Cut, joining the island to the Orwell’s west bank.