The Ministry of Transportation announced that 55 road projects were completed during the first half of this year, with a total length of 1,689 km and a total cost of four billion, nine hundred seventy-eight million riyals, as part of the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to upgrade the Kingdom’s road network and facilitate the movement of people and goods, thereby promoting growth in various economic sectors.
The total number of projects currently under construction at the end of the first half of the year reached 447, with a total length of 12,046 km, including 67 projects in the Riyadh region, 61 in the Makkah region, 27 in the Madinah region, and 27 in the Eastern Province, while the remaining projects were distributed across other regions with the aim of upgrading the road network throughout the Kingdom.
Reaffirming the Ministry’s commitment to compensating citizens for property expropriated for road projects, it has prepared 950 compensation claims totaling 1,190 billion riyals, of which 78 cases, totaling 72 million riyals, were paid out during the first quarter of this year.
The number of completed projects opened to traffic reached 21, with a total length of 545 km, including 6 interchanges, while the number of projects under construction by the end of the first half of this year stood at 468, with a total length of 12,592 km and a cost exceeding 42.207 billion riyals.
The Ministry aims to complete 152 projects by the end of this year, with a total length of 4,222 km, at a cost exceeding 15.261 billion riyals.
As for the approved projects under implementation during the first half of this year, there were 468 projects with a total length of 12,592 km and a cost exceeding 42.207 billion riyals, The Ministry has been committed to raising and improving the level of services for road users by rehabilitating 97,377 km of roads during the second quarter as part of 17 projects at a cost exceeding 169,594 million riyals, in order to maintain the infrastructure.
The Ministry also confirmed that the total number of projects signed for 2018 to date has reached 70, with a total value exceeding 2.4 billion, covering all regions of the Kingdom, including 23 new projects worth 1 billion and 737 million riyals that were recently signed.
The Ministry attaches great importance to routine and preventive road maintenance as part of its projects this year, implementing approximately 399 projects, including 112 routine maintenance projects, and 287 for preventive maintenance, of which 85 were completed during the first half of 2018, with some roads seeing the installation of protective metal barriers, guardrails, traffic markings, and reflective signs on barriers and walls, while other roads received an additional layer of asphalt and widened shoulders.
Since its establishment, the Ministry has opened and maintained more than 150,000 km of dirt roads in various regions of the Kingdom, and it is currently maintaining existing dirt roads that provide public services to citizens or serve other government agencies. During the second quarter of 2018, the Ministry also maintained approximately 17,000 km, and 314 km were opened. It should be noted that dirt road work is carried out through projects to open, grade, and maintain dirt roads in all regions of the Kingdom, as well as by dirt road teams affiliated with the Ministry’s various branches.
During the first half of this year, the Ministry also inspected approximately 4,808 bridges, with a target of inspecting 5,130 bridges by the end of the year, in order to maintain public safety and ensure the quality and safety of these bridges, Work is currently underway to repair 37 bridges, and 14 bridges have been demolished and rebuilt.
The Ministry conducted surveys and assessments of a total of 11,245 km of roads, in addition to identifying 19 black spots, along with a study on how to address these locations, including the allocation of safety measures in maintenance reports at a cost exceeding 103 million riyals.
The Ministry had previously revised the status, restructured, and rescheduled 124 stalled and delayed projects, where the adjustments and restructuring included extending and modifying the scope of work, revising bill of quantities, introducing new items, approving plans, and resolving obstacles, The value of regular maintenance contracts currently being implemented for the Ministry’s projects has exceeded 3.523 billion riyals, of which more than 2.2 billion riyals have been disbursed to date.
Regarding the survey and assessment work for the global roughness coefficient conducted by the Ministry during the first half of this year, the total length surveyed across the regions reached 11,340 km.
It is worth noting that the total length of the current road network constructed by the Ministry between the Kingdom’s cities exceeds 68,500 kilometers, all of which were designed according to international standards to connect major cities with one another, with the potential for future expansion to accommodate heavy traffic between them.
