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Al-Ahram Weekly 12 - 18 August 1999 Issue No. 442 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 12 - 18 August 1999 Issue No. 442
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Books Features Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters The bridge will open -- soon enough
By Tarek AtiaThe ninth and final extension of the 6th of October Bridge, built at a cost of LE360 million, was scheduled to be inaugurated on Tuesday. Nothing happened.
The launch date has been a matter of speculation all along. At first it was stated the bridge would open by the end of June. Then 23 July. Then 2 August. Then, earlier this week, the Arabic-language press reported that 10 August would be it.
The importance of the date for many people lay less in its historic significance than the actual state of construction the bridge had reached as the assigned dates approached. Many people wondered if a lesson had been learned from the previous case of a flyover that opened on the announced date, but was found out later to clearly be in need of additional work.
Up until Monday, the workforce at the Arab Contractors Company was ready to hand the bridge over to its owners, the Cairo Governorate, complete and in tip-top shape.
According to Mohamed El-Shafei, an executive engineer on the project: "We've finished the superstructure of the bridge and are currently working on the final touches... painting the curbs and the electricity poles, the final layer of asphalt, the landscaping under the bridge, planning the flow of traffic under the bridge after it opens, planting trees, placing signs for speed limits and turns and exits, putting the arrows and dotted lines on the asphalt."
By the time you read this, most of these finishing touches would have been made. The bridge will be ready for its official inauguration, to be attended by President Hosni Mubarak. Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, manager of the Roads and Transportation Administration of the Cairo Governorate, confirms that the inauguration will take place within days.
Top:" Fiberglass barriers will provide protection against noise and air pollution where the bridge goes right through the Ain shams University campus in Abbasiya
Above: El-Shafie oversees the finishing touches
photos: Sherif Sonbol
In the meantime, Cairo Governor Abdel-Rehim Shehata will have inspected the bridge on Wednesday and experimental trial runs with traffic over the bridge can begin so that, according to Mohamed Gamal, the engineer in charge of the operation at the Arab Contractors, "We can see whether there will be traffic jams in certain lanes and study people's habits, where they exit from, so that we can plan, when the bridge is officially opened, how to control the traffic flow coming off the bridge."
"Nineteen structural tests have already been performed, with excellent results," confirms Gamal.
"In spite of the rapid pace at which we built the structure," El-Shafei says, "we maintained very high levels of quality control, quality control on everything... the steel bars, the cement, the sand, the concrete, the finishing; pressure tests on the bridge achieved tremendous results... which indicates the hard work that has gone into it. One way to put it is speed in performance with accuracy in execution."
The extension had been built at a rapid pace, its five kilometres completed in three years, while the bridge's original seven kilometres had taken 27.
The bridge's pre-publicity has been intense. As with every stage in the bridge's history, it was being hailed by commuters and the media as the saviour of the city's traffic problems.
And with construction work on the bridge dominating the roads and skyline, especially around busy Abbasiya Square and the intersection with Salah Salem, for at least a year now, it was becoming clear that the bridge was taking shape at a fast pace, and would soon be open for use.
Driving along the bridge, it becomes clear how much work went into it. The strength of the concrete foundations is clear to the naked eye. But it was the finesse, the details, the pavement, lines and signs, that were better off not being rushed, so as to complement the time and effort that had gone into building the bridge's body.
It has not been an easy operation. Work had been progressing at a rate of 24 hours per day for nearly a year. A beehive of 2,000 people, working in shifts, carefully coordinated tasks so that the workflow never stopped.
An additional five kilometres of the second floor -- part of a dream highway with no intersections all the way from Giza to the airport road -- will now be available. It's the bridge we've all been waiting for, the bridge that, when it is opened, will immediately become a permanent part of our lives, and our daily routines. It is the last part of a city-long bridge that has been changing our lives for 30 years.
"Before the 6th of October," says Hassan, a taxi-driver, "it took over an hour just to get out of downtown." Twenty years or so later, the breakthrough in that stage is still the bridge's greatest feat thus far, and a source of its loyalty no matter how clogged it gets now, which, as it happens, is quite often.
This latest, the ninth and final extension as it is called (though there are two more exit ramps which will open later) is supposed to help dissipate this constant congestion by providing several alternatives for the horde of drivers all heading in the same direction, thus lightening the load on each route.
According to El-Shafei: "The bridge will solve part of the problem... it will transfer 72 per cent of the traffic."
But many of the engineers are aware that the bridge is just one part of an overall plan. After all, since the bridge will transfer the entire traffic flow from Ramses, Giza and downtown to this spot in just 10 minutes, which is less than it takes now, they will still hit a traffic light, and there will definitely be a standstill. The only way to get out of this situation is to build smaller bridges and tunnels along Salah Salem. "Had we opened just the part until Salah Salem," says El-Shafei, "then those cars going to Nasr City would have also exited here, which would have made the problem even worse. That's why we are opening the whole extension all the way to the Autostrade at one time."
Mohamed Gamal reveals that things are well under way for a series of bridges and tunnels over and under Salah Salem by-passing some of its most crowded intersections in Nasr City and Heliopolis, which may eventually solve the problem.
If you're lucky enough to experience the pre-opening test run, the open road will be laid out like a magic carpet before you. Winding its way from the current bridge's final exit at Port Said Street, the extension flies high and mighty above the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, the gardens of Ain Shams University, the slums of Abu Hashish and the Fath Mosque-dominated intersection over Abbasiya Square. At Salah Salem, the exit curves majestically around and then underneath the body of the bridge, giving the intersection a slick feel. At the Autostrade the exit towards Al-Sayida Aisha is narrow and steep and rises high over the street below.
One thing drivers will certainly notice are the slick fiberglass sound barriers on the side of the bridge that goes right over the campus of Ain Shams University and the military area just before it. Another positive element are the barriers that help shield the bridge from those residents whose buildings now directly overlook it.
"It was important for the citizen to be protected from the sight of the bridge, because in some places the bridge practically goes into people's houses," says Gamal.
Gamal and the rest of the crew will be taking a well-deserved break now that the work has been completed. "Everyone worked hard, from the director of the project to the safety officer and the guard," says El-Shafei. "Any work here was achieved via the engineer, to the supervisor, the simple labourer, to the carpenter, the steelsmith... they all played a part."
"We've gotten used to working until 1.00am. We go home just for visits," says Gamal. "Now there will be a return to normal family life."
But the work never really stops in a city like Cairo, where the traffic problem is always one step ahead. Gamal's next project will be the underground garages in Mohandessin and Tahrir.
photo: Yehia Aql
