The Ghazali bridge connecting the main seaport Shuwaikh to Kuwait city has been closed for a period of two years for road development works. The closure is likely to create traffic chaos until motorists become familiar with alternative routes.

ISS Worldwide Movers Kuwait has advised that heavy trucks/trailers exiting-entering port Shuwaikh are only permitted to use the temporary road under the bridge from 4pm to 10pm, Sunday to Thursday.  The company also said that export/import inspection timings along with collection-delivery of shipments at job sites will be affected as well, leading to additional trailer detention charges for overnight halt and next day morning delivery/collection.

Import customs inspections used to take place between 7-8am (in clients' presence) and normally trailers would depart the port by 9:30am for delivery to clients’ residences, followed by empty container return by late noon back to port Shuwaikh. Now, customs inspections will continue to take place between 7-8am but as trailers will only depart from port Shuwaikh after 4pm (note: log jam inside port Shuwaikh will now be severe hence exiting the port can take anywhere from 2-4 hours) all deliveries, etc. will only take place the following morning, hence the trailer detention charges. Compared with the previous inspection/delivery process, which took approximately 5-7 hours, the same process will now take around 24-30 hours.