Jeddah Metro details revealed

The Jeddah Metro Company unveiled Jeddah’s seven-year transport plan during the Middle East Rail Opportunities forum, held on Monday and Tuesday at the Riyadh Intercontinental.
The presentation, given on behalf of Osama Abdouh of the Jeddah Metro Company and entitled “The Jeddah Model: Integrated Public Transport Systems,” highlighted the fact that one of the aims of the project is to ease traffic by reducing dependency on cars for getting around.
In March 2013, a ministerial decree was announced approving project implementation with a total budget of SR45 billion.
The decree also said that the complete public transport master plan would take seven years to complete.
The completion of the project will lead to active and accessible public facilities, pedestrian-friendly streets and neighborhoods, easy access to transit sites and higher land use density adjacent to transit sites, among other advantages.
The project includes commuter trains, trams, metros with 72 stations spanning 152 km, marine networks, ferries, and commuter, rapid and feeder buses.
The tram network will be 48 km long with 48 stations, while the commuter rail network will be 93 km long with 13 stations.
The marine network will be 94 km long with 17 stations, while the bus network will span 840 km in one direction, with 2,950 bus stations and 814 buses.
The project also includes the Al-Muntalaq station and the Obhur Iconic Bridge.
The Obhur Iconic Bridge will be 74 meters wide and 51 meters high, with a clearance of 15.5 meters and a creek crossing length of 360 meters. The bridge will be 2 kilometers long.
The bridge will contain an orange metro line in the median and works will be inclusive of interchanges.
The JMC has come up with a preliminary high-level plan to meet the seven-year deadline.
The key advantages of the decree include allowances to pre-qualify contractors to ensure that specialized contractors are equally competitive. The decree also allows use of nonstandard government contracts.