City of Makkah Bridges

The City of Makkah, Saudi Arabia, was concerned about the safety of its three main bridges due to observed distress and deterioration. These bridges are located on the main highways entering Makkah and represent the most critical transportation linkages in and out of the city, which is especially important during the Hajj pilgrimage time. Pennoni’s Intelligent Infrastructure Systems (IIS) reviewed the existing documents, inspection reports, and photos. A Bridge Information Model was compiled to allow users to observe the spatial location of deterioration, photographs, and comments made by inspectors.

Based upon this review, and due to identified deficiencies and the criticality of these bridges, controlled truck load testing was recommended and custom instrumentation plans, loading scenarios, and guidelines for the test were provided. To mitigate the identified performance issues and deficiencies in each of the bridges, a set of recommendations for rehabilitation/retrofit to ensure the satisfactory performance of the bridges was submitted.