The Middle East's first suspension bridge, built over the 404-meter wide Suez Canal, was inaugurated earlier this month by Egyptian President Husni Mubarak. The bridge, named the Mubarak Peace Bridge, links the Sinai desert region with the Egyptian mainland. The cost of the project totaled 700 million Egyptian pounds ($164 million), 60 percent of which were contributed by Japan, reported Al-Hayat.
Construction works on the four-lane automobile connection started in 1997, and were carried out by a Japanese-led consortium, comprising Kajima Corporation, NKK and Nippon Steel, alongside local firms. The bridge, running between the city of Ismailiya and the Sinai Peninsula, was built as part of the National Scheme for Developing Sinai.
At the inauguration ceremony, Minister of Transportation Ibrahim Al-Dimairi stated that the Peace Bridge re-connects the Asian and the African continents, as well as allowing large freight vessels to pass through the canal safely.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto also attended the opening. “This huge donation by Japan is the first of its kind in the history of the Japanese economy and evidence of Japanese confidence in the Egyptian economy, as well as the depth of the political and economic ties between the two countries,” stated an official at the Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation, quoted by Al-Ahram .
The stationary bridge, intended for the passage of cars, is considered the highest in the world. It will allow for vessels up to 70 meters high to navigate underneath it. Before the suspension bridge was completed, cars were forced to use ferries or a road tunnel opened in 1980.
The project also includes the construction of a railway drawbridge of the same height, some 20 kilometers south to the vehicles suspension bridge. This second link, between Firdan to Rafah, is being built to replace a bridge destroyed in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
The 640-meter-long metal structure and its navigation gate extending 340 meters, will be the longest of its kind in the world to date. Construction began in 1996 by a consortium involving Germany's Krupp and Egypt's Orascom companies. In addition to the railway line, the bridge will also have two lanes for cars and lorries. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
