El Ferdan Railway Bridge

History

The first El Ferdan Railway Bridge over the Suez Canal was completed in April 1918 for the Sinai Military Railway. It was considered a hindrance to shipping so after the First World War it was removed. which was destroyed in 1967 in the Six-Day War by the Egyptian engineering General Ahmed Hamdy.

In July 1996, a consortium led by German Krupp was awarded a $US70 million contract to design and build the bridge, raised to $80 million to increase the main span from 320 to 340 m. The current bridge was constructed in 2001.

Significant developments in the region

The El Ferdan Railway Bridge was part of a major drive to develop the areas surrounding the Suez Canal, including other projects such as the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel under the Suez Canal (completed in 1983), the Suez Canal overhead powerline crossing, and the Suez Canal Bridge (completed in 2001, roughly 12 miles north of the El Ferdan Railway Bridge).

The bridge today: plans for upgrading tracks and building a new bridge

The parallel New Suez Canal was excavated in 2014/2015 a short distance to the east but without a bridge spanning it. Without a second bridge, the railway across El Ferdan bridge is a dead end.

Initially, a plan was in place to construct a new railway tunnel in the Ismailia region (and another near Port Said is planned) in order to reconnect the Sinai to the rest of Egypt's rail network. However, Kamel ElWazir, who was at that time the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces - Engineering corps, announced that due to high costs the plans for a new tunnel would be scrapped and that the Engineering Corps would seek other alternatives including moving the existing bridge to a narrow section of the canal at El-Qantara.

However, the final decision was made in 2017 to keep the existing bridge at its current location and build a new double-track railway bridge (based on the current El Ferdan bridge design) across the new, eastern shipping lane several hundred meters to the east. The existing bridge over the western shipping lane would be converted from a single-track railway to a double-track railway. This was near completion in October 2023.

References

References

1. Hughes, 1981, page 17
2. (1998–2011). "El Ferdan Swing Bridge". Nicolas Janberg Internet Content Services.
3. Michael J. Abrahams. (November 8–10, 2000). "Suez Canal Bridge at El Ferdan". Eighth biennial symposium - Heavy Movable Structures.
4. Videos of the inauguration can be seen on various media and this bridge doesn't appear.
5. In Arabic: كامل الوزير: إلغاء مخطط إقامة أنفاق السكة الحديد أسفل قناة السويس. Masrawy Online. Retrieved from ''www.masrawy.com/news'' [https://www.masrawy.com/news/news_regions/details/2017/2/7/1025204/%D9%83%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%88%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%B1-%D8%A5%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%B7%D8%B7-%D8%A5%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%A9-%D8%A3%D9%86%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%83%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%81%D9%84-%D9%82%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%B3 ''tr. "Kamel Al-Wazir: Canceling the scheme to establish railway tunnels under the Suez Canal"'']
6. In Arabic: طول يصل 44 كم.. إعادة تنفيذ مشروع خط سكة حديد «الفردان - بورسعيد - بئر العبد». Sada ElBalad. Retrieved from ''www.elbalad.news'', [https://www.elbalad.news/4355803 ''tr. "With a length of 44 km .. Re-implementation of the railway project «Fardan - Port Said - Bir al-Abd»"''] July 2017
7. (2023-09-27). "النقل تعيد كوبرى الفردان للحياة وإنشاء كوبرى جديد على قناة السويس الجديدة.. صور".