Construction of Dead Sea road, bridges 90 per cent complete — Public Works Ministry

AMMAN — The Dead Sea road and the seven bridges being built along it are more than 90 per cent complete, according to a statement by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing.

The construction began after a flash flood killed 21 people, most of whom were schoolchildren on a field trip, in that area in October of last year.

One of the bridges that led to the site of the search and rescue operation collapsed the morning after the incident.

In previous remarks to The Jordan Times, the Civil Defence Department (CDD) said: “The bridge that is located down the road of the hotels area and leads to the site of the tragedy collapsed. However, it did not affect the search and rescue efforts because our machineries were already stationed at the site since Thursday afternoon [October 25, 2018] and the collapsed bridge is far away from the site where we are operating.”

The Dead Sea-Aqaba road was then closed off until ministry employees and a contractor reopened it after creating a detour.

A year after the incident, the ministry said that the construction of the road and bridges is 90-95 per cent complete.

“The contractors will continue working throughout the winter, finishing their work in an estimated five months,” said Falah Omoush, Public Works and Housing Minister.

The ministry was also mandated to prepare a detailed report on bridges and infrastructure conditions following the incident, a task which has already been accomplish.