JEDDAH, 14 September 2004 — A pedestrian footbridge, critically damaged in a collision here on Saturday has been condemned as unsafe. Work is well under way to remove the year-old wooden structure which spans the Old Makkah Road at Kilo Four.
An overheight vehicle, carrying a large industrial machine, hit the bridge on the eastbound carriageway. In the collision, a main cross- beam of the bridge was damaged.
Police closed the road and diverted traffic onto a service road, causing huge tailbacks into the city as the bridge threatened to collapse into the road. The access to the heavily used footbridge was sealed off.
Municipality officials who were called to the scene to assess the damage inspected the site.
Engineers took photos of the bridge and sent them to the company in Finland, which has extensive experience in large wooden structures and that supplied the wood. They advised the engineers not to use the bridge, and later in the day, a decision was made to take the bridge down.
“A 30-centimeter section of the cross-beam was broken,” said Khalaf Al-Qasmi, from Al-Muhaidib Contracting Co., which is tearing down the bridge. “The damage severely weakened the whole structure, and it had to come down.”
The bridge, which had a clearance between road and platform of six meters that was greater than the standard five-meter clearance on most main roads in the Kingdom, carried no sign to indicate the height.
It remains to be seen whether the driver was aware of the height of his load. The vehicle with its abnormally tall load was traveling without an escort.
There are plans to replace the bridge with a similar structure.
Abdullah, one of the students waiting for transport, said that he normally crossed the bridge to meet his father on the opposite side of the road, as did many of his friends.
A few had made the perilous journey across the road, attracted by the heavy machinery and activity of the removal team, but he preferred to wait.
Street vendors, however, were doing brisk business from their pavement stalls selling sweets and snacks to the captive audience of extra students who did not risk crossing the road.
