Saudi Arabia's Tapline Road: a vital conduit in times of war and peace

Saudi Arabia's Trans-Arabian Pipeline (Tapline) Road played a significant role in the Gulf War when it served as a vital military supply route, and could do so again should the kingdom need defending, analysts say.

Workers built the Trans-Arabian Pipeline to provide a faster and more efficient means to transport oil from the Arabian Gulf to Europe, via the Mediterranean, following the conclusion of World War II.

"Previously, it was a nine-day, 3,600-mile [5,794km] voyage by ship from Saudi Arabia through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean; a long and costly journey," according to a May 27 story in Aramco's Elements magazine.

To accommodate the expected surge in crude oil demand, the Trans-Arabian Pipeline Company was founded in 1944 and pipeline construction began in 1948.

In 1950, pipeline construction ended and pumping began.

The more than 1,600km pipeline initially transported crude from Ras al-Mishab area on the kingdom's Gulf coast to a terminal near the Lebanese port of Sidon.

After Lebanon's civil war disrupted and ultimately halted oil transportation to the Sidon terminal, the pipeline was diverted to the Jordanian port of Zarqa in 1983, until oil transportation through it ceased altogether in 1990.

Last December, the now defunct Trans-Arabian Pipeline became the first officially registered industrial heritage site in the kingdom, in recognition of its historical and economic significance.

While the pipeline has been relegated to the history books, the roadway associated with it has endured, and continues to play a vital role.

With tensions escalating due to Iran's continuing destabilising activities, regional and international forces are preparing for possible scenarios in which Iran attempts to impede the freedom of navigation of oil and commercial tankers in vital regional waterways such as the Arabian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is continuing its interventionist and expansionist policies through proxies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen even as Iran regularly violates the 2015 nuclear accord. In May, the United Nations voiced concern that Iran had not clearly answered queries over possible undeclared nuclear activity while its enriched uranium stockpile was 16 times over the allowed limit.

Tapline Road/Highway 85

"Tapline Road", initially used to build and service the pipeline, runs from east to west across the top of the kingdom to Turaif, near the Jordanian border. It was built in 1950 as a graded-earth and gravel road, but crews paved it in 1967.

The Saudi government eventually took responsibility for the initially private road, paying to pave and maintain it.

"In those days it was used exclusively by the mammoth trucks and trailers brought in to haul the enormous quantities of pipe and building materials up the line from Ras al-Mishab," according to the March/April 1967 issue of Aramco World.

Maintenance crews and security patrols whom the Saudi government had assigned to protect the pipeline also began to use the road.

"Then, as word got around that the Tapline Road offered a new overland shortcut for the movement of goods from Lebanon, Syria and Jordan to Eastern and Central Arabia and to the Gulf states, big commercial trucks soon began to outnumber all Tapline and government traffic."

"In almost no time the road had developed into a major traffic artery."

Now known as Highway 85, Tapline Road runs straight across the desert in the northern part of the kingdom, close to the border with Jordan.

Even before workers paved it, the road's usefulness and importance were clear, as it opened up a new trade route from the Gulf states to the Mediterranean.

The road quickly came into heavy use. First oil, then commodities, flowed along it. Later, during the Gulf War, the road played a key role in the movement of troops and mobilisation of equipment.

Logistical supply route

During the Gulf War, "many of the improved roads in Saudi Arabia became main supply routes for the US Army", according to a 2010 publication by the US Army's Centre of Military History.

Tapline Road, codenamed Main Supply Route Dodge, was one of two key ground transportation routes the army used to prepare for and execute the war.

The highways "became high-speed avenues for combat units and supplies moving to their destinations", per the Centre of Military History.

"Because large stretches were multilane roads, they allowed heavy volumes of traffic, both individual vehicles and convoys, to move quickly. Even those roads that were not multilane were paved and in generally good condition."

The US Army established a series of convoy support centres along these routes to facilitate long-haul truck transportation, offering round-the-clock fuelling and repair facilities as well as rest areas and facilities for soldiers.

"With excellent ports and durable roads, all the Army needed was the means to move equipment and supplies," the Centre of Military History noted.

In preparation for the ground operation, the US Army moved troops, ammunition and supplies inland from the ports, per a 1997 monograph by John R. Brinkerhoff for the Institute for Defence Analyses, "External Support for the Army in the Persian Gulf War".

Troops stockpiled supplies in the forward areas to support the planned attack, with the creation of two massive logistics bases along Tapline Road -- at Hafr al-Batin and King Khalid Military City -- supporting the operation's success.

"The network of military supply routes ... was refined and expanded to include the new logistics bases and to provide a potential jumping off point for westward movement. The condition of the roads was improved as well."

Additional logistics bases included Log Base Echo, along Tapline Road west of Hafr al-Batin, and Log Base Charlie. Both included tactical petroleum terminals, ammunition supply points and maintenance facilities.