Connect the dots

By Amira Ibrahim
Crossing the Suez Canal once again:Al-Qantara Bridge extends to connect between the western bank of the Suez Canal and the Sinai Peninsula
photos: Khaled El-Fiqi
It is the most ambitious project undertaken to join the western bank of the Suez Canal with the Sinai Peninsula and it will make the beleaguered Ahmed Hamdi tunnel old news. An equally far-reaching scheme to settle three million people in Sinai by 2017 -- part of the National Project for the Development of Sinai -- has made the need to construct more crossings over the canal all the more vital, and this fall the opening of the Al-Qantara bridge will be the first answer.
Located at Al-Qantara, a town 55 kilometres north of Ismailia, the bridge is 9.5 kilometres long, 20 metres wide and crosses the canal at a height of 70 metres. According to project coordinators, it will be operational in a matter of months and will have its test run in June. The official opening is planned for October.
A bridge in the canal's northern sector opens the door to numerous further developments and invites speculation about the more formidable task of connecting the Middle East with an overland network of highways. But the failure of Arab-Israeli peace efforts currently renders such an endeavour purely hypothetical.
Since the destruction of Al-Firdan bridge during the 1967 war, Sinai has been connected to the Nile Delta at seven ferry points along the Suez Canal located at Al-Qantara, Firdan, Port Fouad, Raswa, Serapium, Al-Shatt and Point Six. In 1983, the Ahmed Hamdi tunnel was burrowed beneath the canal, at last offering a direct land link to southern Sinai. But it was only six years before the tunnel started to suffer leakage problems and in 1992, the Japanese government stepped in with LE207 million in restoration aid. It took the Japanese company Kajeema three years to construct a new water-tight tunnel inside the old one.
Still, northern Sinai was left poorly serviced and even the newly renovated tunnel and the network of ferries could not cope with the estimated 50,000 vehicles that made their way across the canal daily, more than double what current transportation facilities can handle. Queues of vehicles are stranded in bottlenecks at crossing points, delaying ferry trips for hours. Temporary floating bridges, operational at night to relieve the accumulated congestion, have never proved sufficient.
The 1979 peace treaty with Israel included provisions for the construction of three tunnels under the canal, but the unforeseen difficulties that developed with the construction of the Ahmed Hamdi tunnel pushed experts to seek alternatives. Studies carried out by the Ministry of Transportation in cooperation with Cairo University concluded that the construction and maintenance of tunnels were inappropriate for a country like Egypt.
Suspended 70 metres over the Canal, workers race time to bring the bridge to completion
Ahmed Fouad Abdel-Rahman, head of the department of highways and bridges at the Ministry of Transportation, explained that vibrations resulting from a steady stream of tunnel traffic cause the body of the tunnel to degrade. "Underwater repairs and restoration are difficult, expensive and need the kind of advanced technology unrealistic for a developing country," Abdel-Rahman said. "A team of engineers from the Suez Canal Authority, the armed forces engineering corps and university professors studied the matter extensively for two years and suggested a number of alternatives. We decided on the bridge."
A feasibility study by the Japan International Corporation (JICA) suggested that a bridge would be the most economically savvy choice. Figures batted around at the time put the cost of a bridge at about LE300 million, compared to LE1.5 billion for a tunnel. Successful cooperation in the reconstruction of the Ahmed Hamdi tunnel encouraged another joint venture with the Japanese government. The deal was struck in 1995 during a visit by President Hosni Mubarak to Japan. Officials from the two governments agreed to construct a cable-stayed bridge over the canal.
A $118 million Japanese grant covers 60 per cent of the construction costs, estimated at LE640 million. The Japanese company Kajeema is building the main cable-stayed portion of the bridge and two Egyptian companies have constructed the concrete supply bridges on the two banks. The Transportation Ministry's Abdel-Rahman explained that seeking help from international experts proved a necessity, "considering the sensitive nature of the Suez Canal as an international waterway."
"About 100 Japanese engineers, technicians and workers have been working with an Egyptian team of some 2,000 engineers," explained Sinout Wilson Shaker, executive manager of the project. Egyptian engineers attended special training programmes in Japan and Shaker says they have benefited from their cooperation with Japanese experts.
However, sources at the Suez Canal Authority disclosed to Al-Ahram Weekly that the construction of the bridge, as well as a railway bridge at Al-Firdan, could harm the revenues of the waterway. Insurance companies, fearing that constructions over the waterway will disrupt navigation and cost them more money, may choose to raise insurance premiums on ships using the canal. The Canal Authority will thus have to find ways to ensure people continue to use the canal. Speaking to the Weekly, Ahmed Fadel, head of the Suez Canal Authority, said that giant rigs and container ships that agree to implement design modifications so as not to exceed a height of 68 metres will be offered special discounts.
N Onuma, director of the Japanese consulting group supervising the project, told the Weekly that the long-term benefits of the project will outweigh the limited loss. "Tunnels are considered safer for navigation, but if a bridge is high enough and can guarantee safe navigation, then it is the best alternative -- especially when cost is a major factor," Onuma said.
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Bridging the gaps 7 - 13 January 1999
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