MANAMA: Increasing traffic jams and the frequent movement of trucks have reduced the lifespan of the King Fahd Causeway, according to an official from the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI).
“Bridges worldwide are meant as passages for travelers and goods, but they are not designed on reclaimed land like the causeway. Furthermore, thousands of tons of goods carried by trucks waiting for hours on the bridge puts pressure on the structure,” said Abdulhakim Al-Shammary, head of the Customs and Port Committee at the BCCI.
He said that by the end of last year about 550,000 trucks used the causeway. “We expect by 2012 the number of trucks traveling through this border point would be a million,” he added.
Director of Traffic Culture Maj. Musa Al-Dossary said on the weekly “Al-Amen” radio talk show, which he hosts, that Bahrain was working to improve its road network to ease the flow of more than 400,000 vehicles.
He said that the number of vehicles was far higher than the capacity of the present network, especially when joined by 8,000 to 9,000 vehicles coming across the King Fahd Causeway. Al-Dossary pointed out that vehicles coming across the Causeway affected all roads in Bahrain.
Al-Shammary said the immediate solution to ease the flow of traffic was to reduce custom procedures taking into consideration the GCC common market agreement. “The long term solution, which is being worked on, will be to expand the present two lanes at the causeway to four lanes for the movement of trucks. In addition, by next year work would begin in the small island near the bridge for maximum utilization of traffic movement,” he said.
The undersecretary for nationality, passports and residence announced last month that a total of 18,71,270 people arrived in and exited from Bahrain in February, including 14,80,150 through the causeway.
