Bahrain Ministry of Works and Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning has awarded the engineering consultancy services contract to Aecom for Phase Two of the Muharraq Ring Road and the fourth Manama-Muharraq causeway project.

A global provider of professional technical and management support services, Aecom clinched the deal after emerging as the lowest bidder with a value of BD4.91 million ($13 million), stated the ministry.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, US, Aecom caters to a broad range of markets including infrastructure, transportation, facilities, environmental, energy, water and government.

The  Muharraq Ring Road project will be implemented in three phases, with the first one devoted to marine dredging and levelling works, said the ministry in its statement.

The second phase will involve civil works and paving of roads, while the final phase will involve preparation of engineering designs for the bridge and sea intersection associated with a bridge north of Manama, it added.

The project is of strategic importance as it will ease the traffic linking the inner roads to the main roads, explained Essam bin Abdullah Khalaf, Minister of Works and Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning.

Once the Muharraq Ring Road project gets completed, the commuters will be able to smoothly move from Muharraq to Manama thus easing the pressure on each of the airport roads, stated Al Khalaf.

The new project will also serve the residential projects in the northern part of Muharraq and help boost a steady flow of traffic into the Bahrain International Airport and Prince Khalifa bin Salman Port, he added.

Al Khalaf said the first phase of the Muharraq Ring Road project, which starts from the entrance to Galali and Amwaj and ends at the Diyar Al Muharraq entrance, passing through the entrances to Samaheej and Dair villages, has been completed.

The work involved upgradation of an 8.4-km stretch of road from a single to a dual carriageway with three lanes in each direction, with the possibility of adding a fourth lane in the future near the intersections of Galali and Samaheej.

On the fourth Manama-Muharraq causeway project work, the minister said the new bridge will link the residential communities in Muharraq to the major commercial areas in Manama including the Diplomatic Area, Bahrain Bay and Bahrain Financial Harbour thus facilitating the economic movement in the kingdom.-TradeArabia News Service