JEDDAH, 26 May 2004 — Over the next five years, the Jeddah municipality is to spend a massive SR700 million on road improvements in the city. It is part of the boost in infrastructure development that the city has been given to cater for the rapidly growing population.
Under a separate plan, the trunk mains for sewage are currently being laid between Quraish Street and a treatment plant to the south of Jeddah and the branch network that will connect thousands of houses to the system are planned and budgeted for.
With an eye on the future of public transport in the city, an 18-month feasibility study is also under way to examine additional options to reduce future traffic problems.
Mohammed Bamanie, deputy mayor for projects and construction, said the municipality had to work toward public transportation — not necessarily buses, but a light rail or perhaps even a subway.
“It is too early to derive any really useful information from the study so far,” he said. “But we have to do these improvements. This will help relieve the congestion problems for 10-15 years and beyond. We have to look for another means of transportation. The city is crowded now and in the future it will be worse.”
With a demographic increase of around 3.8 percent and the steady trickle of migrants into the city, the problem of rapid growth is not reducing yet. “There is a national strategy to reverse the migration away from towns to cities by improving local facilities,” said Bamanie.
Bamanie identified three targets for roads in Jeddah over the next five years. “To free up the major intersections, to complete some main roads west to east, and to upgrade some main roads north to south and upgrade them to the status of highways.”
The first major intersection has been started at the junction of Waly Al-Ahd Street with King Fahd Street. “There still is one and a half years to go on the three-year contract. Right now, it is all going well and is on schedule.”
The municipality has signed a second contract to build an underpass on Waly Al-Ahd Street and under Madinah Road that will make it effectively free of traffic lights. Khalid ibn Al-Waleed Street and Othman ibn Affan Street will be improved to ease traffic through-flow.
“This will solve the problems at four or five of the worst intersections,” said Bamanie.
There are other contracts in the pipeline as well. “We expect to sign two contracts soon — one concerning the junction of Hail and Waly Al-Ahd streets so Waly Al-Ahd Street will be clear from west to east.”
The intersection of Madinah Road and Al-Hamra Street outside the Ministry of the Interior will be eased with a bridge or underpass, thus getting rid of the current long rush-hour holdups at the lone set of traffic lights.
“These improvements should relieve the pressure for another 10 years,” he said.
The costs are enormous but, Bamanie feels, essential. The Waly Al-Ahd Street intersection alone will top out at SR120 million. The Hail Street intersection with Waly Al-Ahd Street and the King Fahd Street with Palestine Street are budgeted at SR40 million each.
The Madinah Road with Al-Hamrah Street intersection will cost another SR45 million.
A projected underpass on Sharbatly Street, which will pass under the Expressway, is to cost about SR75 million.
Al-Amal Street to the north of Hera Street at the junction of Madinah Road will host another underpass at around SR75 million.
At the planning stage is an upgrade of Prince Majed Street and King Fahd Street, with traffic lanes and three or four intersections improved. “On Prince Majed Street, there may be as many as eight intersections sorted out in the coming five years at a cost of 300 million,” Bamanie said.
These sums are projected and approved for the municipal budget. “Everything is on the way. We simply have to spend the money, because here in Jeddah the main roads are generally wide enough, but the problems with intersections really need to be solved,” he added.
