Sari street tunnel set to open tomorrow

One of the most important tunnel projects in Jeddah at the busy Madinah Road and Sari Street intersection will open tomorrow for motorists, municipality officials said.
The project was delayed for nearly nine months and went over budget by more than SR 10 million.
The project, with an estimated cost of SR 104.3 million, started on May 14, 2010, and was scheduled for completion on April 24. However, the contractor determined that the presence of underground water pipelines and telephone cables would add to the construction costs.
A new completion date for the tunnel was scheduled for Dec. 7, but the project was further delayed.
The project was inspected by Prince Mansour bin Miteb bin Abdulaziz, minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs. He extended the deadline for the completion of the project for another 75 days, which pushed the new completion date to March 6.
Monday’s opening puts the completion date almost two weeks ahead of the last date.
The telephone exchange for Salamah area was one of the major obstacles blocking completion. In addition, the original estimates for the number of underground telephone cables was 14,000 pairs, but the excavation contractor discovered 54,500 pairs, which were moved during the course of construction project.
Later, additional designs, and the construction of flood and storm water facilities added to further delays.
The original cost of SR 94 million was increased to SR. 104.3 million. The work was executed by Safa Contracting Company while Parsons is the consulting firm for the project.
An attractive pathway with red color mosaic tiles was built along the tunnel in order to facilitate pedestrians.
Flyover projects on busy roads are part of a boost in infrastructure development to ease traffic congestion in the city.
Jeddah Municipality is spending approximately SR 700 million on various infrastructure projects.