Deir ez-Zor Begins Rebuilding Al-Mayadeen Bridge as Al-Siyasiyeh Work Advances

The Plan and Its Background

Euphrates flooding in late May 2026 hit Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa and put the earthen bridge between Deir ez-Zor city and its countryside out of service. Syria TV reported about 2,500 affected families in Deir ez-Zor by 30 May, and the head of the governorate's Emergency Response Committee later put the number directly or indirectly affected at about 5,000 (Al-Thawra, 18 June). In January 2026 the deputy governor told Al-Watan that all five bridges linking the two banks were unusable, some needing repair and others demolition and rebuilding, among them Al-Mayadeen's main bridge; he said rehabilitating one bridge could cost 3 to 4 million US dollars and require foreign companies, because the heavy equipment needed is not available in Syria.

On 29 May, during a visit by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, Muaz Najjar, Director General of the General Establishment for Road Communications at the Ministry of Transport, said work was under way to start rehabilitating the damaged Al-Siyasiyeh, Al-Mayadeen and Al-Ashara bridges, in line with the President's directives, SANA reported. He said the bridges had already suffered heavy damage and received only rudimentary backfilling, which the latest flood damaged in turn; the studies were finished and contracting would follow. On 3 June the Establishment said it had drawn up a comprehensive plan for the damaged bridges in Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa, and Najjar said the Deir ez-Zor bridges topped its priorities, the studies for Al-Siyasiyeh and Al-Mayadeen were complete, and Al-Ashara had been placed in the plan's next phase.

Al-Siyasiyeh Bridge

On 1 June the Ministry of Public Works and Housing said it was preparing to start preparatory works on Al-Siyasiyeh and Al-Mayadeen the following week, and on 4 June it announced the start of work on Al-Siyasiyeh under a 12-month contract, supervised by the Ministry of Transport through the General Establishment for Road Communications. The Establishment's Deir ez-Zor branch director said the contract procedures with the executing party were complete. At the end of July the executing party's Deir ez-Zor branch director told SANA that the bridge is about 400 metres long with 11 spans, six of them collapsed completely. He put progress at 19 percent against 8.5 percent planned, across four parallel activities: reinforced-concrete pier work at about 60 percent, gantry-crane assembly at about 95 percent, steel formwork for the girders at about 85 percent and structural rebar detailing at about 6 percent, and said the expected completion date had been brought forward to 29 March 2027. As of 2 September, Najjar said the girder supports were finished and the launching crane ready, with girder casting due to begin in under 15 days, despite high river levels.

Al-Mayadeen and Al-Ashara Bridges

On 4 June the Establishment's Deir ez-Zor branch director said the Al-Mayadeen study was nearly finished, ahead of contracting, and on 20 July the executing party's director general said formwork preparation and special fabrication for rebuilding the bridge were proceeding in parallel with the Al-Siyasiyeh works. On 12 September the governor said a Turkish company would be contracted to complete the construction stages of Al-Mayadeen Bridge, and the Assistant Minister of Public Works and Housing said Al-Siyasiyeh and Al-Mayadeen were due to enter service in the first quarter or early second quarter of 2027. On 1 October, announcing the start of execution, the governor said the work would take nine months, with a Turkish road-construction company as partner.

The Ministry of Public Works and Housing announced on 1 June that the first phase of reinforcing Al-Ashara Bridge was complete. On 2 June the head of the governorate's Emergency Response Committee announced that the bridge had reopened to vehicles and pedestrians, and on 3 June the committee set a temporary 20-tonne weight limit until rehabilitation is completed.

Costs and Funding

SANA reported that on 31 May officials discussed speeding up funding and procedures for damaged bridges in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor, and that on 7 June, at the Ministry of Transport in Damascus, Transport Minister Yarub Badr, Governor Ziad al-Ayesh and other officials reviewed road and bridge plans. Najjar presented a 2026 maintenance plan of six projects, estimated at 872.7 million Syrian pounds, and an additional plan for flood damage, estimated at about 3.965 billion Syrian pounds, which SANA said includes bridge rehabilitation and maintenance of the Deir ez-Zor–Al-Bukamal–Iraqi border road and the Raqqa–Deir ez-Zor road within the governorate; it mentioned the new Damascus–Palmyra–Deir ez-Zor road project alongside it. The meeting also heard a proposal to study two new bridges in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor and to rehabilitate Al-Siyasiyeh and Al-Mayadeen to modern international standards.

Temporary Crossings

The governorate announced on 12 July the opening of a floating bridge and an earthen bridge in Deir ez-Zor city, limited to 25 tonnes each, SANA reported; Syria TV, which dated the opening 13 July, called them interim solutions pending the permanent bridges. On 30 August the Ministry of Defence announced that it had installed a floating bridge at Al-Mayadeen as a temporary emergency solution.