26 April - 2 May 2001
Issue No.531
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 26 April - 2 May 2001 Issue No.531 |
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Al-Firdan rises again
Having lived through several incarnations in the last century, the fated Al-Firdan bridge will again take passengers across the Suez Canal before year's end. Amira Ibrahim monitors ambitious plans under way in Sinai transport
This week saw the celebration of Sinai Day on 25 April, the 19th anniversary of Israel's final withdrawal from Sinai after 15 years of occupation. Today, Sinai is Egypt's final frontier, but for a place so frequently visited, it lacks adequate land transportation, both within the peninsula and across the Suez Canal.
All this is set to change with two new bridges at Al-Firdan and Al-Qantara scheduled to open this year. And, after a hiatus of 34 years, railway transport will resume across the Suez Canal thanks to a railway line that will run along the Al-Firdan bridge, which is expected to be operational in a matter of months.
Located 25 kilometres north of Ismailia, Al-Firdan bridge is 640 metres long, making it the world's longest rotating steel bridge (the bridge opens by rotating two arms toward each shore, thus allowing ships to pass). According to Mina Nashed, the project director, the bridge is being constructed by a consortium of Egyptian, Belgian and German companies. Construction began in November 1997. Nashed says that the bridge is essentially complete and that by mid-May, a computerised system controlling it will be evaluated, after which the rotation of the bridge will be tested.
"All steel works on the western bank and 97 per cent of work on the eastern bank have been completed. At present, we are adding the final touches, such as painting, lighting, and paving," Nashed said. An initial test will rotate the bridge open by 10 degrees, in order to detect any problems. "When we are certain that everything is working properly, the bridge will be rotated 90 degrees," Nashed explained. He said that a number of tests will follow, including a trial run taking the train across the bridge. All these tests are expected to be through by September.
The bridge carries a single rail line and two traffic lanes. Parking areas of 15,000 square metres have been earmarked on both banks to accommodate vehicles waiting to cross at scheduled times. Two main periods -- from 9.00am to 12.00 noon and 11.00pm to 3.00am -- are scheduled for operating the bridge daily. The first train is expected to cross the bridge by October.
Al-Firdan bridge has had a chequered history, having seen numerous rebirths in the course of Egypt's military history. The first Al-Firdan bridge was constructed during World War I, but was seriously damaged in 1921 (it is not known how). During World War II, another bridge was built to replace it further along the Ismailia-Al-Arish road. The new Al-Firdan bridge opened in 1942, allowing both vehicles and trains to cross the Suez Canal, but the service was short-lived. The bridge was destroyed a few months before the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Records indicate that a Dutch ship accidentally smashed the eastern part of the bridge. In 1949 it reopened, having been restored, but was again destroyed in the Suez War of 1956.
In 1962, a new bridge was constructed a little further along the road, this time made of steel. But the 1967 war with Israel saw the end of this bridge as well, and even the railroad sleepers in Sinai were pulled up by the Israelis and used in building the Bar Lev line of fortifications. Hopefully the last in this long string of incarnations, the new Al-Firdan bridge was budgeted upwards of LE300 million and is only one link in the elaborate railroad projects planned to connect the Nile Delta cities with Sinai, and perhaps even Europe. Based on figures given by Minister of Transportation Ibrahim El-Demeiri, the whole project will cost an estimated LE1.6 billion.
According to Osama Ogeen, director of the bridges department at the Egyptian Railway Authority, the train will cross the canal at Al-Firdan and then head 50 kilometres north. The route will then follow the Mediterranean coast east across Lake Bardawil until it reaches Rafah on the Egyptian-Israeli border. The 225-kilometre railway will have 14 stops: Al-Qantara East, Guilbana, Balooza, Rumanna, Rab'a, Nakhila, Bi'r Al-Abd, Al-Tilol, Al-Rawda, Al-Midan, Al-Arish, Al-Raysa, Al-Sheikh Zwaid and Rafah. Ogeen says construction work on eight of these stations has already been completed. "However, due to the current setbacks in the peace process, the railroad will terminate at El-Arish," added Ogeen. "The extension on to Europe will also be on hold until the region reaches a peaceful settlement."
Notwithstanding the exorbitant bill, the new railway is seen as a cornerstone of the National Project for the Development of Sinai, launched in 1994 and intended to attract more than 3 million residents to the peninsula by the year 2017. Crossing the canal has been a principal obstacle to attracting new communities ever since Egypt regained Sinai in 1982. Eight ferry boat crossing points, in addition to the Ahmed Hamdi tunnel, constructed in 1983, have proved insufficient to meet increasing transportation needs. An estimated 22,000 vehicles cross the canal daily.
The 1979 peace treaty with Israel left room for the construction of three tunnels, but when the Ahmed Hamdi tunnel began to show serious leakage problems only years after its construction, officials settled on bridges as more viable. The tunnel was repaired, at great expense, in 1989. The construction of another bridge at Al-Qantara, 25 kilometres from Al-Firdan, is almost complete. The project is a joint endeavour with the Japanese. The Transportation Ministry maintains that the two new bridges will relieve the burden on the tunnel sufficiently for the coming decades.
"On the whole, the bridge and the railroad will work as a main part of the Northern Coastal Highway, a land transportation route between North Africa and Europe," stated El-Demeiri. The second phase of the project, which will run from the northern Delta town of Damietta to Al-Salloum, on the Libyan border, was inaugurated last year by President Mubarak.
The Railway Authority's Ogeen adds that with the railroad traversing Sinai, it will nurture the growth of communities along the way. He added that a 35-kilometre extension has been constructed to connect the railroad at Balooza point with the new port at East Port Said to serve the industrial zone newly established there.
Al-Firdan bridge was made famous by the legendary Orient Express, which used to cross the bridge en route to Europe early in the 20th century. The railroad used by the Orient Express was first built in 1883 to serve the British troops occupying Egypt in 1882. The trip to Rome used to take 75 hours, beginning at Al-Qantara East and passing through Rafah, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey until it reached Italy.
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