Airport Bridge removal is a major step in Jahra Road Project works

The bridge was constructed under the Ministry of Public Works' contract RDD/R/349 34 years ago, and now it was time to part with and replace it to make room for improvement within road and utility works of the Jahra Road development project - Kuwait's leading infrastructural project and one of the most largest in multi-level bridges across the globe.

In a brief synopsis on the bridge's structure, the project Engineer of the Jahra Road Development, Engineer Yasser Budastour said, "The Airport - Jahra road viaduct was a 220.4 demountable formation with a deck width of 24.7m and it consisted of twin independent structures and a total of 13 spans supported by circular columns."

Accordingly, Engineer Budastour also spoke of the demolition method employed stating that the removal of the Airport Bridge is divided into two stages, first is removing the deck which includes taking out components such as light columns, guard and hand rails, concrete barriers, concrete slabs then the bolts and steel plates. The second stages comprised the removal of the whole spans one at a time.

"The Airport Bridge removal works on the Jahra road will take a couple of more months and any re-usable remains will be handed over to the Ministry's storage yard," he added.

Commenting further on road safety, Engineer Yasser affirmed that the working site has been bordered with safety nets to obviate and contain all debris as well as being well equipped with a sufficient number of fire extinguishers to tackle volatile sparks resulting from steel cutting machinery. A set of road signs around the site have also been well provided.

"The project is one of the Ministry of Public Works' strategic plans to develop roads and motorways in the State of Kuwait in order to address the future demands of transportation, minimize traffic congestions and improve road safety."

The Ministry of public works formulated agreements to undertake this grand venture with the collaboration of Louis Berger and the Pan Arab Consulting Engineers as project designers & supervision consultants and the Arab Contractors Company (ACC) - Othman Ahmad Othman as project contractors.