Plans for a second causeway linking Bahrain with Saudi Arabia are expected to be finalised by the end of this year, Bahrain’s transport minister has revealed.
Following completion of a feasibility study of the proposals last month, the two countries are expected to press ahead with plans for a second causeway that would comprise a new road and rail link between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain – and connect to the proposed GCC rail network scheduled for completion in 2018.
Kamal Bin Ahmed, Bahrain’s minister of transportation and telecommunications, told Arabian Business “it made economic sense” for the new causeway to combine road and rail access as it would eliminate the need to build two costly bridges.
The new link has been named the King Hamad Causeway. The feasibility study conducted over the summer by Canadian engineering consultancy SNC Lavalin examined two proposed routes.
Both options would include a circa-87km rail link connecting two stations on either side of the water. Bahrain’s station would be built on reclaimed land north of the existing King Fahd Causeway.
There would also be 28km of approach tracks, a 26km causeway and a 10km bridge.
Bin Ahmed told Arabian Business the project has been estimated to cost in the region of $3 billion. He said he hoped it could be “fully financed” by the private sector and be completed within a decade at most.
“Being an island we have to be well connected to Saudi Arabia,” he said.
The existing 25km King Fahd causeway has been described as one of the most congested roads in the Gulf with almost 27,000 vehicles travelling across it per day in 2014 – at least 10 million every year.
Officials have been in discussions for many years over potential solutions for increasing capacity to serve the millions of Saudi and Bahraini commuters and holidaymakers, including a $5.3 billion expansion of the King Fahd Causeway from 10 to 17 lanes.
However, a second causeway is expected to cut the need for a costly expansion of the existing link.
It would also enable connections to the planned 2,177km GCC rail network, estimated to cost $200bn, that is to connect six Gulf states by rail for the first time.
The railway has been said to start from Kuwait, pass through Saudi Arabia via Dammam to Bahrain, and run from Dammam to Qatar and the UAE.
The GCC rail network would also connect to a proposed light rail network in Bahrain, for which bids for initial works are to be invited before the end of 2015, Mariam Jumaan, Bahrain’s deputy minister for Land and Post and undersecretary, land transportation, at the Ministry of Transport, told a conference on Tuesday.
“The next phase is to connect the GCC railway with Bahrain’s public transport network. We are looking at the possibility of light rail and we are going out to tender for consultancy for this project,” she was quoted as saying.
She added that neither a metro nor tram system would work in Bahrain because there is limited available land. For this reason, an elevated monorail is the most likely option.
Bin Ahmed said ministers were holding a series of meetings in the coming months to flesh out the proposals.
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