JEDDAH, 23 November 2006 — Many drivers in Jeddah are complaining that their vehicles are frequently getting damaged as a result of badly maintained roads, which many people in the Red Sea port city liken to the surface of the moon.
Holes, bumps and road deformations seem to be one of the main landmarks of the city. Even though Jeddah Municipality has spent millions of riyals in road projects around the city, none of them seem to have made any positive difference.
In an interview last month, Jeddah Mayor Adel Fakieh said that starting next year the municipality will introduce a new system to ensure that contractors currently laying water and sewage pipes and telephone cables in Jeddah resurface the roads properly.
This year the problem has been worsened by the sewage and drainage network projects that are currently under way. Construction companies that are handling the projects seem to care little about resurfacing roads that they have dug up.
With further holes and bumps, cars are becoming damaged — especially tires, mufflers and exhaust pipes.
This annoying problem has caused business to boom for mechanic shops that specialize in welding.
Meanwhile, in Riyadh the welding business is not in so much of a demand as it is in the Red Sea port city.
“After only one month of changing my vehicle’s damaged muffler and exhaust pipe I had to return to get fixed cracks, which had appeared from road holes and bumps,” said Hatim Misfer, a government employee.
Misfer bought his car two years ago, and has changed his tires and got welding carried out at least five times.
“I’m starting to believe that the municipality has made some sort of commission agreement with spare part shops and mechanics. It’s just so unbearable,” he added in a frustrated way.
The municipality did not respond to phone calls to give a comment on the current situation, but according to previous municipality press releases there are ongoing projects to fix the roads of Jeddah that are worth more than SR600 million.
