Bahrain causeway to finish ahead of deadline

Bahrain’s US$260m North Manama causeway project is likely to be completed ahead of its July 2013 deadline, according to government officials. The development, which is one of the Gulf state’s biggest infrastructure projects, should be completed in the first half of next year and part opened for traffic in the next few months, Gulf Daily News has reported. “All indications are that the project will finish before time,” said Bahrain’s public works minister Essam Khalaf. “At the rate at which it is going, a part of it could be open for traffic in the next few months.” The contract, which was awarded to Belgium’s Besix Group in 2010, includes building Bahrain's 2.4km North Manama causeway and upgrading the King Faisal highway and al-Fateh junction. Work was temporarily suspended last April amid the political unrest in Bahrain, but is since thought to have continued without disruption.