Suraisiry, Minister of Transport, who opened a two-day international workshop here Monday refused to be drawn into a debate on the recent Jeddah floods that claimed about 100 lives and rendered hundreds of others homeless. The Transport Ministry organized the workshop to discuss a host of issues related to the construction of roads, tunnels, underpasses and underground structures in hot climatic conditions. Al-Suraisiry evaded all questions directed at him regarding the flood situation in Jeddah when reporters approached him after his opening remarks at the occasion. The minister also evaded questions on the amount of damage caused by the floods. He also refused to divulge details on his ministry's preparedness to avoid similar problem in the future. Besides national speakers, experts from International Tunneling and Underground Space Association (ITA) and Underground Structures in Hot Climatic Conditions and Regional Congress of the International Road Federation are participating in the workshop. The objective of the two-day workshop is to discuss topics such as the risk management before and during construction of roads and their operation; engineering and design of underground structures in hot climatic conditions; safety on roads, tunnels and underground structures; and transfer of modern technologies to the Kingdom. Abdurrahman Abdulaali, Second Session Chairman, spoke about safety during construction and operation in tunnels and underground structures while Harald Wagner of ITA underscored the topic of “the importance of designing and related risks.” Soren Eskesen of ITA will speak in Wednesday's session on risk management and (road) contracts for construction. Faisal Shalabi, Civil Engineering Department, King Faisal University, will present a paper on “sealant behavior of gasketed-segmental concrete tunnel lining”.
