Salman Causeway to reduce KSA-Egypt travel to 30 minutes

Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — The proposed King Salman Causeway between Saudi Arabia and Egypt will reduce the travel time between the two countries to 30 minutes, according to the engineer who made the designs and blueprints for the project. “The causeway will be implemented in three years at a cost of $3-4 billion and the money will be reimbursed through revenues in a matter of 10 years,” said Ibrahim Al-Dimairi, former Egyptian minister of transport who was the mastermind of the project. He recalled that the project was first mooted in 1988 but went into oblivion until it was revived during the recent visit of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman to Cairo. Dimairi recalled that when he visited the project’s site for the first time in October 2013, he clearly understood that “this project could easily be implemented”. He said the length of the causeway will be 26-30 kilometers and the width 36 meters consisting of three lanes in each direction, in addition to a two-track railway 11.30 meters wide. The height of the causeway will be 75 meters. Dimairi said the causeway will begin from the north of Ras Nasrani, close to Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, to reach the eastern shores of Ras Sheikh Hammad north of Dhiba port in Saudi Arabia passing through Tiran island in the Red Sea. “This will be the first land link in modern history between Africa and Asia through Egyptian territory,” he added. He said the trains will run at a speed of 250 km on the causeway but the speed will be 350 km before and after it. The former Egyptian minister said the causeway will represent a powerful economic link between the Arab countries of the east and the Maghreb region. It will boost the GCC investments in Egypt and increase the volume of trade exchange between the Arab countries, he added. Dimairi believes that the best method of the project’s execution is through a joint consortium, which will enable the two countries to execute and manage the project or through BOT financing, which will allow the investors to build and operate the bridge. “It will be much better if the two countries themselves implement and operate the project,” he added.