The King Fahd Causeway () is a 25 km (15.5 mi) long series of

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

s and

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

s connecting

Khobar Khobar () is a city and List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate in the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, Eastern Province of the Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, situated on the coast of the Persian Gulf. With a population of 409,549 ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

, and Al Jasra,

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

. Its five bridges rest on 536 concrete pylons, with seven embankments in the Gulf's shallower water. One of the embankments, known as Middle Island (, ) has been converted into a sizeable artificial island with customs and immigration facilities, a mosque and gardens and fast food restaurants. Another island towards the end of the causeway belongs to Bahrain and is simply known as Mother of Sleepiness (, ).

History

The King Fahd Causeway spans long stretches of sea and reclaimed land. The idea of building a bridge linking

to the eastern region of

had been of great interest to the two kingdoms for generations. The project to build the bridge began during an official visit to Bahrain in 1954 by King Saud; his wish was to nurture and further solidify the bonds between the two countries. Following Bahrain's declaration of independence, Prince Fahd bin Abdulaziz, then

interior minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and iden ...

of Saudi Arabia, led a high-level delegation to Bahrain. At the close of the visit, Fahd said that Saudi Arabia was seriously interested in constructing a land bridge that would connect the two countries. In 1965, plans to construct the causeway began to take form officially when Sheikh

Khalifah ibn Sulman Al Khalifah Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa () (24 November 1935 – 11 November 2020) was a Bahraini royal and politician who served as the prime minister of Bahrain from 10 January 1970 until his death in 2020. He took office over a year before Bahrain's ...

, the prime minister of Bahrain, paid a courtesy visit to King Faisal at which time the king again expressed his wish to move forward. Subsequently, Bahrain, which drove on the left, changed to driving on the right in 1967. This was to bring it into line with neighbouring countries. In 1968, a joint committee was formed to assess the finances required for undertaking the task. As a result, the committee requested the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

contribute assistance to implement the mammoth-sized project including environmental and geographical aspects of the region. The idea of constructing the causeway was originally based on improving the cultural and social bonds between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. In the summer of 1973, King Faisal, in a meeting which included Emir Sheikh

Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa Isa bin Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa (; 3 June 1933 – 6 March 1999) was a Bahraini royal who served as the first Emir of Bahrain from 1961 until his death in 1999 (after having previously ruled as Hakim of Bahrain until 16 August 1971). Bo ...

as well as Prince Fahd bin Abdulaziz and Sheikh

Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa () (24 November 1935 – 11 November 2020) was a Bahraini royal and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Bahrain, prime minister of Bahrain from 10 January 1970 until his death in 2020. He took office ov ...

, suggested the committee ignore economic and financial issues with the project, and instead concentrate on the actual construction. In 1975, the World Bank submitted its study and advice after seeking assistance from specialist international expertise in studying the geographic, environmental factors and

maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

currents. In the spring of 1976, during a visit by

King Khalid bin Abdulaziz Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (; 13 February 1913 13 June 1982) was King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 25 March 1975 until his death in 1982. Before his death, he was Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia and the fifth son of King Abdulaziz, ...

to Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the two monarchs agreed to set up a ministerial committee to work on implementation of the project. On 8 July 1981, Mohammed Aba Al-Khail, minister for Finance and National Economy of Saudi Arabia, and Yousuf Ahmed Al-Shirawi, minister of Industrial Development in Bahrain, signed an agreement to start construction on the maritime causeway. On 11 November 1982, King Fahd bin Abdulaziz and Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa unveiled the curtain on the Memorial Plaque during a formal ceremony attended by leaders of the GCC states marking the beginning of the project. On 11 April 1985, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister of Bahrain, pressed the button to install the final part of the box bridges thereby finally linking the Saudi mainland with Bahrain. On 26 November 1986, the causeway was officially inaugurated in the presence of King Fahd and Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, with the latter consenting to naming the bridge King Fahd Causeway. , an estimated 25,104 vehicles use the causeway daily. The 2010 total number of travelers across the causeway from both countries was 19.1 million passengers, or an average of 52,450 passengers per day. The

Saudi–led intervention in Bahrain The Saudi–led intervention in Bahrain began on 14 March 2011 to assist the Bahraini government in suppressing an anti-government uprising in the country. The intervention came three weeks after the U.S. pressured Bahrain to withdraw its milita ...

, which used the causeway to cross over into Bahrain with 150 vehicles, began on 14 March 2011 to assist the Bahraini government in suppressing an anti-government uprising in the country. The intervention came three weeks after the U.S. pressured Bahrain to withdraw its military forces from the streets. As a decision by

Gulf Cooperation Council The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ), is a Regional integration, regional, intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental, political, and economic union comprising Ba ...

(GCC), the intervention included sending 1,000 (1,200) troops with vehicles from

at the invitation of the Al-Khalifa ruling family.

Construction details

The project cost a total of

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

800 million ( SAR3 billion). Al-Muhandis Nizar Kurdi Consulting Engineers was the sole Saudi partner of the consulting group (Saudi Danish Consultants) which completed the study, design and construction supervision of the causeway. One of the major contractors of the project was

Ballast Nedam Ballast Nedam is a Dutch-based construction and engineering company headquartered in Nieuwegein. The company resulted from the 1969 merger between Amsterdamse Ballast Maatschappij, founded in 1877, and Nederlandse Aannemingsmaatschappij, founded ...

, based in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It is unclear how many workers were engaged in the construction of the causeway. The four-lane road is long and its two roadways are wide. It was built using of

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

along with 147,000

metric tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the shor ...

of reinforced

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

. The causeway was constructed in three segments starting from Saudi Arabia: # From Al-Aziziyyah, south of

, to the Border Station on ''

Passport Island King Fahd Passport Island, or simply Passport Island, is an artificial island partitioned between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in the Gulf of Bahrain. Spread across , it serves as the sole border crossing between the two countries and is used for ...

'' # From the Border Station to Nasan Island in Bahrain # From Nasan island to Al-Jasra,

Northern Governorate The Northern Governorate () is one of the four governorates of Bahrain. It includes parts of the former municipalities of Al Mintaqah al Gharbiyah, Al Mintaqah al Wusta, Al Mintaqah al Shamaliyah, Jidd Haffs and Madinat Hamad. Settlemen ...

, on the main island of Bahrain Strict quality control regimes were established to ensure durability of the structure. In this regard, Al Hoty Stanger Ltd, the premier testing laboratory with SASO accreditation, was contracted to perform materials testing on both sides of the causeway project. The production equipment for the bridge segments were supplied by the Dutch machine building company H.J. Grimbergen B.V.

Border station

The border station is located on embankment No.4, which, with a total area of , is the biggest of all embankments. This artificial island is known as ''Passport Island'' or ''Middle Island''. The buildings of King Fahd Causeway Authority and other government directorates were erected on the border station, as well as two mosques, two Coast Guard towers and two tower restaurants. The border station also has extensive landscaping all around the islands in addition to the services and road stations. The border station was designed as two connected islands, with the west side designated as Saudi Arabian and the east as Bahraini. The Saudi side of the border station has outlets of

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

and

Kudu The kudus are two species of antelope of the genus '' Tragelaphus'': * Lesser kudu, ''Tragelaphus imberbis'', of eastern Africa * Greater kudu, ''Tragelaphus strepsiceros'', of eastern and southern Africa The two species look similar, th ...

while the Bahraini side of the border station has a

outlet.

One-stop crossing was introduced on the King Fahd Causeway from 6 March 2017. Under the new system, commuters will only have to stop at one post for passport control, car clearance and customs. The measure will ease travel for commuters and is also expected to ease traffic congestion on the highway as the previous system required stops at both Saudi and Bahraini check posts.

Expansion

On 6 July 2010, Saudi newspapers quoted King Fahd Causeway Authority chief Bader Abdullah Al-Otaishan as saying that the King Fahd Causeway was to undergo a major expansion projected to cost $5.3 million. It was announced that the number of departure lanes would be increased from 10 to 17 and the number of arrival lanes from 13 to 18 on both sides. The renovation includes construction of a commercial centre on the Bahraini side. "It will have a number of restaurants, coffee shops, a grocery shop, telephone stalls and a shop to meet travelers' needs," said Al-Otaishan. "We saw that there was a need for such a center to assist travelers". With points including climate-controlled washrooms and meeting places, the average traveller can be better facilitated. He said work was under way and that the centre would be completed by the first quarter of the next year. A Bahraini health centre was also being built to serve travelers and causeway staff. "It will feature an emergency room and ambulance to serve whoever is using the causeway – travelers or employees," he said, noting a Saudi health centre was also planned for 2011. A security checkpoint near the Bahraini entrance of the causeway was to be added to the checkpoint near the Saudi entrance. "It will allow us to control the causeway and close it," Al-Otaishan said. The project also included expanded public utilities such as washrooms and mosques on both sides of the causeway, to be completed by the end of 2011. A separate project, to revamp the two tower restaurants, one Saudi and one Bahraini, was announced. The renovation would not alter the towers' historic appearance. Al-Otaishan told local newspapers that tenders for the project on the Saudi side had already been approved, with the Bahraini side set to follow suit.

References

External links