ShareThisA site that is regarded as one of the holiest on the planet is gearing up for a 21st-century transit makeover.
Mecca, birthplace of Mohammed, is aiming to create a massive, multi-modal public transit network to accommodate the millions of Muslim pilgrims who flock there
Mecca is no stranger to Olympic-sized crowds: For centuries, it's been the home of the world's largest pilgrimage -- the hajj, which brings about 2.5 million people each year. That number is expected to grow to 4 million, even as the city itself doubles in size. A fleet of buses just doesn't cut it any more.
But setting up modern subways and rapid transit lines in a dense, ancient city isn't easy. The terrain is rough, the streets are narrow, and the engineering logistics dizzying: build subway stops too close to the holiest mosque in Islam and you create a security nightmare; build them too far away and you defeat the purpose.
And while you're digging tunnels for subway lines meant to carry 50,000 people an hour each way, watch you don't damage the holy aquifer.
"Frustrating?" laughs Amer Shalaby, a University of Toronto transportation engineer working to improve transit in Mecca. "It's very challenging and very unique. But it's worthwhile, and it's for a good cause."
Shalaby, who got involved with the Saudi government's transportation master plan in 2008, compares it to Boston's Big Dig (a massive project to reroute a major highway through a tunnel) -- only bigger. And in this case, planners need to keep the entire city running, and try to maintain a spiritual atmosphere while laying track and digging tunnels.
Engineers from universities around the world are working under the auspices of the Hajj Center of Research Excellence. They're charged with finding a way to turn Mecca into a transit powerhouse, and a global model of how to handle masses of people crowded into limited spaces.
It's going to be a bumpy ride: Take one metropolis, population 1.5 million.
Add 2.5 million pilgrims during the annual hajj, plus another several million who come throughout the rest of the year.
Then double the size of the city by 2030 -- and bring the total number of pilgrims to more than 8 million annually.
That's the problem facing Mecca as it sets out to establish a complex transit network and become a world authority on crowd control and transportation.
When Shalaby participated in the hajj in 2008, he was confronted by the chaos of streets choked with pedestrians and a fleet of buses brought from all over Saudi Arabia. "There's a huge need for a high-performance transit system," he said.
It's one thing to orchestrate a multiphase, multibillion-dollar citywide transit project. It's quite another to do so in the midst of the biggest religious gathering on earth.
One practical concern for many is the Zamzam aquifer, an underground wellspring that, according to tradition, dates from the days of Abraham's son Ishmael. The water it produces is not to be disrupted by anything as mundane as a subway tunnel.
On top of that, there is the issue of doing construction in and around a series of rites that don't lend themselves to rescheduling. "You cannot, for example, say, 'Hajj is cancelled this year. Sorry.' You have to deal with all of this at the same time you have those rituals going on," Shalaby said. "You have to maintain a sense of tranquility and spirituality."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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