Skip to main content

Royal HaskoningDHV scoops public transport project

A joint venture comprising Dutch consultancy and engineering company Royal HaskoningDHV and Saudi Arabian Mshari Al-Shathri engineering consultant has been appointed by the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Transport to prepare a feasibility study and preliminary design for a first public transport system for Dammam. The objective of the system is to alleviate congestion in the area, which has seen significant growth in recent years. Increasing use of private cars has led to congestion and at current growth rates,
July 26, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
A joint venture comprising Dutch consultancy and engineering company 6132 Royal HaskoningDHV and Saudi Arabian Mshari Al-Shathri engineering consultant has been appointed by the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Transport to prepare a feasibility study and preliminary design for a first public transport system for Dammam.

The objective of the system is to alleviate congestion in the area, which has seen significant growth in recent years.  Increasing use of private cars has led to congestion and at current growth rates, experts are forecasting gridlock across the Dammam urban road network within a few years.
 
The project entails a feasibility study and preliminary design for a combination of 50 km of light rail, 110 km of bus rapid transit system and 350 km of feeder buses in Dammam Metropolitan Area, including King Fahd International Airport.  The approach will be multidisciplinary and include public transport planning, infrastructure design, urban integration, operation planning, business case preparation, and procurement strategy.

Undersecretary for Transport Affairs, Dr Abdul Aziz Al-Ohaly said: “In order to improve mobility and to alleviate urban congestion, reduce noise and air pollution we realise that we need to encourage people to use public transport.”

Nils den Hartog, project manager for Royal HaskoningDHV said: “Public transport is currently almost non-existent in this car-dominated city where petrol costs no more than 15 cents per litre. A key challenge of this project will be the successful introduction of such a system.”

Related Content

  • February 6, 2020
    US braces itself for congestion pain
    Mary Scott Nabers, author of Inside the Infrastructure Revolution: A Roadmap for Building America, looks at how different US states are embracing the need for public transport investment
  • May 1, 2025
    Keys to the Kingdom
    Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in smart infrastructure projects. Zeina Nazer takes a look at them – from Riyadh Metro to the controversial ‘vertical urbanism’ of The Line
  • November 15, 2017
    Dutch strike public/private balance to introduce C-ITS services
    Connected-ITS applications are due to appear on a nation-wide scale this summer, through the Netherlands’ Talking Traffic Partnership – if all goes to plan. Jon Masters reports. The Netherlands’ Talking Traffic Partnership (TTP) looks almost too good to be true: an artificial market set up and supported by national, regional and local government to accelerate deployment of Connected ITS (C-ITS) applications. If it does have any serious flaws, these are going to become apparent quite soon, because the first
  • November 7, 2014
    Chile launches ambitious transport plan
    In an effort to boost a weakening economy, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet has announced a nearly US$4.2 billion transport infrastructure plan, including one new metro line in Santiago, cable car systems in three other cities and rail projects. The plan includes US$1.9 billion in new concessions, with the expansion of public-private partnerships (PPPs) to the metro system and US$2.2 billion in works directly funded by the government. In Santiago, the program involves developing feasibility studie