Qatar-Bahrain causeway construction to start in 2010

Angela Giuffrida

• Last Updated: November 22. 2009 7:25PM UAE / November 22. 2009 3:25PM GMT

Construction on the world’s longest causeway that will link Qatar with Bahrain is expected to start by the first quarter of next year after spending a decade in the planning stage.

The 40km road and rail crossing first unveiled in 1999 will eventually connect to the planned GCC rail network.

The crossing, which will cut the trip between Bahrain and Qatar from five hours to 30 minutes, is expected to strengthen trade ties and spur economic expansion.

The Qatar Bahrain Causeway Foundation set up to oversee and fund the project hopes to save 20 per cent on construction costs as it renegotiates a price with the contractors building the crossing.

The consortium is led by VINCI Construction Grands Projets of France and also includes Qatari Diar, Hochtief of Germany and the Consolidated Contractors Group of Greece.

The original contract, worth an estimated Dh11 billion (US$2.99bn), was awarded in May last year, just a few months before the financial crisis hit the Gulf and sent regional construction costs tumbling as work dried up.

“We’re negotiating the price and will maybe make savings of 20 per cent or more,” Jaber Ali al Mohannadi, the general manager of the Qatar Bahrain Causeway Foundation, said at IQPC’s Bridges Middle East conference in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

The construction costs would be recuperated through a passenger toll system, he said. The four-lane road bridge is expected to be completed in 2013 and the two railway lines by 2015.

“Our intention is to open the road as close to the planned date as possible and then the rail link will follow,” said Rick Haggett, a project director at KBR, the US-based firm helping to oversee the project. “Of course, we will need to consider the plans for the GCC network too.”

The causeway will comply with international environmental standards that require a substantial investment in green building materials, Mr Haggett said.

It will include 22km of viaducts, 18km of embankments and two 400-metre cable-stayed bridges high enough to allow freight ships to pass underneath.

The bridge will link Ras Ashiraj, on the western coast of Qatar, to the village of Askar on the eastern coast of Bahrain. Operation and maintenance of the bridge will be managed by the causeway foundation for 120 years.



agiuffrida@thenational.ae