Work on Bahrain’s Shaikh Salman Highway will continue into August, according to Works Ministry officials, frustrating local business that have already endured a two-year delay to the project.
The $10 million face-lift is now entering its fourth year and has been further delayed because of recent disputes over materials with Saudi Arabia.
Originally scheduled to be completed in May 2009, the Shaikh Salman Highway project included changing the asphalt layer, replacing traffic lights and upgrading the ground services network to the highway.
The Works Ministry has revealed that the highway work on the second phase of the highway is complete but reports in local media suggest local companies are exasperated by the slowness of the work.
“Our operations section is badly affected as we are a service providing company, so we need to supply items to our customers,” Thomas K Joseph of Almoayyed Contracting Company scaffolding and cleaning division told Trade Arabia.
“Loading and unloading items is another headache, as we have no parking space. Customers are affected, businesses are affected and motorists are affected as well. They started work on the service lane, but it’s almost three months and still they haven’t finished.”