JEDDAH, 27 January 2006 — For school administrator Ahmad Al-Zahrani, the sight of a pedestrian footbridge that ends halfway across the traffic-laden Makkah Road is a reminder of the daily risk his students take to get to and from school. And he’s not the only one that has been pleading with city officials to fix the problem.
Residents of the Al-Thaghr and Al-Nuzla neighborhoods, in the south of Jeddah, have been complaining about the danger ever since an overloaded truck crashed into the bridge in 2004.
“After the accident that brought down half of the bridge,” said Zahrani, “we contacted officials at the municipality to rebuild it, but nothing has been done. The pedestrian bridge serves more than 2,000 elementary, middle and high school students. Everyday we warn students to be careful when they walk to the other side. We cannot at the same time prevent students from crossing to the other side.”
Makkah Road is the busiest street in Jeddah. On Wednesday, Arab News observed students crossing the street at their own risk as cars and trucks whizzed past.
Zahrani said that school officials were happy when the pedestrian bridge was built because it was serving the students of the school and the people of the neighborhood.
Talal Al-Mutairi, a resident of Al-Thaghr, said that he has a son that study at the elementary school. He fears that something bad might happen to his child if he crosses the street. He urged the municipality to do something to solve this problem.
Another parent, Badr Al-Saadi, said that he takes his son to school every day after the bridge was damaged. Many parents have since resorted to driving their kids to school — students that would otherwise walk. This has caused additional traffic near the school.
Arab News contacted Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, deputy manager of public relations at Jeddah Municipality. He assured that the municipality would start working on the bridge in March, nearly two years after the accident occurred.
