Even a year after the start of the SR25 million campaign to fill about 28,000 potholes on various streets and roads, there is no end to the suffering of the people of Jeddah. The campaign launched by Jeddah Mayoralty under the motto “Contribute in getting rid of potholes” targeted 28,859 potholes of which 26,813 were in districts while 2,046 were on main streets. During the first week of the campaign, 1,773 potholes were filled. This has come after a similar mayoralty program was able to fill 47,197 potholes between March 2007 and May 2008. Also, a sum of SR2.5 million has been allocated for the repair of five streets by patching up potholes in the districts of Al-Azizia, Al-Jamia, Briman, Al-Balad, Khuzam, Al-Sharfiah and Obhur. Another contract has been signed for SR462,000 for repairing the caving-in at several locations resulting from deep excavations. Despite this campaign and these projects for which huge amounts have been allocated, the residents of the Bride of the Red Sea are still complaining about the appearance of new potholes from time to time. Muhammad Naji, a resident of Al-Tha'alibah District, said new potholes are emerging almost on a daily basis. Also there are old potholes that have not been filled since many years – the most notorious among these is the pit under the Al-Arba'een Lagoon Bridge. According to Sa'eed Al-Zahrani, such potholes have become a prominent characteristic of the Bride of the Red Sea to the extent that the visitors to the city are surprised by the huge number of potholes and caving in on the streets besides the bad condition of these streets and roads. Given the condition of the streets now, he said, it is hard to believe that Jeddah won the title of the Best City in early ‘80s. Knowledgeable circles maintain that the patching up of potholes is not an ideal solution under the weak infrastructure of the roads and the fragile asphalt layers. They stressed that there is a need for a radical solution that includes lowering the water table, limiting the water spillages to the streets from car washing stations, water tanker trucks and sanitary drainage. In addition, there should be strict supervision of contractors executing road projects. At the same time, they maintain that excavations should not be done again and again for different services. The case at present is such that no sooner is a project completed than another one begins, requiring excavation of the same location. Worse still, the patching up of potholes is being carried out without abiding by the standards and specifications, they said.
