Red Sea–Dead Sea Access

The Red Sea–Dead Sea Access is a series of highway construction projects intended to bring easy transportation and prosperity to Jordan, Israel, Palestine and the surrounding area.

An agreement was signed in Amman on October 24, 1974, between Taiwan's Retired Servicemen's Engineering Agency (RSEA) and the Jordanian government, under which a new "road to friendship" would be built in the southern part of Jordan.

Yen Hsiao-chang, RSEA director, and Ahmad Shobaki, Jordanian minister of public works, signed the agreement for the construction of the 187-kilometre (116 mi) highway.

The work schedule was designed to accommodate Muslim religious practices, including prayer times and the festivals of Ramadan and the Hajj.

During the construction, the engineering group and equipment were moved in from Aqaba to form a new town in the desert, the lowest place in the world.

Lin Chi-Ko, manager of RSEA's Jordan project office, contacted Israeli forces and arranged for the fence to be moved.

Despite their efforts, on June 17, 1975, a mine explosion killed the leader of the Jordan Public Works surveying team, along with two technicians and a driver.

The highway can range from a dirt road to a pavement and is intended to facilitate access by the Dead Sea, but the impact of the project was a dominant concern.

It was decided that this section of the project would be too expensive, due to concerns around the environment, natural resource development, transportation facilities, tunnels, bridges and other structures.